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Nutrition, Vitamins & Supplements for Seniors
Americans Even Old Ones Can Maintain Weight Loss
Study of people up to age 84 finds 60% hold
weight loss; Hispanics most likely to regain
June 5, 2007 - Every so often, another study comes
out depicting the average American as an incorrigible yo-yo dieter and
committed couch potato; however, nearly six in 10 people maintained
their weight loss to within 5 percent over a years time in a new study
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that included people
up to age 84.
Weight maintenance following weight loss is
doable, said lead author Edward Weiss, a medical epidemiologist with
the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion,
Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity.
Were still learning the things that are necessary
for weight maintenance in the long run.
Unfortunately, those with more weight to lose were
those more likely to regain, according to the study now appearing online
and in the July issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
The researchers analyzed data gleaned from the
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey on 1,310 adults ages 20
to 84 who had experienced substantial weight loss - 10 percent of
their initial weight.
Only 7.6 percent of survey participants were still
losing weight after one year, according to the authors. Another 33.5
percent regained weight.
Putting pounds back on was more common in those who
lost a greater percentage of weight.
One possible explanation is that those who lost
larger percentages of their maximum weight may have had to make greater
lifestyle changes that are difficult to incorporate and sustain, the
researchers suggest.
Mexican-Americans were more likely than
non-Hispanic whites to regain weight, said the researchers, who
cautioned that that this result has not been previously reported and
should be confirmed.
The finding did not surprise Dirk Schroeder,
associate professor at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory
University. Food choices offered [in diet programs] are not what
Hispanics eat, said Schroeder, who co-founded a health information
technology company serving the Hispanic population in 1999.
Hispanic dieters are more successful with a
culturally attuned program that allows for larger meals midday and
incorporates familiar food, Schroeder said. He added, What weve found
is a high desire to lose weight.
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