Research

Adherence

Traditional Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the first-line psychological treatment for obesity but does not necessarily produce successful weight loss, primarily functioning to reduce binge eating episodes and psychopathology rather than directly reducing body weight.

If you are using CBT for obesity, manage your expectations: the primary goal is to fix the psychological relationship with food (like binge eating) and improve mood, not necessarily to drop pounds quickly. Weight loss is a secondary outcome that may not happen for everyone, and success is measured by behavioral changes and reduced psychopathology first.

ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
CBT is traditionally recognized as the best established treatment for BED and the most preferred intervention for obesity... however, it does not necessarily produce a successful weight loss.
Gianluca Castelnuovo et al. · Psychology Research and Behavior Management · 2017

Why this rating

The paper is a review citing multiple controlled trials and meta-analyses (e.g., Vocks et al., Grilo et al.), but notes that long-term results are often lacking or show weight regain.

Source

Cognitive behavioral therapy to aid weight loss in obese patients: current perspectives

Gianluca Castelnuovo et al. · Psychology Research and Behavior Management · 2017

DOI 10.2147/prbm.s113278

narrative_reviewCited 186×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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