Doctor-dietitian duo aids weight loss

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Getting advice from both a dietitian and a physician at the same time helps in achieving and maintaining weight loss, according to a new report.

"Nationally, the reported rate of physician counseling about exercise is approximately 34 percent," Dr. Francine K. Welty and colleagues from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, write. "However, many clinicians do not routinely measure patients' weight, assess their lifestyle, or offer advice on such topics."

In their study, in the American Journal of Cardiology, the researchers advised 80 overweight or obese patients with at least one risk factor for heart disease to exercise 30 minutes daily. The subjects were also counseled by a dietitian on what constitutes a healthy diet. Weight, body mass index (BMI), blood fat levels, and blood pressure were measured at one follow-up visit with the dietitian and physician and at least one additional visit with the physician alone.

The average BMI at the outset was 30, the level classified as obese. After about 21 months, the average maximum weight loss was 5.6 percent of usual weight. After an average of 30 months, 64 of the patients (80 percent) maintained a significant weight loss of 5.3 percent.

The subjects who maintained their weight loss exercised an average of 3.8 days per week, compared with 2.6 among those who did not.

"On the basis of our results," Welty and colleagues write, "we suggest that primary care physicians hold an 'obesity' clinic on prespecified days and arrange for a dietitian to be available at those sessions, a situation similar to that described in this report."

SOURCE: American Journal of Cardiology, July 2007.