{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,11,5]],"date-time":"2026-11-05T04:39:45Z","timestamp":1793853585451,"version":"4.6.1"},"reference-count":10,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,17]],"date-time":"2025-09-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1758067200000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,17]],"date-time":"2025-09-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1758067200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"funder":[{"name":"Endorsed by the German Center for Mental Health (DZPG)."},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100012940","name":"Universit\u00e4tsklinikum T\u00fcbingen","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100012940","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Eat Weight Disord"],"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Purpose<\/jats:title>\n            <jats:p>Obesity is a major health challenge, requiring the development of more effective interventions. Setting realistic goals and developing detailed plans that anticipate potential challenges can be helpful strategies for bridging the intention\u2013behavior gap. Immersive technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), are considered to further support closing this gap by reducing the distance to one's future self.<\/jats:p>\n          <\/jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n            <jats:p>This study investigates a novel VR-supported reflection exercise as an additional treatment module within a conservative obesity treatment regime. It examines its feasibility, acceptance and short- and medium-term effects on participants' therapy motivation, body dissatisfaction, self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and eating behavior. 23 participants (BMI: <jats:italic>M<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u200943.44\u00a0kg\/m<jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup>, <jats:italic>SD<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20094.42) were presented with a real-time animated body avatar that had the average body shape for their individual height, initial weight, and realistic target weight (\u2212\u00a010%), and standard appearance matched in terms of hair and skin color. The avatar could be viewed from first-person and mirror perspectives. The exercise included reflective questions about their experience, well-being, daily life, and eating and movement behavior.<\/jats:p>\n          <\/jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n            <jats:p>Participation and dropout rates of the VR-supported reflection exercise, user experience ratings, assessments on general discomfort and qualitative feedback demonstrated good feasibility and acceptance of the VR exercise. There were no measurable effects of a single session on clinical outcomes, including motivation to change, eating disorder psychopathology, self-esteem and depressive symptoms.<\/jats:p>\n          <\/jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n            <jats:p>The VR-based reflection exercise was feasible and well-accepted. The sample was highly burdened with multimorbidity, severe obesity (grade III), and psychological stress. A clinical trial with sufficient dosage would be required to infer about clinical effects.<\/jats:p>\n          <\/jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Level of evidence<\/jats:title>\n            <jats:p>Level 4.<\/jats:p>\n          <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1007\/s40519-025-01780-x","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,17]],"date-time":"2025-09-17T08:11:37Z","timestamp":1758096697000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Reflection of therapy progress in virtual reality for individuals affected by obesity: a pilot study"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"30","author":[{"given":"Tatjana Anne","family":"Korbanka","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sandra","family":"Schild","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Isabelle","family":"Mack","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Katrin Elisabeth","family":"Giel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Simone Claire","family":"Behrens","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,17]]},"reference":[{"issue":"10431","key":"1780_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1027","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(23)02750-2","volume":"403","author":"NCD-RisC","year":"2024","unstructured":"NCD-RisC (2024) Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents, and adults. Lancet 403(10431):1027\u20131050. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/S0140-6736(23)02750-2","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"1780_CR2","unstructured":"National Clinical Guideline Centre (2014) Obesity: identification, assessment and management of overweight and obesity in children, young people and adults: partial update of CG43. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/books\/NBK264165\/. Accessed 3 Apr 2025"},{"issue":"2","key":"1780_CR3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"171","DOI":"10.1111\/obr.12772","volume":"20","author":"RDM Varkevisser","year":"2019","unstructured":"Varkevisser RDM, Van Stralen MM, Kroeze W, Ket JCF, Steenhuis IHM (2019) Determinants of weight loss maintenance: a systematic review. Obes Rev 20(2):171\u2013211. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/obr.12772","journal-title":"Obes Rev"},{"issue":"2","key":"1780_CR4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"179","DOI":"10.1016\/0749-5978(91)90020-T","volume":"50","author":"I Ajzen","year":"1991","unstructured":"Ajzen I (1991) The theory of planned behavior. Organ Behav Hum Decis Process 50(2):179\u2013211. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/0749-5978(91)90020-T","journal-title":"Organ Behav Hum Decis Process"},{"issue":"2","key":"1780_CR5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"261","DOI":"10.1348\/135910708X389042","volume":"14","author":"FF Sniehotta","year":"2009","unstructured":"Sniehotta FF (2009) Towards a theory of intentional behaviour change: plans, planning, and self-regulation. Br J Health Psychol 14(2):261\u2013273. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1348\/135910708X389042","journal-title":"Br J Health Psychol"},{"key":"1780_CR6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3389\/frvir.2021.627194","volume":"2","author":"C Wienrich","year":"2021","unstructured":"Wienrich C, D\u00f6llinger N, Hein R (2021) Behavioral framework of immersive technologies (BehaveFIT): how and why virtual reality can support behavioral change processes. Front Virtual Real 2:627194. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/frvir.2021.627194","journal-title":"Front Virtual Real"},{"key":"1780_CR7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1011620","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyt.2022.1011620","volume":"13","author":"SC Behrens","year":"2022","unstructured":"Behrens SC, Streuber S, Keizer A, Giel KE (2022) How immersive virtual reality can become a key tool to advance research and psychotherapy of eating and weight disorders. Front Psychiatry 13:1011620. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fpsyt.2022.1011620","journal-title":"Front Psychiatry"},{"issue":"6","key":"1780_CR8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"3324","DOI":"10.3390\/su14063324","volume":"14","author":"A Al-Rasheed","year":"2022","unstructured":"Al-Rasheed A, Alabdulkreem E, Alduailij M, Alduailij M, Alhalabi W, Alharbi S, Lytras MD (2022) Virtual reality in the treatment of patients with overweight and obesity: a systematic review. Sustainability 14(6):3324. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/su14063324","journal-title":"Sustainability"},{"issue":"3","key":"1780_CR9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"170","DOI":"10.1159\/000530932","volume":"92","author":"SC Behrens","year":"2023","unstructured":"Behrens SC, Tesch J, Sun PJB, Starke S, Black MJ, Schneider H, Pruccoli J, Zipfel S, Giel KE (2023) Virtual reality exposure to a healthy weight body is a promising adjunct treatment for anorexia nervosa. Psychother Psychosom 92(3):170\u2013179. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1159\/000530932","journal-title":"Psychother Psychosom"},{"key":"1780_CR10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.48550\/ARXIV.2306.16940","author":"MJ Black","year":"2023","unstructured":"Black MJ, Patel P, Tesch J, Yang J (2023) BEDLAM: a synthetic dataset of bodies exhibiting detailed lifelike animated motion. CVPR. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.48550\/ARXIV.2306.16940","journal-title":"CVPR"}],"container-title":["Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/s40519-025-01780-x.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s40519-025-01780-x\/fulltext.html","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/s40519-025-01780-x.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,17]],"date-time":"2025-09-17T08:11:39Z","timestamp":1758096699000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/10.1007\/s40519-025-01780-x"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,17]]},"references-count":10,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,12]]}},"alternative-id":["1780"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s40519-025-01780-x","relation":{},"ISSN":["1590-1262"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1590-1262","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,17]]},"assertion":[{"value":"20 January 2025","order":1,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"5 August 2025","order":2,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"17 September 2025","order":3,"name":"first_online","label":"First Online","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"order":1,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}},{"value":"Our manuscript meets the guidelines for ethical conduct and report of research. It is not under consideration for peer-review journal publication elsewhere. All authors have read and approved this paper. None of the authors have declared any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Ethics approval and consent to participate"}},{"value":"The authors declare no competing interests.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}],"article-number":"74"}}