WASHINGTON (AFP) – Weight loss medication combined with a regimen of diet and exercise takes off twice as much weight as either treatment by itself, researchers said in the New England Journal of Medicine.
"Weight loss medications helped people lose weight, as did a program of lifestyle modification we designed to improve eating and exercise habits," lead researcher Thomas Wadden said Friday.
"However, we found that a combination of the two approaches produced approximately twice the weight loss of either intervention used alone," added the director of the Weight and Eating Disorders Program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
The one-year study examined 180 women and 44 men with an average age of 44 years, weight of 106 kilograms (235 pounds), and body mass index of 37.7 kg/m2, all randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups.
The first group was prescribed weight loss medication with little medical counseling; the second followed a regimen of diet and exercise; the third received a combination of the first two approaches and the fourth received weight loss medication with medical counseling on diet and exercise.
After one year, people in the third group following the combined treatment lost an average of 12.6 kilograms (26.6 pounds), compared to an average of five kilograms (11 pounds) for people in the first group who only took weight loss medication.
People in group two who dieted and exercised lost an average of 6.7 kilograms (14.7 pounds), compared to 7.5 kilograms (16.5 pounds) for people in the fourth group.
"Our findings indicate that weight loss medications should be used only as an adjunct to a program of lifestyle modification, as recommended by both the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration," said Wadden.
