Overweight people who opt for a commercial diet plan may be more likely to stay with the program if they are part of a group.
This is the news of Helen Truby, RD, and his colleagues from the University of Surrey of England, as reported in BMJ magazine.
The Truby team studied almost 300 people with overweight or obese (body mass index). The BBC - a British TV network - created a weight loss TV reality show with 15 of the study participants.The study is designed to answer three key questions: Will commercial diets help people lose weight? How much weight would they lose? And how long the pounds would be out?
Dinner Idea For Weight Loss - Weight Loss: Strength in Numbers?
Participants were judged overweight or obese based on their BMI, a measure that relates weight to height. An IMC of 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight; One of the 30 or more is considered obese. Participants in the Truby study had BMIS from 27 to 40.
Participants were assigned to spend six months in one of the four popular weight loss plans:
- Weight Vigilantes
- Atkins diet.
- SLIM Fast Meal Replacement Plan
- "Eat Rosemary Conley's diet and fitness plan" (a British diet and low-fat exercises)
For comparison, another group was invited to eat and exercise as usual.
After six months, all groups - except the used for comparison - they lost weight and fat.
How much did they lose? The average over six months was about 13 pounds. More than 9 pounds of this was fat, the study showed.
Each of the diet groups have lost similar amounts of weight and fat. Those in the Atkins diet showed greater weight loss in the first two months, but the other groups have become after that.
The researchers suspected that media attention could have motivated the participants presented in the BBC TV program, so they jumped these participants and reviewed the results. The findings do not change.
But extra pounds usually return after weight loss. Truby's team sought to gather the weight and dietary behavior of the participants a year after the beginning of the study.
About half of the original group (158) took researchers on this offer. Of those, "only 58 ... were still keeping their diets allocated," writing Truby and colleagues.
People in the weight observers and Conley Rosemary programs - involving group meetings - were more likely to have arrested with their programs for a year.
A year later, nine participants reported paste with the Atkins diet; nine continued using thin-fast; 20 were firm in the group of weight observers, and another 20 in Conley Rosemary's plan.
Even after six months, the abandonment rate was "surting," notes David Arterburn, MD, MPH, in a magazine editorial. Arterburn works in Seattle at the Group's Health Center for Health Studies. He was not involved in Truby's study.
The low a year follow-up rate makes it impossible to extract inferences on the long-term efficacy of diet plans, Arterburn adds.
Claro, weight loss does not require a commercial program. Check with your doctor for pointers to get started.
