Combined diving and mindfulness reduced emotional eating in adults with obesity and the benefits lasted months

A two-month program cut emotional eating more than standard care and also reduced stress and weight self-stigma.

A community trial in France tested a two-month scuba-diving program paired with mindfulness exercises, added to standard care for adults with obesity. Compared with standard care alone, the combined program produced a larger drop in emotional eating at two months and the improvement held at five and eight months. Stress and weight self-stigma also improved, while weight stayed broadly stable.

Quick summary

What the study found: Emotional eating fell more with the combined diving-plus-mindfulness program than with standard care alone, and gains persisted through eight months; stress and weight self-stigma also decreased.
Why it matters: It targets a behavioral pathway linked to obesity management, not just the number on the scale.
What to be careful about: The trial was unblinded, had higher contact time in the intervention, and follow-up missing data increased over time.

What was found

In Efficacy of a combined diving and mindfulness program on emotional eating in adults with obesity: Randomised controlled trial with standard care, 63 adults with a body mass index above 30 were randomized to standard care alone or standard care plus the Bathysmed program.

The primary outcome was change in emotional eating on the emotional eating subscale of the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire, a self-report measure of eating in response to emotions. At two months, emotional eating dropped more in the combined program than in standard care alone, and this advantage was maintained at five and eight months.

Secondary outcomes also moved. The intervention group showed reductions in weight self-stigma, perceived stress, and improved obesity-related quality of life scores, with stress showing differences at all time points reported.

What it means

This journal article supports a practical idea: for some people, changing eating behavior may begin with changing how the body handles stress and emotion, not with stricter food rules. Emotional eating is often used as a coping strategy when distress is high and self-judgment is loud.

Notably, body weight, body mass index, and waist circumference did not show clear between-group differences over the study period. That pattern fits a common clinical sequence: shifts in coping and self-stigma can precede visible changes in weight.

Where it fits

The study frames emotional eating as a mediator between depression and obesity, and positions mindfulness plus physical activity as a combined approach. Mindfulness is typically used to strengthen attention and emotion regulation, so urges are noticed earlier and acted on less automatically.

Diving adds a structured environment with slow, regular breathing and sustained attention. The authors connect this to “cardiac coherence” and parasympathetic regulation, meaning a calmer branch of the autonomic nervous system associated with rest-and-digest functioning.

How to use it

Use the core ingredients even if you never dive. Pair a scheduled weekly activity that demands steady breathing and focus with brief mindfulness practice aimed at noticing cravings and emotion shifts without immediate eating.

Also treat weight self-stigma as a target, not a footnote. Self-stigma is internalized blame about weight; reducing it can lower avoidance, improve help-seeking, and make behavior change more sustainable.

Limits & what we still don’t know

The trial was unblinded, and the intervention group likely received more attention and expectancy effects than controls. Those non-specific factors can inflate apparent benefits in behavior and self-report outcomes.

Follow-up missing data rose by five and eight months, though analyses accounted for this. The sample was small and participants volunteered from a center with a special interest in obesity, which can limit generalizability.

Closing takeaway

The clearest message is behavioral: a two-month combined diving and mindfulness program reduced emotional eating more than standard care alone, and the effect lasted months. If obesity care only chases weight change, it may miss earlier levers like stress, stigma, and emotion-driven eating.

Data in this article is provided by PLOS.

Tagged Behavior, Body weight, Computer architecture, Computer engineering, Eating, Electronics engineering, Emotions, Health care, Man-computer interface, Mental health and psychiatry, Obesity, Physiological parameters, Physiological processes, Psychological stress, Quality of life, User interfaces, Virtual reality