Counseling May Help Retain Weight Loss

Monthly personal counseling helped people keep off about half of the weight they lost for 2½ years, a study has found. A group that received Web-based counseling did almost as well, but results fell off by the end of the study. More than 1,000 people were in the study. They began with a six-month weight loss program. They lost an average of 18.7 pounds. Then they were randomly assigned to personal, Web-based or no counseling. After 2½ years, those who got personal counseling had kept off an average of 9.2 pounds. The average was 7.3 pounds for the Web program and 6.4 pounds for the other group. The study was published March 12 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.