Hitomi Saito and her colleagues from Doshisha University in Japan have followed 101 patients from the Kansai Medical University Obesity Clinical Hospital for 6 months. And they have found that those who start a weight loss treatment with a personality that tends to optimism lose weight more slowly , while those who are able to improve their self-esteem throughout the treatment lose weight more quickly than their peers.
The results confirm the conclusions of previous studies on how some negative emotions (pessimism, low self-esteem, …) favor behavior changes. However, once treatment is started, increasing optimism and improving "ego" can help maintain a healthy , clinically-acquired lifestyle, the authors conclude in the journal BioPsychoSocial Medicine .
