. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Oct 1.

Published in final edited form as: Patient Educ Couns. 2012 Jul 21;89(1):152–157. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2012.06.033

Table 2.

Themes and subthemes

Theme 1: Motivating patients to lose weight (5)^*

Subthemes:

Praising and acknowledging weight loss success (4)^*
Highlighting how weight loss can improve medical co-morbidities (3)^*
Sharing your negative emotions or frustrations with your patient (3)^*
Sharing positive personal weight loss stories with your patient (2)^*
Improving patients’ self-esteem and self-efficacy for weight loss (2)^*

Theme 2: Partnering with the patient to achieve weight loss (4)^*

Subthemes:

Helping patients realize that they already possess the skills needed to lose weight (4)^*
Collaborating with patient to set goals and a weight loss plan (3)^*
Establishing a relationship with the patient can build foundation for weight loss discussion (2)^*

Theme 3: Handling challenges that arise as part of weight counseling (5)^*

Subthemes:

Tempering expectations towards accomplishable weight loss goals (3)^*
Addressing conflicting patient and physician beliefs about weight loss (3)^*
Utilizing standardized messages to discuss weight loss (3)^*
Avoiding the discussion (3)^*
Reframing the discussion to focus on health rather than weight (2)^*

The number inside the parentheses denotes the number of focus groups in which that theme or subtheme was mentioned out of all of the five focus groups.