Maintenance-tailored therapy vs. standard behavior therapy for 30-month maintenance of weight loss.
OBJECTIVE
To assess differences in weight regain one year after an 18-month obesity treatment with standard behavior therapy (SBT) or maintenance-tailored therapy for obesity (MTT).


METHODS
213 obese adult volunteers were treated for 18 months using SBT with fixed behavioral prescriptions or MTT that employed varied behavioral prescriptions with treatment breaks. Follow-up analysis focused on weight maintenance after a year of no contact. The trial was conducted at the University of Minnesota between 2005 and 2009.


RESULTS
Mean (SD) weight change between 18 and 30 months for participants in the SBT group was +4.1 kg (4.4) compared to +2.8 kg (4.5) in the MTT group. This is a 31% reduction in weight regain in MTT relative to SBT (p=0.078). This trend toward better maintenance in MTT versus SBT was due primarily to superior differential maintenance in MTT participants in the highest tertile of total weight loss at 18 months, i.e. MTT participants in this tertile regained 4 kg less than SBT participants between 18 and 30 months.


CONCLUSIONS
The MTT approach with varied content and timing produced more desirable patterns of weight loss maintenance than the traditional SBT approach, especially among individuals who had achieved greater initial weight loss.
Levy
Rona L
RL
University of Washington, School of Social Work, 4101 15th Avenue NE, Mailstop 354900, Seattle, WA 98105-6299, USA. rlevy@uw.edu
Jeffery
Robert W
RW
Langer
Shelby L
SL
Graham
Dan J
DJ
Welsh
Ericka M
EM
Flood
Andrew P
AP
Jaeb
Melanie A
MA
Laqua
Patricia S
PS
Finch
Emily A
EA
Hotop
Annie M
AM
Yatsuya
Hiroshi
H
D000328:Adult; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D015430:Weight Gain; D015431:Weight Loss