Accurate prediction of weight loss success and failure has eluded researchers for many years. Thus, we administered a comprehensive psychometric battery before a 4-month lifestyle behavioral weight reduction program and analyzed weight changes during that period to identify baseline characteristics of successful and unsuccessful participants, among 112 overweight and obese middle-aged women (age, 47.8 ± 4.4 years; BMI, 31.4 ± 3.9 kg/m2). Mean weight and percentage fat losses among the 89 completers were -5.4 kg and -3.4%, respectively ( p Keywords: overweight women; psychosocial predictors; readiness; weight loss Document Type: Research Article Affiliations: 1: Department of Nutritional Sciences, Body Composition Research Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721. Exercise and Health Laboratory, Faculty of Human Movement, Technical University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal 2: Department of Nutritional Sciences, Body Composition Research Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721 3: Department of Physiology, Body Composition Research Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721 4: Exercise and Health Laboratory, Faculty of Human Movement, Technical University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal 5: Department of Physiology, Body Composition Research Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721; Lohman@u.arizona.edu Publication date: December 1, 2002 $(document).ready(function() { var shortdescription = $(".originaldescription").text().replace(/\\&/g, '&').replace(/\\, '<').replace(/\\>/g, '>').replace(/\\t/g, ' ').replace(/\\n/g, ''); if (shortdescription.length > 350){ shortdescription = "" + shortdescription.substring(0,250) + "... more"; } $(".descriptionitem").prepend(shortdescription); $(".shortdescription a").click(function() { $(".shortdescription").hide(); $(".originaldescription").slideDown(); return false; }); }); Related content In this: publication By this: publisher By this author: Teixeira, P.J. ; Going, S.B. ; Houtkooper, L.B. ; Cussler, E.C. ; Martin, C.J. ; Metcalfe, L.L. ; Finkenthal, N.R. ; Blew, R.M. ; Sardinha, L.B. ; Lohman, T.G. GA_googleFillSlot("Horizontal_banner_bottom");