Meal skipping, diet pills linked to minimal weight loss: Study

A new study analyzing data on over 20,000 US adults associates a healthier diet and increased exercise with weight loss that reduces heart disease risk. It also linked skipping meals and taking prescription diet pills with minimal weight loss, weight maintenance or weight gain. For many in the study sample, however, losing a “clinically significant” five per cent of their body weight did not eliminate their risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
The average composite score on eight risk factors for heart disease was the same across the entirety of the study population, regardless of reported weight changes, up or down. The research was published recently in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The study is the first to compare weight-loss strategies and results in the context of the American Heart Association’s ‘Life’s Essential 8,’ a checklist promoting heart disease risk reduction through the pursuit of recommended metrics for body weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, smoking, physical activity, diet and sleep.
Senior study author Colleen Spees, associate professor of medical dietetics in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Ohio State, said, “The Life's Essential 8 is a valuable tool that provides the core components for cardiovascular health, many of which are modifiable through behaviour change.”
"Based on the findings in this study, we have a lot of work to do as a country," she said. "Even though there were significant differences on several parameters between the groups, the fact remains that as a whole, adults in this country are not adopting the Life's Essential 8 behaviours that are directly correlated with heart health.”
"Clinically significant weight loss results in improvements in some health indices," Spees said. "People should feel hopeful in knowing that losing just 5% of their body weight is meaningful in terms of clinical improvements. This is not a huge weight loss. It's achievable for most, and I would hope that incentives people instead of being paralyzed with a fear of failure.”
A greater proportion of people who did not lose at least five per cent of their weight reported skipping meals or using prescription diet pills as weight-loss strategies. Additional strategies reported by this group included low-carb and liquid diets, taking laxatives or vomiting, and smoking.
"We saw that people are still gravitating to non-evidence-based approaches for weight loss, which are not sustainable. What is sustainable is changing behaviours and eating patterns," Spees said.
"We have fantastic research, we have incredible educators," she added. "What we don't have is a policy that promotes optimal health across the lifespan, from pregnancy through older adulthood.”