Phone coaching can come handy in weight loss

Washington, November 2 : Are you aspiring to shed those love handles? Well, then try weight-loss phone coaching.

The researchers at Brigham Young University found that, both men and women, who undertook 11 session of personalized weight-loss phone coaching over a 17-week period, shed an average of seven pounds in contrast to an average of four pounds in un-coached adults.

According to Dr. Larry Tucker, the study's lead author, telephone-based training was a better alternative to reach people than one-to-one sessions and could give people the added advantage in achieving better weight loss results.

Newswise quoted Tucker: "People tend to do better when they have a support system and when they have someone they report to each week.

"The weight loss coach can help people work through weight loss issues, barriers and problems. Compared to no coaching, phone coaching tends to show a benefit."

However, Dr. Robert Jeffery, director of the Obesity Prevention Center at the University of Minnesota, added that though the phone coaching method was effective yet traditional weight-loss programs showed more results during the same time period.

He said: "In a state-of-the-art, face-to-face weight loss intervention, you should be able to get an eight- to 10-kilogram (17.5 to 22 pounds) weight loss in that same time period."

The study has been published in the November/December issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion.

ANI