Phone it in
A new study shows a telephone could be the secret to keeping weight off after it's lost
Losing weight isn't easy, but for most people keeping it off presents an even greater challenge. According to a new study from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center (PBRC), Baton Rouge, La., one quick phone call could be a saving grace for the newly slimmed.
A weight-loss-maintenance trial conducted at PBRC as well as Duke University, Johns Hopkins and Kaiser Health, showed that patients participating in a monthly 10-15 minute personal phone call with a trained professional regained less weight than those using a Web-based intervention or self-directed program.
"Given the difficulty of keeping lost weight off, there is a critical need for practical, affordable strategies that effectively maintain weight loss," says Phillip Brantley, PhD, a principal investigator of the study and chief of the behavioral medicine laboratory at PBRC.
Researchers examined 1,032 overweight or obese adults at high risk for cardiovascular disease (38 percent African American, 63 percent women) who had lost at least 8.8 pounds during a 6-month weight loss program (phase one) and were randomized to a weight-loss maintenance intervention (phase two).
At the start of the study, participants weighed an average of 213 pounds and went on to lose an average of 18.7 pounds during phase one. Once the weight-loss phase ended, every group went on to regain weight, but researchers saw an astonishing distinction between their post-weight-loss guidance and the amount. The self-directed group gained an average of 12.1 pounds; the interactive technology-based group an average of 11.5 pounds; and in the personal-contact group an average of 8.8 pounds.
"Although weight regain with the personal-contact intervention was statistically less than weight regain in the self-directed control group, the average loss was a modest 3.3 pounds," Brantley says.
However, the researchers emphasized that even modest weight loss can improve cardiovascular risk factors.
"At the end of the study, more than 45 percent of those in the personal-contact intervention were still maintaining at least 8.8 pounds of weight loss, an amount with clear clinical benefits," Brantley says.
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