TITLE:
Healthy Habits Associated with Successful Weight Loss Maintenance on a Commercial Program: Learnings from a Research Survey
AUTHORS:
Christopher Coleman, Jessica Kiel, Chad LaCalamita, Nicholas Frye, Lindsey Provelengios
KEYWORDS:
Weight Loss Maintenance, Meal Replacements, Lifestyle Behaviors, Coaching, Physical Activity
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.13 No.5,
May
26,
2022
ABSTRACT: Background: Maintenance of lost weight is a challenging aspect of weight management,
therefore, an online survey of OPTAVIA (“the Program”) coaches and clients was
conducted to understand the habits of successful maintainers. Methods: Coaches
and clients who lost ≥ 10%
body weight on the Program, had been trying to maintain their weight loss for
≥1 year, and maintained > 75% of
their weight loss during that time were identified. Mean ± SD were calculated
for continuous variables and categorical variables were quantified using
frequencies and percentages. Results: The analysis included 590 respondents
(342 coaches, 248 clients; 84% female, 52.6 ± 11.9 years). Average weight loss
was 23.7% ± 8.6%; average time in maintenance was 24.5 ± 15.8 months. The most
common maintenance strategies included self-monitoring, leveraging habits
learned during weight loss, food-related strategies, physical activity,
establishing a healthy environment, and becoming a coach. Coaches identified
several beneficial factors: higher accountability, increased self-awareness,
paying it forward, aligning maintenance with their identity as a coach, being a
role model, and engagement with the Program. Conclusions: Successful coaches and clients use behaviors consistent with existing
literature combined with several unique to the Program. The novel insights from
this research rest primarily on the strategy of becoming a coach to help maintain weight loss.