title: 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.
authors.affiliation: Yale Prevention Research Center, Yale University School of Medicine, USA. katzdl@pol.net
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Katz
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Maura
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Larson
authors.forename: Haq
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nawaz
authors.forename: Mustapha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abdulrahman
authors.forename: Ming-Chin
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Yeh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003376:Counseling; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000178:diet therapy*; D015431:Weight Loss