Six women were recruited through convenience sampling within the Metabolic Centre. This corresponds to the lowest number of participants recommended by Braun and Clarke (2013) , and is sufficient for a thematic analysis of the collected data. To reduce the risk of social desirability bias (Butori and Parguel, 2012 ) due to recruiting her own patients, the first author benefited from the support of dietician and psychotherapist colleagues, who selected the patients who met the inclusion criteria from their own patient pool. At this point, the selected participants received an information sheet and had to give their verbal consent to be contacted by the first author to discuss the study procedures. Participants were informed of the interviewer’s dietician title. Even though the first author communicated her researcher identity and her non-judgmental position to the participants, this could have influenced some of the responses in the interviews.
The inclusion criteria were the following: women; 55–65 years old; BMI ≥25 kg/m2; followed at the Metabolic Centre by a dietician according to the IE or GROS approach. The age limit of 55–65 years was chosen in order to recruit women who had completed the menopausal transition phase, a period of great physiological and hormonal changes which is often accompanied by constraining side effects (Harlow et al., 2012 (link)). It seems that women classified as ‘obese’, between 50 and 65 years of age are more affected by body dissatisfaction, by the desire for thinness, and by disinhibited eating than women past 65 years of age (Lewis and Cachelin, 2001 (link)). The chosen age category therefore captured the stories of women who might use weight loss behaviours to address body dissatisfaction. The exclusion criteria were post-bariatric surgery status, diagnosis of bulimia nervosa or binge eating disorder according to the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition) (American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ), and Liraglutide treatment, because of their effect on women’s eating behaviour and body image (American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ; Ivezaj and Grilo, 2018 (link); Pilitsi et al., 2019 (link)).
The inclusion criteria were the following: women; 55–65 years old; BMI ≥25 kg/m2; followed at the Metabolic Centre by a dietician according to the IE or GROS approach. The age limit of 55–65 years was chosen in order to recruit women who had completed the menopausal transition phase, a period of great physiological and hormonal changes which is often accompanied by constraining side effects (Harlow et al., 2012 (link)). It seems that women classified as ‘obese’, between 50 and 65 years of age are more affected by body dissatisfaction, by the desire for thinness, and by disinhibited eating than women past 65 years of age (Lewis and Cachelin, 2001 (link)). The chosen age category therefore captured the stories of women who might use weight loss behaviours to address body dissatisfaction. The exclusion criteria were post-bariatric surgery status, diagnosis of bulimia nervosa or binge eating disorder according to the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition) (American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ), and Liraglutide treatment, because of their effect on women’s eating behaviour and body image (American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ; Ivezaj and Grilo, 2018 (link); Pilitsi et al., 2019 (link)).
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