Conscientiousness in Weight Loss Maintainers and Regainers

Objective: The role of personality in weight loss maintenance (WLM) is poorly understood. Although the personality trait of conscientiousness has been associated with health-promoting behaviors in general, no study has specifically evaluated the importance of conscientiousness for WLM. This study compared conscientiousness (both in aggregate and on the facet level) and control over healthy lifestyle behaviors (e.g., food quantity and temptations, consistent meal and sleep timing, exercise adherence, and psychosocial health and stress coping) in successful weight loss maintainers and regainers. Method: The sample included 869 National Weight Control Registry participants who reported maintaining ≥30-lb weight loss for ≥1 year (maintainers) and 484 participants from Amazon's MTurk crowdsourcing marketplace who reported trying but failing to maintain weight loss for 1 year (regainers). Both groups self-reported the Cherynshenko Conscientiousness Scale, the Healthy Lifestyle & Personal Control Questionnaire, body mass index, and demographics in an online survey. Results: Maintainers reported higher levels of total conscientiousness (p = .005), order, virtue, responsibility, and industriousness (ps ≤ .05), but not self-control, compared with regainers after controlling for basic demographic differences. Unexpectedly, regainers scored significantly higher on the facet of traditionalism (p < .001). Maintainers also reported greater degree of control over food quantity and temptations, consistent meal and sleep timing, and exercise adherence (ps < .001), but not psychosocial health and stress coping, compared to with regainers. Conclusions: Successful weight loss maintainers reported small-to-moderately higher levels of conscientiousness compared with regainers. Evaluating whether conscientiousness can be incorporated into WLM treatment is warranted.