Behavioral weight loss programs are effective — but where to find them?

The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is a team of volunteer experts from various primary care medicine and nursing fields. They identify big medical problems, review the research, and translate it into action plans (called practice recommendations) for doctors like me. Just this fall, they tackled obesity, with the goal of identifying effective ways we in primary care can help people to lose weight. And it’s not about aesthetics. This is about disease prevention, especially diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease, which are particularly associated with obesity. They were NOT looking at surgeries or other procedures, only research trials involving either behavioral or medication-based weight loss programs. The task force analyzed 89 behavioral weight loss program trials from all over the world, and these included participants of both genders as well as many racial and ethnic groups, with ages between 22 and 66, and body mass index between 25 and 39. What was involved in a behavioral weight loss program? The programs studied lasted between 12 and 24 months, and involved at least 12 sessions (face-to-face, group meetings, or web-based). A variety of specialists were involved (behavioral therapists, psychologists, registered dietitians, exercise physiologists, lifestyle coaches, as well as physicians) who provided counseling on basics like nutrition, physical activity, and self-monitoring, as well as psychological components like identifying obstacles, planni...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Diet and Weight Loss Healthy Eating Source Type: blogs