Weight Efficacy Life-Style Questionnaire
The Weight Efficacy Life-Style Questionnaire asks how confident a person is that they can resist eating in 20 situations. It is not a treatment plan.
Overview
What is the WEL?
WEL covers five kinds of situation: negative emotions, availability of food, social pressure, physical discomfort and positive activities. It does not diagnose an eating disorder and does not prescribe calories or medication.
Development and clinical use
Clark, Abrams, Niaura, Eaton and Rossi published the 20-item WEL in 1991 and validated it in clinical weight-management samples.
- Catalogue status
- Educational entry
- Production scoring
- Not independently verified
- Mode
- self-report
- Typical use
- Clinician-reviewed intake
- Clinical role
- Eating self-efficacy support
Administration
A focused client experience
WEL is completed as a focused self-report and stored for clinician review. This public page does not collect answers or return a score.
- One question at a time with visible progress
- Large keyboard-operable response choices
- Previous, next, and answer-review steps
- Clear confirmation that results go to the clinic
The illustration shows layout only. It does not reproduce WEL item wording.
Report showcase
Designed to make evidence easy to review
The downloadable synthetic example illustrates report layout using invented response patterns, without patient data or instrument questions.
- Named instrument, version, and provenance
- Item-level response pattern without source wording
- Methodology, references, and clinical boundary
- Responsible clinician review rather than automated conclusions
Clinician review required
Methodology
Understand the measure and its scoring conventions
Each item is rated from 0 (not confident) to 9 (very confident). The total runs from 0 to 180 and each of the five factors from 0 to 36. Higher scores mean more confidence in resisting the desire to eat. There are no published cut-offs.
References
- Original WEL paperClark MM et al. Self-efficacy in weight management. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1991;59(5):739-744.
Questions
What clinics ask before they evaluate the WEL
These answers stay inside educational catalogue scope. They do not replace official manuals or clinician judgement.
Does WEL prescribe a diet?
No. It is a self-efficacy questionnaire. Treatment remains a clinician task.
Can I complete WEL here?
No. This landing is educational.
Is WEL the same as PSEQ?
No. PSEQ is pain self-efficacy. WEL is weight-management eating self-efficacy.
Does WEL have a cut-off?
No. It reports a total and five factor scores without published cut-offs.