PubMed · 12052021
Technical skills for weight loss: preliminary data from a randomized trial.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Optimal behavioral interventions for sustainable weight loss are uncertain. We therefore conducted a study among overweight/obese women comparing conventional dietary counseling of individuals (counseling-based intervention) to a novel, group-based skill-building intervention. METHODS: Eighty subjects were randomly assigned to either the counseling-based or to the skill-building intervention. Outcomes included weight loss, dietitian hours per group and per unit weight loss, and dollars spent per group and per unit weight lost. RESULTS: Weight loss at 6 months (follow-up rate 61.3%) in the counseling-based group was 8.8 lb (P = 0.0001), and in the skill-building group was 3.8 lb (P = 0.01). A total of 160 dietitian hours were required for the counseling-based group, and 131 for the skilled-building group. The counseling-based group cost an average of $21 per pound lost, while the skill-building cost an average of $48 per pound lost (P = 0.16). CONCLUSIONS: At 6 months, individualized office-based counseling produced more weight loss than a skill-building approach and cost less than half as much per pound of weight loss. Longer-term follow-up is required to determine if, as hypothesized, the skill-building intervention produces more sustainable weight loss.
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David L Katz, Wendy Chan, Maura Gonzalez, David Larson, Haq Nawaz, Mustapha Abdulrahman, Ming-Chin Yeh. 2002. Technical skills for weight loss: preliminary data from a randomized trial.. https://doi.org/10.1006/pmed.2002.1025
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