The lived experience of obese employees who discontinued voluntary participation in a workplace weight loss challenge program : A qualitative study

Abstract

This phenomenological qualitative study, guided by Max van Manen, addressed the question, "What is the lived experience of obese employees who discontinued participation in a workplace weight loss challenge program in which they voluntarily enrolled?" A literature review indicated that employers sponsored weight loss and wellness programs to ameliorate associated costs of obesity, including a program called a Weight Loss Challenge. There was a high dropout rate in weight loss programming; including those held in the workplace. The phenomenon of dropping out of a Weight Loss Challenge by obese employees that voluntarily enrolled warranted qualitative investigation. The researcher used purposive sampling to recruit 13 male and female participants who were over 30 BMI, over 40 years of age, and who had participated and dropped out of the Weight Loss Challenge of interest to this study. Strategies to address study credibility included methodological congruence, triangulation, prolonged engagement in the field, thick description continuing search for disconfirming evidence, verbatim transcription, and engagement in reflexivity, maintenance of an audit trail, and data saturation. Data were coded and analyzed for patterns and themes in an effort to identify the essence of participants' lived experience. The essence of the study was that past weight loss and obesity experiences informed each present weight loss effort; with a repeating pattern of weight loss battles in a life-time war against weight. Study findings provide health promotion professionals an in-depth understanding of the complexity faced by obese individuals who participate and fail at weight-loss attempts in weight loss programming at the workplace.