Technical skills for weight loss: preliminary data from a randomized trial.
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.
Katz
David L
DL
Yale Prevention Research Center, Yale University School of Medicine, USA. katzdl@pol.net
Chan
Wendy
W
Gonzalez
Maura
M
Larson
David
D
Nawaz
Haq
H
Abdulrahman
Mustapha
M
Yeh
Ming-Chin
MC
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