Introduction: The prevalence of obesity is steadily rising, and from the problems of obesity, people can be noted to decline mental health and body image. Diet therapy is one of the effective treatments in decreasing weight and increasing body image and mental health. As a result, the present research aimed to determine the effect of medical diet therapy on mental health, body image, and weight in women with obesity.
Methods: The method of study was a semi-experimental with a pre-test and post-test design with experimental and control groups. The research population was women with obesity referring to nutritional clinics of Babol city in the 2018 year. Totally 30 people were selected by the available sampling method and randomly divided into two groups (15 people in each group). The experimental group received eight sessions (twice in a month) medical diet therapy with a weight loss approach, and the control group didn’t train. The research instruments were mental health and body image questionnaire and body mass index. Data were analyzed using SPSS-21 software and by multivariate analysis of covariance method.
Results: The findings showed that there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of mental health, body image, and weight loss. In the other words, the method of medical diet therapy led to promoted the mental health (F = 12.755, P < 0.001), body image (F = 35.430, P < 0.001) and weight loss (F = 43.549, P < 0.001) in women with obesity.
Conclusions: The results indicated the importance of the medical diet therapy method on the promotion of mental and physical characteristics in women with obesity. Therefore, nutritionists can use this method to promote mental health, body image, and weight loss.

Keywords: Body Image, Diet Therapy, Mental Health, Obesity, Weight

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