Health
benefits of weight loss for the obese and over weight individuals
Even
reserved weight loss can offer over-weight and obese group a handful of significant
and vital health benefits and gains of weight loss or losing weight as well as
fat loss, according to a new health and medical study concerning health
benefits and weight loss.
The
study involved 3,000 over-weight individuals with impaired glucose tolerance --
a pre-diabetic condition -- who were shown how to change their behavior rather
than being prescribed drugs.
The
behavioral strategies used by the participants to help them lose weight
included keeping track of everything they ate, reducing the amount of unhealthy
food they kept in their home and increasing their amount of physical activity.
Even
a modest weight loss -- an average of 14 pounds -- reduced the risk of
developing type 2 diabetes by 58 percent. And the health benefits of this
weight loss lasted up to 10 years, even if people regained the weight, said
study author Rena Wing, professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown
University in Providence, R.I.
The
study was scheduled for presentation Thursday at the American Psychological
Association annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.
"Helping
people find ways to change their eating and activity behaviors and developing
interventions other than medication to reinforce a healthy lifestyle have made
a huge difference in preventing one of the major health problems in this
country," Wing, who is also director of the Weight Control and Diabetes
Research Center at the Miriam Hospital in Providence, said in an association
news release.
"Weight
losses of just 10 percent of a person's body weight ... have also been shown to
have a long-term impact on sleep apnea, hypertension and quality of life, and
to slow the decline in mobility that occurs as people age," she noted.
Wing
is now leading a 13-year study of 5,000 people with type 2 diabetes to
determine whether an intensive behavioral intervention can lower the risk of
heart disease and heart attacks.
"We
are trying to show that behavior changes not only make people healthier in
terms of reducing heart disease risk factors but actually can make them live
longer," she said.
Because
this study was presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should
be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
