The role of the therapist was varied in a weight reduction program. When meetings with the therapist were "faded out" over the duration of the 10-week treatment period subjects lost significantly more weight compared to subjects who met with the therapist on a regular basis; both groups differed significantly from controls. Six months after therapy, subjects who had regularly met with the therapist during the treatment period had gained back all the weight they had lost during treatment; they no longer differed from controls. Subjects who had had the therapist "faded out," however, maintained their losses. Self-control should be viewed as an operant. The therapist should be viewed as an important source of external control, and subjects need to be shaped into relying less on him in order to develop adequate self-control. (Author)