A functional contextual approach to obesity and related problems

• Obesity is a growing problem worldwide.
• Obesity interventions often fail to address functions of problematic health behaviors.
• Functional contextualism provides a framework for understanding health behaviors.
• Preliminary research supports the use of functional contextualistic interventions.
• Intervention outcomes appear to be supported by proposed mediators and moderators.

Approximately two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. Medical obesity interventions have focused primarily on weight loss, without full consideration of psychological factors. Not surprisingly weight gain following these interventions is common. Third wave behavior therapies utilize an acceptance-based, functional contextual framework to understand psychological and behavioral problems, with an emphasis on increasing values-consistent behavior rather than the reduction of negatively evaluated thoughts and feelings events. The present article summarizes the available literature of functional contextual interventions applied to obesity and collateral health conditions. Overall efficacy of these approaches, potential mediators and moderators, and areas for future research are described. Future research on such factors is warranted to improve understanding of functional contextual factors in obesity treatment.