Table 3.

Thematic results reported by Latinas in four focus group meetings held in Jefferson County, Alabama between August and November 2009.

Domain	Themes	Illustrative Quotes
Perceptions regarding obesity	Aesthetics   Fat hangs/swells	“They say it’s impossible to lose weight when you are already fat like this [gesturing] and everything hangs like this!
	Clothes don't fit	“If I gain weight it’s, well I notice it more than anything…in the clothes.”
		“Being overweight, you don’t really notice the size of your body but you notice the clothes and all that.”
	Symptoms   Fatigue,   breathlessness,   low energy	“Once you’re obese, you aren’t be able to do what you used to…You used to go out walking, you can’t do it anymore because you’re going to get tired and you can’t breathe.”
		“I am always sick, I have this and that and I think it’s because of being overweight. I get so much more tired and sleepy.”
	Health Risks   Cholesterol, heart   disease	“Your cholesterol goes up too much and well those types of problems.”
		“It is bad that [the children] can’t run or jump.”
	Risks for children	“Like before, they would say if you’re chubby you’re healthy, he eats well! But it’s not true because once I saw a lady who would give her son everything…and the little boy was very heavy…and still had his Coke, and then that little boy developed diabetes.”
Contributors to weight gain	Marriage Pregnancy	“I gained more weight after having my second baby, my son… But ith my son I lost some but afterwards I gained a lot, so much that my sister asked if I was expecting again.”
		“I gained a lot of weight due to my change of life with a husband and the kids for me it was new because I was with my young kids and the house chores…”
	Changes in diet & physical activity	“[Y]ou become fat from the foods that you eat here because over there from where we are, everything is cultivated, natural, and here it has a lot of hormones.”
		“We get home to the fast [food], say like a hamburger. That makes you gain a lot. In our country we are used to making the tortillas; it’s because you don’t go to the store.”
		“But since we all are just here [at home] with the vacuum and the little rag! Then the soap operas come on and how are you not going to be fat!”
	Depression Social Isolation Stress	“Always I have thought about that maybe sometimes I can’t lose weight because of depression.”
		“I noticed that I was sleeping after eating. I don’t know if this is due to feeling sad, I am [here] without my parents and here you are so alone.”
Prior weight loss attempts	Crash diets Supplements Diet pills	“I have tried [to lose weight] many times, I lost 14lbs in two weeks with [pills] and then I gained back double.”
		“The lady who sold me [pills] had me taking 12 pills morning and afternoon. It didn’t work and I gained more weight.”
	Exercise	“I tried to diet, my husband told me you’re going to [make yourself sick], better exercise more… ”
Motivators/ Program needs	Inclusion of traditional foods	“In Mexico, you find everything, you pick the freshest [foods]… And here no, it is very refrigerated or canned. This is what I like [about Mexico].”
		“Going on a food diet, I know that it’s difficult…to change your way of life…you miss your food.”
	Family Involvement	“It is the support of my family, they help me a lot [to lose weight].”
		“It’s also important to include the sons and daughters, the husbands in programs like this, it opens you up more.”
	Children as Motivators	“I have a ten-year old and he is chubby. Sometimes he tells me I am very chubby and I tell him you are too and if we want to lose weight we have to eat better.”
		“[My son] won’t eat vegetables, he’d prefer to eat a bag of cheese puffs…so this motivates me, so that my son can see I am losing weight so that he might try it too.”
	Incorporate physical activity	“Have material to do exercises but not very complicated.”
		“And maybe an exercise video.”