The Effects of Contemporary Behavioural Weight Loss Maintenance Interventions

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of behavioural weight loss interventions in maintaining long term weight loss.

Methods: Systematic review of randomized controlled trails (RCTs).  Data sources involved in the study are the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, psycINFO and the Web of Science.  The database searches and abstracts were reviewed independently by two authors using the Delphi criteria. Data were abstracted by two reviewers and outcome measures were quantitatively summarised using Revman. Main outcome measure is weight change in kilograms.

Results: This review presents the findings from 13 RCT’s of weight loss maintenance from 2001 to 2013 utilising interventions that include diet strategies, behavioural strategies, lifestyle counselling and drug therapy, counselling/group therapy and the Internet.  The results of the reviewed trials revealed that lifestyle interventions targeting diet and physical activity are effective in sustaining weight loss up to 2years with extended care.  Moreover pharmacology combined with lifestyle interventions was effective.

Conclusion: There is significant evidence that the use of behavioural weight loss interventions are effective in sustaining long terms weight loss, albeit limited. There was high heterogeneity among the studies; hence caution is required when interpreting the findings.