5th March 2020, issued by Lancaster University

“BEhavioural Weight Management: COMponents of Effectiveness (BE:COME)” is jointly led by Dr Jennifer Logue (Lancaster University) and Professor Olivia Wu (HEHTA, University of Glasgow). Professor Sharon Simpson is leading the work from the SPHSU, providing behavioural science inputs. 

Behavioural weight management intervention programmes are the main NHS funded treatment for obesity in the UK.

Most often these are community-based groups which meet weekly for 12 weeks, focusing on diet, physical activity and behavioural change.

Dr Logue said: “We want to find out which parts of the programmes are linked to weight-loss, and what the best combination of parts is for different groups of people taking part.”

For example, one programme may have exercise classes every week but another may simply give advice on being more active.

These differences are seen across the recommended diets, the help for people to plan and stick to the programme (like keeping a diary of what you eat or setting targets for how much weight to lose), and things related to how the programme is run, such as the training of the staff or how far people need to travel to take part.

“It has been difficult to compare behavioural weight management intervention programmes and see what works best because researchers have used different ways to describe the weight-loss results in studies, or do not fully describe what the programme involved for participants.”

“No one is sure what works best. It may be that the same programme will not work as well for everyone; younger adults, men, ethnic minorities or those from deprived backgrounds may have different needs.”

First published: 5 March 2020

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