The Study
Short-Term and Long-Term Effects of Weight Reduction Programs Offered at the Guthrie Clinic
This study watched people who joined different weight loss programs and saw who lost weight and who gained it back. But it didn't randomly assign people or control for other factors, so we can't say the program caused the change—just that they happened together.
Analysis score
Maximum 72 for a cohort study.
Where the score came from
Three weight-loss programs were tested on obese people to see which ones helped them lose weight and keep it off.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 524 / 100
Quality score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Even the best short-term diets didn't help people keep the weight off — suggesting long-term success is very hard with these methods.
- 2One diet didn't work at all.
- 3Two other diets helped people lose weight fast in 20 weeks, but everyone gained it all back by two years.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
The Guthrie Journal
Year
1996
Authors
M. Patton, Ferrol J. Lee, Faith McMahon, Laura Kellog
Related Content
Claims (4)
People who follow a very low-calorie protein-sparing modified fast diet lose weight faster at first than those on other diets, but after four to five years, the amount of weight kept off is about the same regardless of the diet used.
Obese adults following a conventional diet plan do not lose significant weight in the short term or long term over three years.
Obese adults who follow a protein-sparing modified fast or phase 3 weight loss plan lose weight in the first 20 weeks, but regain all the lost weight by two years.
Obese adults who lose a significant amount of weight within 20 weeks during a weight reduction program typically regain the weight and do not maintain the loss beyond two years, no matter what type of program they followed.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.