Efficacy of ACT and ACT associated with compassion: comparative analysis in overweight women

Abstract

Self-stigma related to obesity and overweight has been investigated as one of the fac­tors that hinder adherence to treatment and engagement in the development of healthy habits. The aim of this study was to investigate the outcomes of two types of interventions focused on reducing weight self-stigma, namely: (1) intervention with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT); (2) intervention with ACT and explicit targeting of self-compassion. Twenty overweight and obese women, aged between 29 and 49 years old with indicative of weight self-stigma, participated in the study. For each intervention, 10 online group sessions were held weekly. The results indicated that there was no significant difference between the groups. Both showed significant improvements with large to medium effect sizes for weight self-stigma, self-compassion, psychological weight flexibility and body image. In both groups, psychological flexibility showed strong and moderate correlations with body image and binge eating and psychological flexibility for weight was strongly correlated with binge eating. Data suggest that interventions based on ACT and compassion may be promising for developing psychological flexibility, improvements in weight self-stigma, body image and binge eating.