Effectiveness of Bioenergy Economy Intervention on Self-compassion, Self-efficacy and Weight Loss

Objective: Obesity is one of the risk factors for various diseases as well as mortality and women suffer from it more than men. Therefore, this study was conducted to design and evaluate the effectiveness of bioenergy economy intervention on self-compassion, self-efficacy and weight loss in women with obesity. Method: The design of the present study is quasi-experimental with pre-test, post-test, and control groups. The statistical population of the study included obese people who were referred to psychological counselling centres and nutrition clinics in Tehran in the spring and summer of 2019. Fifty obese women were selected by convenient sampling method and randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The Self-compassion scales of Neff and self-efficacy questionnaires of Scherer et al. were used to collect data. The weight and body mass index of participants were also calculated. Based on instructions of the bioenergy economy protocol of the American University of Medical Energy, a special training package for obesity was designed and was provided to the intervention group during 8 sessions of 120 minutes for 8 weeks. Data analysis was performed by analysis of covariance using SPSS software version 24. Results: The results showed the effectiveness of the bioenergy economy on self-compassion and self-efficacy (P<0.01). Conclusion: With this description, it can be claimed that effective interventions such as bioenergy economy can be used to increase the health and self-care of people with obesity to prevent the destructive effects of obesity and its complications.