A new study has revealed that for losing weight, a lot of factors matter, like amount and type of food consumed, the intensity of exercise to burn calories, and metabolism.

It is said that psychological factors also play a major role, including motivation to stick with weight loss program.

Motivation and its relationship to devotion and weight loss in a 16-week involvement program were examined by researchers, from the University of Kentucky and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The volunteers kept a record of their food intake, exercise, and body weight weekly.

It has been said that there are two sorts of motivation, independent and controlled. Independent motivation is the preference to make changes for own reasons without external pressure.

The feeling of pressure from others to make changes is controlled motivation.

Thirty-seven of the 66 participants lost 5% of their initial body weight during the study.

Those who had self-directed motivation were most thriving in sticking to the program and in maintaining the weight loss.

May/June 2010 issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior has published the research.