Weight Watching

Researchers find that keeping weight off is easier with a little outside help. New research shows that professional assistance can help people-and especially women-stick to their diets.

By Jason Williams, published on April 01, 2003

Want to know how to lose weight and keep it off? This popular question, posed in countless dieting slogans, may finally have been answered: New research shows that professional assistance can help people-and especially women-stick to their diets.

In a recent study conducted by the American Dietetic Association, the world's largest organization of food and nutrition experts, researchers found that women who attempt to create and adhere to a healthy diet are more likely to succeed when they work with a health professional than when they go it alone.

"The [Women's Health Initiative] intervention resulted in substantial reductions in fat intake," the researchers wrote in The Journal of the Dietetic Association. Using data collected from more than 12,000 participants in the national WHI Dietary Modification Trial, they identified the types of fat each woman consumed and then monitored them over a two-year period to see how closely they followed a prescribed low-fat diet.

After one year, women who consulted with a professional to modify their diet reduced their fat intake from 38.5 percent of total calories consumed to 24.3 percent. Women who did not receive professional help, however, took in 35.7 percent of their calories from fat. After two years, both groups increased their fat consumption by about 1 percent.

In addition, those who did receive counseling admitted that added fats-such as butter and oils-and meats were the most difficult foods to avoid. "These two food groups contributed almost half of all dietary fat consumed" before professional intervention, and they were the main source of fat that participants added back into their diets after the first year, the researchers report.

Ultimately, the study findings suggest that avoiding added fats is the key dietary change for maintaining a low-fat diet and long-term weight loss. To reduce intake of added fats, researchers suggest eating smaller portions and modifying cooking methods.