Black Feminism and Womanism: A Narrative Review of the Weight Loss Literature

Abstract

Objective Black Feminism and Womanism offers an interdisciplinary lens and practice to center Black women’s health, engage relevant health, and create Black women–informed solutions to address obesity. The purpose of this review article is to employ Black Feminism and Womanism to examine approaches and results of Black women–centered behavioral weight loss interventions. Methods A narrative review of Black women–centered behavioral weight loss interventions was conducted. To be included, articles met the following criteria: published between 2012 and 2022, standard behavioral treatment for weight loss, randomized design, weight loss outcomes stratified by race and gender, sample size of at least 75 individuals, adults at least 18 years of age, and at least 51% Black women in the sample. Results Eight studies met the inclusion criteria for a Black women–centered behavioral weight loss intervention and were evaluated. Findings indicate that weight loss among Black women was mostly low, below the clinical target of 5 to 10% weight loss. Intervention designs ranged widely in their approach to respond to the context of Black women’s lives, with little consistency between designs. Conclusions To make meaningful improvement in the effectiveness of behavioral weight loss interventions for Black women, new approaches are critical. Approaches grounded in Black Feminism and Womanism can provide the essential foundation to generate new knowledge, novel hypotheses, and intervention designs that fully attend to the lived context of Black women, including consideration of the potential health effects of gendered racism.