Objective: To investigate the effects of narrative group counseling combined with diet modification and exercise plans on weight loss in Iranian women with obesity.
Design: Parallel 2-arm clinical trial.
Participants: Fifty-six Iranian women with obesity (aged 18-50 years).
Intervention: The intervention group included weekly diet, exercise, and narrative-focused group counseling, whereas the comparison group included dietary modification and exercise sessions for 8 months (32 sessions).
Main outcome measure: Anthropometric and body composition parameters, blood biochemical parameters (high-density lipoproteins, low-density lipoproteins, triglycerides, fasting blood sugar, ghrelin, obestatin), physical activities, and appetite scores.
Analysis: McNemar test was used for the variables that were not normally distributed and for scaling. Furthermore, t tests were used to compare quantitative variables with normal distributions. The original P (0.05) was adjusted to P = 0.0031 using the Bonferroni correction.
Results: Weight, body mass index, body fat proportion, and hip circumference decreased significantly in the intervention vs comparison group. Serum low-density lipoproteins, triglycerides, total cholesterol, fasting blood sugar, appetite score, and ghrelin decreased, whereas obestatin increased significantly in the intervention vs comparison group.
Conclusions and implications: Narrative-focused group counseling combined with traditional strategies was effective in achieving significant changes in weight, body mass index, and appetite. Future studies with a more diverse audience and a longer follow-up are warranted.
Keywords: ghrelin; metabolic biomarkers; obestatin; weight loss, narrative-focused group counseling.
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