The Sentinel Newspaper recently printed a story highlighting the benefits of dieting with a partner. Evidence suggests that when we diet or increase our exercise behaviour in partnership with someone else we are more likely to successfully lose weight.

Dr Amy Burton

Dieting is an important area of interest for Health Psychology and Dr Amy Burton (Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology) was contacted by the paper for comment. Dr Burton explained: “One theory that can help to explain the success of couples dieting together is Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour which was developed in the 1980’s. This theory proposes that our intentions to engage in healthy behaviours (such as diet or exercise) are dependent on three factors: our attitudes towards the behaviour, our perceptions of the resources available to us for completing the behaviour, and how we think others around us are behaving or expecting us to behave. When we work with another person the importance of those around us becomes more salient meaning our attitudes towards diet and exercise will be more positive, we will perceive that we have support from those around us to continue with the behaviour, and we are more likely to follow through with our plans to diet or exercise to ensure we don’t disappoint our partner.

The full article was published in the Saturday Sentinel on 21^st March 2015 and an online version of the piece is available here. Dr Amy Burton is a member of the Centre for Health Psychology at Staffordshire University (click here for more details).