Study: Long-term weight loss possible

DURHAM, N.C., March 12 (UPI) -- Seventy-one percent who took part in a U.S. weight-loss study lost weight and those best at keeping it off had monthly personal counseling.

Dr. Laura Svetkey of Duke University in Durham, N.C., said 1,685 study subjects who had lost at least 9 pounds were randomly assigned to: personal counseling, an interactive Web site on which they could record and track their exercise and calorie intake and a self-directed group urged to maintain their weight loss and then sent off without further intervention.

Those who received the the personal counseling regained about 3.3 pounds less than the self-directed group. Overall, 71 percent weighed less than when they began Phase I.

"However, impressive benefits -- such as lowering the risk of diabetes by 8 percent -- come with each pound lost," Svetkey said in a statement.

"This study is the longest and largest to test strategies for long-term weight loss maintenance, and it suggests that long-term weight control is an achievable goal."

The findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and presented at the American Heart Association's Conference on Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism.