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Perhaps the most biggest obstacle to weight loss - if you join a business plan or forge your own path - is simply sticking with it. Fortunately, there is something that can help a new study: Enlist a coach. And it need not cost you a fortune either. Even a friend will do, even if it is someone who also struggle with weight.
This is the conclusion of a new pilot project of the Research Center on weight control diabetes and Miriam Hospital in Rhode Island. The pilot was small with only 44 participants in the study. But he found that when assigned to a health coach - if a behavior specialist or simply a peer (another study participant) - the so-weight losers lost 9% of their body weight on average at 24 weeks, unusually for a successful weight loss program.
The study was not a true control group, and the study authors say their results should be considered preliminary. Yet these researchers are optimistic.
"Our study suggests health coaches may not only get impressive results of weight loss, but that was - or peer - health coaching may be particularly promising as a treatment strategy the cost obesity, "said Tricia Leahey, senior author of the study, journalists. the results are published in the journal obesity .
It is not difficult to understand why coaching might work. Everyone can eat for a few days and make a short exercise routine. But maintaining this calendar, day after day, keeping it with regular exercise and watching what you eat not only for a few meals, but for a lifetime, can be difficult. Even in clinical studies of weight loss, it is not uncommon for half of all participants to give up. When you are short of money, few time or short of energy, it's easy to let your healthy lifestyle slip.
When you fail, you may think you just miss the will. But a good weight management coach - as any kind of coach - can help break performance and identify specific improvement areas. Maybe you have problems with portion control while your growing teens return to the dinner table for seconds and thirds. A coach can help you determine strategies to cope with it, perhaps. Are you too hungry? If so, perhaps you might eat a healthy snack sometime in the afternoon. Or you feel awkward sitting around an empty plate for 20 minutes while others chow down? In this case, you can consciously try to eat your meals slowly.
For the new study from Rhode Island, participants met with their coaches week at the beginning of the program, then less frequently as the months passed. In the weeks that they meet with the coaches, they would send a progress report every week by e-mail, updating the coach of their weight and give the calories and information of physical activity.
Surprised that peers do as well as the advantages in controlling weight coaching? Do not be. In fact, they may be better than the usually lean to understand the key barriers that overweight people face. And in the end, as those who have played on a sports team knows there is more to have a coach that to get good advice. Coaches can motivate just by looking at you. With them on the sidelines, you know someone will notice if you skip that workout, or if you do not give a good effort. In short, coaches hold you accountable -. And that is why they can be good for much more than sport
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