A Stronger Weapon in the Battle of the Bulge

Boston Globe (Newington, NH): Many Americans are overweight because losing the extra pounds is so difficult. Unless someone is heavy enough to justify the risk of surgery, obese people have a choice of making lifestyle changes that most eventually abandon, or anti-obesity pills that typically trim only 10 to 15 pounds. But a new study suggests that a combination of intensive counseling and drugs is almost twice as effective as either approach on its own, offering a glimmer of hope in the battle against the second leading cause of preventable death. In the study, led by Thomas Wadden of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 60 obese volunteers lost an average of 27 pounds after a year in which they attended 30 group sessions on the importance of diet and exercise, and took Meridia, one of two weight-loss drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration. By comparison, the 55 patients who took Meridia but received no counseling lost just 11 pounds. A third group of 55 who attended group counseling sessions alone lost an average of 15 pounds. The top weight losers in the study wrote down what they ate, which seemed to reduce their overall consumption.