A new study showed that people who receive regularly after weight loss are more likely to maintain their lost weight, but receiving additional calls when there is a risk of weight restoring does not add any additional benefit.
The study was conducted by Catherine M. Ross, holding a doctorate and master’s degree in public health, and a first scientific researcher at the Advocate Aurora Research Center in the United States, and associate professor in the Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy at Wake Forest University Faculty.
The study was published on September 22nd in the Jama NETLORK Open Journal and followed 255 adults suffering from obesity and who lost at least 5 % of their initial weight during a 16 -week weight loss program.
All participants received monthly phone support calls. Participants were randomly appointed to receive these calls, either once every month or when they are operated by an algorithm that determined that they are at a great risk to restore weight. After 20 months, both groups maintained the average loss of 8 % of their initial weight, and about 60 % of the participants maintained at least 5 % of their initial weight.
“This study is important because it shows that constant support helps people really maintain weight loss over time – the results in both groups were better than we expected,” said Catherine.
“We have some reasons behind this, and we are excited to start new studies to improve our algorithm to predict weight restoration,” said Catherine.
He added: “Our results support long -term care for obesity, within the framework of the form of chronic diseases, just as we do with other long -term health problems.” He continued: “We hope this research will encourage more clinics and health programs to provide continuous support to help people maintain their weight.”