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Gold, Beth Casey

Nutritional and Food Sciences

2007

MS

Context: Internet weight loss programs have become widely available as alternatives to standard treatment but little data are available on their efficacy. Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of a structured behavioral weight loss website (VTrim) versus a commercial weight loss website (eDiets.com). Design: Randomized, controlled trial conducted from February 2003 to March 2005. Setting and Participants: One hundred and twenty-four overweight and obese subjects (47± 9yrs, BMI 32± 3 kg/m², 20% men) aged 18 and older with a body mass index of 25 to 39.9 kg/m². Analyses were performed for the 88 who had complete follow-up data.
Interventions: Participants were randomly assigned to 12-month VTrim (n=62) or eDiets.com (n=62) interventions. VTrim participants had access to a therapistled structured behavioral weight loss program delivered online. eDiets.com subjects had access to a self-help commercial online weight loss program. Main outcome measures: Body weight, social support, and utilization of Web site components measured at 0,6 and 12 months.
Results: Repeated-measures analyses showed that the VTrim group lost significantly more weight than the eDiets.com group at 6 months (8.3± 7.9kg vs. 4.1± 6.2kg, p=.004) and maintained a greater loss at 12 months (7.8± 7.5kg vs. 3.4± 5.8kg, p=.002). More participants in the VTrim group maintained a 5% weight loss goal (65% vs. 37.5%, p=.01) at 12 months.
Conclusions: An online, therapist-led structured behavioral weight loss website produced greater weight loss than a self-help commercial website. Because commercial sites have great potential public health impact, future research should investigate the feasibility of incorporating a more structured behavioral program into a commercial application.