THURSDAY, July 10 (HealthDay News) -- In the first phase of the Weight-Loss Maintenance trial, participants made substantial progress in losing weight due to dietary changes and increased physical activity, according to a report published in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Jack F. Hollis, Ph.D., of Kaiser Permanente Northwest in Portland, Ore., and colleagues conducted a study of 1,685 overweight or obese patients taking medications for hypertension, dyslipidemia or both. Women accounted for 67 percent of the cohort, 44 percent of the participants were black, and 79 percent were obese. While 87 percent of the subjects were taking medications to treat hypertension, 38 percent were taking antidyslipidemia drugs.
There were 20 group sessions to encourage participants to restrict calorie intake, which had a 72 percent attendance rate, the researchers note. Participants reported 117 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity weekly. Among the cohort, the mean weight loss was 5.8 kg, and 69 percent lost 4 kg or more, the report indicates.
"Behavioral measures (e.g., diet records and physical activity) accounted for most of the weight-loss variation, although the association between behavioral measures and weight loss differed by race and gender groups," the authors write. "These results suggest that the Weight Loss Maintenance Phase-I intervention successfully achieved clinically significant short-term weight loss in an unusually diverse high-risk population."
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