24 May 2008
Are Meal Replacement Drinks Effective for Weight Maintenance?
Posted by Butterfly under: Weight Loss .
With any weight loss program the most difficult part is not losing the weight, but keeping it off. Because of this fact, many people opt for a medication like Orlistat. A new study has results which show that meal replacement drinks can be as effective at helping dieters maintain weight as medications.
Comparisons were made by researchers between the benefit of using meal replacement drinks to Orlistat in two groups of people that had lost significant amounts of weight. Results showed that a year after their weight loss, the group using meal replacement drinks had maintained weight even better than the group using the medication. Meal replacements drinks may be an effective, simple and safe method to maintaining a healthy weight for many people.
Meal replacement drinks have been shown to be as effective as medications for maintaining weight loss according to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.
Participants followed a liquid very low calorie diet (VLCD) for 12 weeks followed by 4 weeks of re-introduction to solid food. At week 16, the subjects were randomly selected to receive either meal replacements or Orlistat (medication), both combined with a structured meal plan calculated to maintain weight loss. For one year, all subjects followed a weight management program that included topics such as lifestyle, physical activity and nutrition.
During the VLCD, the meal replacement group lost an average of 50.2 lbs (22.77 kgs) and the Orlistat group lost an average of 49 lbs (22.22 kgs). During weight maintenance, there were no significant differences in physical activity, fruit and vegetable intake and pedometer steps between the groups.
After one year, the meal replacement group had regained only 5.9 lbs (2.67 kgs)and the Orlistat group had regained 6.2 lbs (2.81kgs).
Meal replacements and Orlistat were both effective in maintaining weight significantly below baseline levels over a year period of time.
Article Source: Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 24, No. 5, 347-353 (2005).
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