Middle East J Rehabil Health. 2016 April; 3(2):e36533. Published online 2016 April 2. doi: 10.17795/mejrh-36533. Research Article Short-Term Effects of the Stage-Matched Multicomponent Lifestyle Intervention on Weight Control Gulnaz Karatay, 1,* Yeliz Akkus, 2 Nevzat Demirci, 3 and Baris Ozturk 4 1 Health High School, Tunceli University, Tunceli, Turkey 2 Health High School, Kafkas University, Kars, Turkey 3 Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Mersin University, Mersin, Turkey 4 Depertmant of Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Biruni, Zeytinburnu, Turkey * Corresponding author: Gulnaz Karatay, Health High School, Tunceli University, 62000, Tunceli, Turkey. Tel: +428-2131794, Fax: +428-2131861, E-mail: gkaratay@gmail.com Received 2016 February 13; Revised 2016 March 06; Accepted 2016 March 07. Abstract Background: Obese people are at increased risk for morbidity and mortality associated with multiple acute and chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and some cancers in adulthood. Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze weight control behaviours in university students using the Transtheoretical model. Patients and Methods: The student participants were randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 52) and control groups (n = 51). Before and after the intervention, data were collected using the following forms: socio-demographic features, the stages of change (SOC) short, self-efficacy and self-efficacy scale (SES), the eating habits questionnaire, health promotion lifestyle profile and the body composition device. Results: The findings indicated a statistical difference in scores of body mass index, self-efficacy scale, and health promotion lifestyle profile between the intervention and control group. Conclusions: The study found an association between the stages of change model and obesity control. Keywords: Diet, Exercise, Transtheoretical Model, Weight Loss, University Students 1. Background The rapid rise in the prevalence of eating disorders in- volving being overweight and obese has led to one of the key health problems in the world (1, 2). Obesity has reached epidemic proportions globally with approximately 1.6 bil- lion adults and at least 20 million overweight children un- der the age of five. The world health organization (WHO) further projects that by 2015, approximately 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese (1). In the study of Tekharf, the overall prevalence of obesity in adults was 18.6% in the year 1990 and ten years later in 2000, the prevalence was 21.9% in Turkey (3). Obesity causes many different problems. Obese peo- ple are at increased risk for morbidity and mortality associ- ated with multiple acute and chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, hyper- tension, and hyperlipidemia and some cancers in adult- hood (4, 5). In addition, research shows that obesity is as- sociated with a number of psychosocial consequences in- cluding poor self-esteem, teasing, verbal abuse and some social problems (6, 7). The most important causes of obesity are decreased physical activity and increased intake of energy-dense foods that are high in fat and sugars but low in vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients (1). In addition to these factors, many genetic, physiological, psychological and socio-cultural factors also contribute to the causes of obe- sity (1). University students comprise the first post-puberty group in early adulthood. They suddenly face new chal- lenges, which include leaving the family, getting used to a new environment, and taking responsibility for choice of meal themselves. Many of them eat their meals and snacks outside of their home, consuming fast food and other cheap energy sources, spending more time at a desk or TV/internet, and they often do not eat a regular breakfast (8-10). The demands and changes inherent in university life and living far from the family increase the risk of disor- dered eating (11, 12). Not only are there risks for weight gain, the emphasis at this age on appearance, body image and social acceptance are important, and many young people, especially girls, can develop unhealthy weight control be- haviors such as fasting, skipping meals, taking laxatives or diet pills and food restriction and smoking (13, 14). There- fore, achieving and managing effective weight control in young people is important. For young people, the cognitive restructuring process Copyright © 2016, Semnan University of Medical Sciences. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited.