Little is known about which specific weight management skills bariatric patients find most and least valuable. Participants completed a measure assessing their usage of weight management skills at a follow-up appointment one or more years after undergoing bariatric surgery. Decreased usage of skills was associated with unsuccessful weight outcome, defined as losing less than 50% of excess weight, as well as weight regain. Weighing regularly was the skill selected most often by successful participants as helpful, and was chosen by a significantly smaller percentage of unsuccessful participants and those who regained a clinically significant amount of weight. A majority of both successful and unsuccessful participants indicated that they had discontinued food journaling. Weighing regularly may be perceived as a more useful method of self-monitoring.
Keywords: Bariatric surgery; Food journaling; Self-monitoring; Self-weighing; Weight loss; Weight management skills; Weight regain.