Weight loss in obese women has positive outcomes
September 29, 2004
By Nanci Hellmich
For years, experts have worried that dieting might lead to depression, binge eating and eating disorders in obese women, but a new study shows that's not the case.
Women who lost weight on two different calorie-cutting diets reported fewer symptoms of depression than non-dieters who didn't lose, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
Although a few dieters reported isolated episodes of binge eating during the middle of the program, none developed a serious eating disorder.
For 65 weeks, researchers followed 123 middle-aged women who weighed an average of 214 pounds; none had binge-eating symptoms or significant signs of depression at the start of the study.
The women were randomly assigned to one of three weight-loss programs: a meal-replacement plan of 1,000 calories a day (four shakes during the day and a frozen entree, salad and fruit for dinner); a traditional balanced diet that limited calories to 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day; and a non-dieting approach in which participants were asked to pay closer attention to hunger and fullness but not to diet.
All participants attended weekly group treatment sessions lead by a psychologist during the first 20 weeks, then every other week until week 40. They attended follow-up sessions at week 52 and 65. Participants were encouraged to walk 30 minutes a day most days of the week. Assessments were done regularly.
Among the findings, reported in September's American Journal of Clinical Nutrition:
• At week 40, the women in the meal-replacement group had lost an average of 24 pounds; traditional dieters dropped 18 pounds; the non-diet group lost 2 pounds.
• Women in both dieting groups reported significantly greater reductions in symptoms of depression at week 40 than the non-dieting group.
• Binge-eating episodes were slightly higher in the meal-replacement group at week 28 of the study. But by week 40 and week 65, there was no significant differences in binge-eating episodes among the three groups.
• Women in all three groups experienced decreases in hunger and urges to overeat.
"These findings should reassure overweight and
obese adults who are trying to lose
weight that dieting does not have harmful behavioral
consequences," says lead researcher Thomas Wadden,
director of the university's Weight and Eating Disorders
Program. But, he says, the findings don't address the
potential dangers of aggressive dieting in adolescent
girls and young women of average weight.
Source:www.usatoday.com
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