What's the 7% Solution?

A 7% Solution #3
by Eric Schoch

Proof positive

In the October 2008 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Ackermann and Marrero reported results of a study in which a group of prediabetic individuals followed the core diabetes prevention curriculum at a YMCA using trained lay instructors, while a control group received standard diabetes prevention advice.

After six months, the intervention group participants had seen a mean weight loss of about 6 percent, or 12.5 pounds, compared to 2 percent, or 4 pounds, for the control group — a clinically significant difference. During follow-up visits at 12 months, the differences persisted.

These results caught the attention of officials at the National Institutes of Health. Intrigued, they asked the IU group to resume follow-up efforts. By then, eight months had passed and the average weight loss for the intervention participants had dropped to about 5 percent, but was still significantly higher than the control group.

The researchers decided to put everyone into the prevention program, and they made 12 more visits in eight months. At the end of 28 months, the original intervention group participants were back to more than 6 percent weight loss, and those who had moved from the standard advice control group into the intervention program were showing more than 3 percent weight loss.
In the wake of this research, the Indianapolis YMCA incorporated the diabetes effort into its regular programming. For Indianapolis resident Marilyn Schenetzke, 67, the program worked. Worried that her weight, her history of gestational diabetes, and a family history of diabetes put her at increased risk for the disease, she signed up for the 16-week program at the Jordan YMCA in hopes that the program would succeed where others had not.

“You name it, I’ve done it,” Schenetzke says. What she did this time was lose 49 pounds and keep it off, within a range of about five pounds. The program format worked for her: a small supportive group, discussions about the psychological aspects of eating and overeating, and lessons on keeping careful written accounts of what she ate and the calorie counts of each food.
What also worked for Schenetzke was the focus on health: “The focus isn’t on getting in a bathing suit or losing weight before you go to your high school reunion,” she says.

Then there was the exercise — at least 150 minutes per week. Schenetzke did it, “and that was a big change for me, because I’ve always hated exercise.

“I still hate it,” she continues. “But I was committed to doing what they told me I needed to do, and I was really determined that I wasn’t going to be obese anymore. Before I took the class, if I took a shower I was out of breath. Now I can walk for a mile, a mile and a half, even two miles, with no problems. It’s a big difference.”

http://research.iu.edu/magazine/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=111:a-7-solution&catid=45:fall-2010-volume-xxxiii-number-1&Itemid=78

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