Increasing Exercise Enjoyment and Outcome Expectations Among Women With Obesity
Condition: Obesity
MeSH terms: Obesity
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Despite decades of physical activity (PA) research on inactive, obese individuals, we have
      not successfully moved the needle on exercise participation in this population. A recent
      review aptly referred to PA recommendations among obese individuals as "the public health
      guideline that is (almost) entirely ignored"[1]. While we have previously had little
      understanding of why PA rates are so low in this population, Dr. Leone's research uncovered
      two possible explanations: (1) women with obesity are less likely to report enjoying exercise
      and (2) more likely than non-obese women to report exercising only when they are trying to
      lose weight. In order to affect change among obese women, we need interventions that not only
      address disparities in enjoyment and outcome expectations. Programs must also be practical
      and scalable; however, these types of evidence-based programs do not exist within the context
      that people generally exercise (e.g., community centers, gyms). We propose a novel approach
      to increasing exercise participation in this population by focusing on exercise enjoyment,
      increasing appreciation of the proximal benefits of PA rather than focusing on weight, and
      addressing changes to the exercise environment that make it conducive to this population. By
      delivering our intervention in partnership with the YMCA, we not only have the ability to
      make changes to a typical exercise context, but we also ensure that our findings can be used
      to help exercise-focused community organizations implement a scalable, research-tested
      program.
    

Detailed description: 
      This is a pilot intervention study with two groups: an intervention group (targeted exercise
      program for women with obesity and YMCA membership) and a control group (YMCA membership
      only). The targeted exercise program will be delivered by a YMCA and will be evaluated by our
      team. The majority of women who are recruited to this study will be randomized to receive the
      intervention or the control condition. However, we also have a small group of women who has
      been serving as our community advisory committee (CAC) that will also participate in the
      intervention classes and receive the membership. They will serve as pilot testers for our
      data collection methods and provide ongoing qualitative feedback on the intervention as part
      of their role in the CAC.

      The study will take place in two phases at two different YMCAs (Ken-Ton and Independent
      Health) with approximately half of participants recruited for the first and the other half
      for the second.
    

Intervention name(s): Fit and Fab
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): participate in a targeted exercise program at the YMCA. Will include: Targeted exercise classes, Strength-training, Group support sessions
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: obesity, women, exercise, physical activity,