Differences and commonalities in barriers and facilitators experienced by participants enrolled in an online behavioral weight management program: A qualitative comparison.

ABSTRACT: Online behavioral weight management programs offer a scalable solution to address overweight and obesity but often face high dropout rates and variable success. Understanding the barriers and facilitators experienced by participants who achieve weight loss targets versus those who do not is critical for optimizing programs. This study compared the barriers and facilitators reported by participants achieving ≥5% weight loss with those achieving <5%, using a social-ecological framework to capture influences across individual, interpersonal, and environmental levels. The framework was chosen to reflect the complex, interacting factors beyond the individual that shape behavior. Forty-eight participants completed semi-structured telephone interviews exploring factors affecting their weight loss

SUBMITTER: Thomson M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12863570 | biostudies-literature | 2026

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature