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Momentary Predictors of Weight-Motivated Exercise Among Female Collegiate Athletes
Conference poster   Peer reviewed

Momentary Predictors of Weight-Motivated Exercise Among Female Collegiate Athletes

Rebecca J Crochiere, Ava Simunovic, Euna Lee, Ashley Kim, Elizabeth W Lampe, Stephanie M Manasse and Fengqing Zhang
Annals of behavioral medicine, v 60(Supplement_1), pp S151-S151
01 Apr 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/abm/kaag012#page=S151-2
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https://doi.org/10.1093/abm/kaag012#page=S151-2View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Women's health Exercise
Background: Female collegiate athletes are at-risk for eating disorders (EDs); yet, detection of risk is challenging because sport participation often requires frequent and intense exercise, a behavior that also can be used to control one’s weight in EDs. Assessing if weight-based factors underlie motivation for exercise and reasons for satisfaction with exercise in this population may elucidate ED risk, because exercising for weight-motivated reasons has been linked to increased ED cognitions and behaviors. Further, identifying predictors of weight-focused exercise, such as fear of weight gain, could inform interventions. This study is the first to investigate in this population: 1) whether momentary fear of weight gain, body satisfaction, and appearance satisfaction prospectively predict weight-motivated exercise and weight-based reasons for satisfaction with exercise; and 2) whether weight-motivated exercise prospectively predicts weight-based satisfaction with exercise. Method: Female collegiate athletes (n=45) completed a 2-week ecological momentary assessment (EMA; brief smartphone-delivered surveys) protocol, comprising 6 daily surveys measuring study variables. Results: Participants endorsed weight-based reasons for exercise motivation and satisfaction 20.3% and 19.8% of the time, respectively. Multilevel models tested prospective relations. At the trend level, fear of weight gain was associated with 16% increased odds of subsequent weight-motivated exercise (OR = 1.16, SE = 0.10, p = .08) and 21% increased odds of satisfaction with exercise for weight-based reasons (OR = 1.21, SE = 0.12, p = .06). Additionally, body satisfaction was associated with 18% reduced odds of subsequent weight-motivated exercise at the trend-level (OR = 0.82, SE = 0.09, p = 0.08). Finally, engaging in weight-motivated exercise was associated with a 7-fold increase in odds of subsequent satisfaction with exercise for weight-based reasons (OR = 7.29, SE = 3.28, p < .001). Discussion: Findings suggest fear of weight gain may be a momentary risk factor for weight-focused exercise, whereas body satisfaction may be a protective factor, highlighting potential targets for momentary interventions like just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAIs). Results also demonstrated weight-motivated exercise predicted increased odds of weight-based satisfaction with exercise, implying these weight-focused cognitions are persistent across time. Note: AI helped generate code for this project.

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