New Directions Weight Loss Program

Over the past few decades, the prevalence of obesity has risen dramatically, and it is now estimated that overweight or obesity affects one-half of all U.S. adults, and for this new directions weiht loss programs were founded. The incidence of type 2 diabetes has also been on the rise, particularly among children and certain ethnic groups. The relationship between obesity and the development of type 2 diabetes has been well documented.
Weight loss through diet and exercise modification has been found to have a preventive effect by reducing the risk of developing diabetes by more than 30% with as little as a 4.5 kg weight loss.
In addition, several studies have found that individuals with diabetes derive many health benefits from losing weight.

Although weight loss has been found to be beneficial in treating and preventing diabetes, the long-term efficacy of weight-loss on diabetes is unknown given that weight regain is common. This article will describe the structure and components of a typical behavioral weight-loss program and then discuss some new research directions aimed at improving treatment outcomes.

Modifying Weight-Loss Goals
One new direction in weight-loss treatment is encouraging participants to set modest (reasonable) weight-loss goals instead of striving for the ideal weight for their height. This movement is in part the result of a growing body of literature that suggests that losing 5-15% of body weight is associated with substantial improvements in obesity-related conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension. Government agencies have endorsed such weight-loss goals. For example, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health recently published clinical guidelines for obesity and overweight that strongly recommend an initial weight-loss goal equal to a 10% reduction in body weight to be reached during a 6-month treatment. It has also been suggested that this amount of weight loss would be easier to maintain given that the effort required would be less than for a greater weight loss.

Exercise
New research directions in modifying exercise habits include encouraging lifestyle activity, prescribing short bouts of activity, and recommending a higher level of activity for long-term weight loss. Andersen and colleagues recently studied the effects of increasing lifestyle activity versus structured activity on weight loss. Lifestyle exercise was defined as moderate activity for 30 minutes most days of the week accumulated by walking more than usual, taking the stairs, walking to do errands instead of taking the car, etc., whereas structured activity consisted of an aerobic exercise class 3 days per week. It was found that an intervention that promotes lifestyle activity produces similar results with regard to body weight, body composition, cardiovascular risk, and physical fitness compared to a structured exercise program. Thus, this study suggests that structured, programmed exercise does not appear to be necessary to lose weight and achieve improved health status.

Weight-Gain Prevention
A burgeoning area of research is the prevention of weight gain in adults. Some studies have focused on high-risk populations such as young adults and the acceptability of different treatment formats. Leermakers and colleagues focused on weight-gain prevention in men 25-40 years old utilizing a treatment intervention that focused on exercise and low-fat diets. They found that both a clinic-based intervention and a home-based correspondence intervention were effective in preventing weight gain over a 4-month treatment period compared to a delayed-treatment control group. The success and cost-effectiveness of the correspondence intervention is particularly promising given that weight-gain prevention efforts will need to target communities instead of select individuals because the prevalence of obesity is increasing across all sociodemographic groups.

Weight-gain prevention is another area of research receiving some attention. In addition, community interventions that manipulate the environment to help individuals eat healthful foods and exercise more have achieved some success and warrant further attention to address the widespread epidemic of obesity. New directions weight loss program will help overweight persons burn the fat rapidly.


About the Author
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