Maintaining Weight Loss

People who manage to successfully lose weight too often gain it back. A group of investigators from Brown Medical School in Providence, R.I., and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, devised a self-regulating program for maintaining weight loss that appears to begin to address the problem.

The team recruited 314 participants who were randomly assigned to a control group that received quarterly newsletters, a group that received face-to-face intervention, and a group that received Internet-based intervention. In both intervention groups, the content was the same: information that emphasized daily self-weighing and self-regulation of weight loss. The outcome measured was weight gain over an 18-month period.

Participants in the face-to-face group gained an average 2.5 kg (5.5 lb), while the Internet-based group gained an average 4.7 kg (10.4 lb), and the control group gained an average 4.9 kg (10.8 lb). Daily self-weighing increased in both intervention groups and was associated with less risk of regaining ≥2.3 kg (5 lb).

“As compared to receiving quarterly newsletters, a self-regulating program based on daily weighing improved maintenance of weight loss, particularly when delivered face to face,” the researchers conclude.

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