New Study on Medication and Counseling for Weight Loss

There is no magic pill for weight loss. Some studies have shown that obese patients can achieve greater weight-loss success with a combination of pharmacotherapy and a lifestyle modification program that includes a low-calorie diet, increased physical activity, and behavioral changes. Researchers measured weight loss in 376 obese patients taking a daily dose of sibutramine to determine which method of delivering support for a lifestyle modification program would produce the most weight loss. Patients were randomly assigned to high-frequency face-to-face counseling, low-frequency face-to-face counseling, high-frequency telephone counseling, high-frequency e-mail counseling, or no dietician contact. After six months, the patients assigned to high-frequency telephone contact with a dietician lost the same amount of weight as those assigned to high-frequency face-to-face counseling. Researchers conclude that telephone counseling could be a viable and cost-effective way for primary care physicians to help their obese patients lose more weight.

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News & Politics

Tags:

• American
• College
• Physicians
• Annals
• Internal
• Medicine
• health
• news
• medicine
• obesity
• weight
• loss
• counseling