Development of Nutritional Counseling for Weight Reduction based on behavior modification through Internet

인터넷에서 행동 수정 이론을 적용한 체중 감량 상담 방법 개발

The purpose of the study was to develop an internet nutritional counseling program using an expert system to assist obese people to lose weight through behavior modification. The internet counseling program for weight loss was developed by the accumulation of knowledge dealing with eating habits and exercising behaviors in expert system tool, Knowledge Engineering Agent (KEA) by a dietitian without any help of computer expert. To accumulate knowledge into KEA, survey was performed in 150 obese people, dietitians reviewed and consulted each survey case, and the consulted contents were learned and accumulated into KEA. Survey questionnaire was the same as that of the internet consulting program, and it included general characteristics, dietary habits, lifestyle, and exercise patterns related to obesity. Also, the dietitian selected proper factors inferred from the survey questionnaire of each case, and added the conclusions for them. Conclusions were made for helping clients to correct bad eating behaviors and accumulate good behaviors to lose weight. Counseling was divided into two parts; a two-week part and a daily part. Two-week counseling was performed based on 4 step questionnaires, and daily counseling was done for daily food consumption and physical activity. When clients answered survey questionnaires in a counseling internet program, the recommendations on how to eat, to exercise and to deal with stress in a real time for each case, was given. In conclusion, a counseling internet program for weight reduction can be used to give advices how to deal with obesity in a man-to-man way in a real time using KEA where nutritional knowledge based on behavior modification for weight loss was accumulated.