Persons Successful at Long-term Weight Loss and Maintenance Continue to Consume a Low-energy, Low-fat Diet
Section snippets
Subjects
NWCR is an ongoing observational study that began in 1993. For this article, we looked at the first 463 participants in NWCR. Subjects in the registry have been recruited through newspaper, magazine, and television releases. To be eligible, participants must be aged 18 years or older and have maintained a weight loss of at least 13.6 kg for a minimum of 1 year. Although the participants’ current weight and weight changes over time are self-reported, an effort was made to increase the accuracy of
Subject Characteristics
The characteristics of the 438 subjects are shown in Table 1. The majority of subjects were women (81%) and all but 13 were white. The average age of subjects was 45 years for women and 50 years for men. Thirty-four percent of all subjects were between the ages of 40 and 49 years, 59% were between the ages of 30 and 49 years (data not shown). The sample was well educated; 88% had more than 12 years of education.
Men reported that they had lost 35.0±20.7 kg (mean±standard deviation) and women
Discussion
Our study extends the research on persons who successfully lost weight reported by Klem et al (17) by comparing the dietary intakes of successful weight-loss maintainers with intake observed in a national sample and with the RDAs. To our knowledge, this is the first study to make such comparisons and to analyze the dietary intakes of persons who successfully lost weight on their own vs those who received assistance.
Participants in NWCR who had maintained a mean weight loss of 30 kg for a mean of
Applications
It is encouraging to note that there are persons who have been successful at maintaining large weight losses for extended periods. Dietetics professionals need to continue to be involved in their clients’ progress even after their weight-loss goals have been achieved to promote successful maintenance of weight loss. Clients should be encouraged to continue to make changes in physical activity and to continue to consume a low-fat, low-energy diet to successfully maintain their weight loss.
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