It wasn’t long ago that behavioral diet programs were essentially unheard of. Today, they’re skyrocketing in popularity, with big names such as WW (formerly known as Weight Watchers) adopting new strategies that focus on a person’s lifestyle and behaviors as a whole, not just the calories or macronutrients a person eats.
Behavioral Diet Programs Get Researcher Attention
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (U.S.P.S.T.F.) is a team of volunteer medical experts from various different nursing and primary care medicine fields. They work together to stop large medical issues, review available research on the subject, and convert what they find into actionable plans for doctors to use, which they refer to as practice recommendations.
Among the most recent focuses of the team was obesity. They worked to spot more effective ways for primary care doctors to guide patients through their weight loss. Behavioral diet programs found themselves in the team’s spotlight.
The Goal of the Research Was Weight Loss for Health
The U.S.P.S.T.F. team was not concentrating on cosmetic outcomes as they studied weight loss and behavioral diet programs. Instead, they were aiming to improve disease prevention relating to obesity, such as in the case of high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes.
The team chose not to include procedures in their research. This meant that surgeries and other similar processes were not included. Instead, the team looked at only research trials that examined behavioral diet programs and medication based programs.
The Behavioral Diet Programs Research Outcomes
The team conducted an analysis of 89 different behavioral diet programs for weight loss around the globe. They looked at studies involving adults of both genders, as well across a spectrum of ethnic groups. Participants had a body mass index (B.M.I.) of 25 through 39 and were aged from 22 to 66.
The studied behavioral diet programs were between 12 and 24 months in length. They took at least 12 face to face, web-based or group meeting sessions. A number of different types specialist were involved, including psychologists, behavioral therapists, exercise psychologists, registered dieticians, lifestyle coaches, and physicians. Those experts provided the participants with counseling about nutrition, self monitoring, physical activity and various psychological basics.
Overall, behavioral diet programs were found to have significantly better results than traditional diets. The participants saw an average fat loss of about 5 percent of their total body weight at 12 to 18 months. The participants also showed a much lower risk of developing diabetes.
If you want to change your behavior and promote a healthier weight through better habits, try a diet pill that focuses on supporting energy levels and focus, two key elements to drive those healthy lifestyle changes.
