Self-control – self-control is based in the patient’s ability to control their behavior during the different therapeutic stages towards the treatment of obesity and it may be found in several stages:
a) Recording the evolution of body weight.
b) Qualitative monitoring of hunger before and after meals.
c) Awareness of the emotional state before and after ingesting food.
d) Recording the physical exercise performed, as well as food ingested, in particular attention to fats and carbon hydrates (Rodríguez, Gómez, Martínez and Pérez, 2003).
Stimulus control - Control of stimuli is done firstly by identifying the environmental conditions that precipitate dietary deviations or physical inactivity and, on the other hand, by making use of a range of strategies to mitigate these mechanisms. Meals mark an important moment where an obese person’s behavior may be decisive for their treatment. Therefore, to mitigate the mechanisms that precipitate deviations, such as binge eating or hunger episode, the overweight patient must only have three meals per day that should take place in the same place and at the same time. The meals should be small in size and low in calories that should not be repeated (Rodríguez, Gómez, Martínez and Pérez, 2003).
Cognitive Restructuring – cognitive restructuring wants to change the way the patient sees their body image in particular. It is necessary to understand the patient's motivation to adapt to the treatment and to explain the average time necessary to reach the target weight. The cognitive restructuring aims, initially, to make the patient understand the goals they want to achieve, and ultimately, a better physical and emotional quality of life (Rodríguez, Gómez, Martínez and Pérez, 2003).
Coping with stress – stress is a risk factor in overweight people, because it may in many cases precipitate a breaking point and even the total collapse of the whole therapeutic process and the recovery of weight. To avoid the loss of the work performed, it is necessary to avoid stress and, here, physical exercise assumes a position of uttermost importance. To alleviate stress, the therapist may teach breathing and muscle relaxation techniques that will be an important variable and able to prevent the patient’s from losing control. (Rodríguez, Gómez, Martínez and Pérez, 2003).
Using contracts – the use of contracts in the treatment of overweight people may be a great aid to obtain the objective and to keep patients in therapy, since they represent, for the patient, a commitment and allow the patient to have positive reinforcement of behaviors as the desired weight becomes closer (Matos, 1990).
Relapse training – often, overweight patients fail to resist high-risk situations (e.g., a slice of cake during a wedding) and a relapse eventually occurs, since they anticipate the immediate pleasure and still don’t have enough coping strategies to prevent the stimulus. This leads to a feeling of failure and absence of self-control. To cope with these situations, the greatest relapses dangers are identified for the overweight patient and the necessary skills to deal with them and possible failures are trained, because, thus, when these events occur, patients don’t need to feel that they cannot do it (Rodríguez, Gómez, Martínez and Pérez, 2003).
Self-affirmative training – this training aims to teach the overweight patient the self-affirmatively deny certain types of food, possibly offered by others in their environment (Matos, 1990).
Social support – Family and closest friends play an essential role in the treatment of the obese patient and should receive nutritional training to understand which role they are to play throughout the treatment (Rodríguez, Gómez, Martínez and Pérez, 2003).
Nutritional training – it is important that the patient is familiar with eating rules, as well as the benefits of healthy eating. Hence, he/she may feel empowered and motivated towards eating healthy (Matos, 1990).
Information on physical exercise – the patient must be familiar with the advantages of physical exercise, both to reduce weight accordingly and the benefits regarding the reduction of stress (Rodríguez, Gómez, Martínez and Pérez, 2003).
