Preference for behavior change strategies in randomized controlled trials: Evidence from weight management.

Background: Randomized controlled trial participants are expected to embrace assignment to any of the study arms, yet individuals' relative preference for the study arms invariably affects who participates in trials and for how long.

Methods: Our ongoing Avoid/Resist trial (1R01DK130851) tests two strategies to bridge the intention-behavior gap in a weight management intervention. Avoid combines pantry makeover and online grocery shopping.

Effectiveness of a digital weight management program on diet quality: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: The effect of behavioral commercial weight programs (CP) on weight loss is clear, yet their effects on diet quality are less studied.

Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the relative effectiveness of a digital CP on diet quality compared with standard nutritional guidance (SNG) over 6 months.

Methods: This randomized controlled trial (clinicaltrials.

Cross-cultural differences in weight loss maintenance: a comparison between North America and Europe.

Background: The purpose of this study was to compare behavioral, psychosocial, and neighborhood environmental factors of long-term weight loss maintainers in North America and Europe.

Methods: Participants were weight loss maintainers in WeightWatchers in North America (n = 3656) and Europe (n = 624) who had maintained a ≥ 9.1 kg (21.

Development and validation of the Food Noise Questionnaire.

Objective: Food noise has received attention in the media, although no validated questionnaires exist to measure it. This study developed and tested the reliability and validity of the Food Noise Questionnaire (FNQ).

Methods: Participants (N = 400) successfully completed, the FNQ and a demographic questionnaire and self-reported weight and height.

Adolescent experiences of weight-related communication: Sociodemographic differences and the role of parents.

Background: Weight-related conversations are common between adolescents and parents. However, there is limited understanding of how these conversations vary across sociodemographic groups, such as sex, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, or parents' level of education. This study assessed the prevalence of weight-related communication among adolescents and parents across sociodemographic characteristics, and identified adolescents' preferred sources for these discussions.

Twelve-month analysis of real-world evidence from a telehealth obesity-treatment provider using antiobesity medications.

Objective: The objective of this study was to describe weight changes in members of a large-scale telehealth obesity-treatment provider who were using antiobesity medications (AOMs).

Methods: This retrospective observational study analyzed real-world data from adults who initiated AOM treatment with the WeightWatchers (WW) Clinic telehealth program between January 2022 and July 2023 (n = 53,590). The main outcomes were changes in body weight over 12 months, side effects over follow-up, and medication usage patterns.

Family functioning and the implications for adult weight management.

Introduction: Strong support for family-based interventions in child and adolescent weight management exists. However, family-based interventions have not been as well documented in adult populations. Given that many adults operate within family systems that could influence their weight management behaviors, research is needed to establish possible family-level variables as intervention targets for adult weight loss programs.

Efficacy of an mHealth-delivered behavioral intervention on weight loss and cardiometabolic risk in African American postpartum people with overweight or obesity: the SnapBack randomized controlled trial.

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a mobile health (mHealth)-delivered behavioral intervention on changes in postpartum weight and cardiometabolic risk factors (blood pressure [BP], lipids, and hemoglobin A1c) over 12 months.

Methods: A randomized controlled trial of 300 African American postpartum people with overweight and obesity enrolled in Philadelphia Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) clinics was conducted. Participants were randomized to usual WIC care (n = 151) or a 12-month mHealth-delivered intervention (n = 149) comprising behavior change goals, interactive self-monitoring text messages, and counseling support.

Exploring the interplay of weight-based teasing and sociodemographic factors in adolescent weight bias internalization.

Objective: Research has highlighted the potential adverse effects of weight bias internalization (WBI) on adolescents, but there has been little examination of WBI and sources of weight teasing (family, peers, or both) or across racial/ethnic diversity of adolescents. We aimed to examine the relationship between WBI and sources of weight teasing across sociodemographic characteristics and weight status in a diverse community sample of adolescents.

Methods: Data were collected from a U.

Parent-Adolescent Weight Communication: Parental Psychosocial Correlates Among a Diverse National Sample.

Parental communication about body weight with their children is common across diverse families. The current study investigates how parents' feelings about their own bodies, beliefs about body weight, history of weight stigma, and weight-related characteristics contribute to the degree to which they talk about weight - both negatively and positively - with their adolescent children. The study sample was comprised of U.

Quantifying and correcting bias due to outcome dependent self-reported weights in longitudinal study of weight loss interventions.

In response to the escalating global obesity crisis and its associated health and financial burdens, this paper presents a novel methodology for analyzing longitudinal weight loss data and assessing the effectiveness of financial incentives. Drawing from the Keep It Off trial-a three-arm randomized controlled study with 189 participants-we examined the potential impact of financial incentives on weight loss maintenance. Given that some participants choose not to weigh themselves because of small weight change or weight gains, which is a common phenomenon in many weight-loss studies, traditional methods, for example, the Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) method tends to overestimate the effect size due to the assumption that data are missing completely at random.

Randomized Controlled Trial of Effects of Behavioral Weight Loss Treatment on Food Cue Reactivity.

Background: It is not known whether behavioral weight loss can attenuate blood oxygen level-dependent responses to food stimuli.

Objectives: This randomized controlled trial assessed the effects of a commercially available behavioral weight loss program (WW, WeightWatchers) compared to a wait-list control on blood oxygen level-dependent response to food cues.

Methods: Females with obesity ( N = 61) were randomized to behavioral weight loss or wait-list control.

New insights in the mechanisms of weight-loss maintenance: Summary from a Pennington symposium.

Obesity is a chronic disease that affects more than 650 million adults worldwide. Obesity not only is a significant health concern on its own, but predisposes to cardiometabolic comorbidities, including coronary heart disease, dyslipidemia, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers. Lifestyle interventions effectively promote weight loss of 5% to 10%, and pharmacological and surgical interventions even more, with some novel approved drugs inducing up to an average of 25% weight loss.

Behavioral, psychological, and environmental predictors of weight regain in a group of successful weight losers in a widely available weight-management program.

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify predictors of weight regain and continued weight maintenance among individuals already successful at long-term weight loss in a widely available weight-management program.

Methods: Participants were 2843 weight-loss maintainers in WeightWatchers who had maintained weight loss ≥9.1 kg for ≥1 year (average 25.

The Personalized Nutrition Study (POINTS): evaluation of a genetically informed weight loss approach, a Randomized Clinical Trial.

Weight loss (WL) differences between isocaloric high-carbohydrate and high-fat diets are generally small; however, individual WL varies within diet groups. Genotype patterns may modify diet effects, with carbohydrate-responsive genotypes losing more weight on high-carbohydrate diets (and vice versa for fat-responsive genotypes). We investigated whether 12-week WL (kg, primary outcome) differs between genotype-concordant and genotype-discordant diets.

An Evaluation of a Personalized Multicomponent Commercial Digital Weight Management Program: Single-Arm Behavioral Trial.

Background: Digital behavioral weight loss programs are scalable and effective, and they provide an opportunity to personalize intervention components. However, more research is needed to test the acceptability and efficacy of personalized digital behavioral weight loss interventions.

Objective: In a 6-month single-arm trial, we examined weight loss, acceptability, and secondary outcomes of a digital commercial weight loss program (WeightWatchers).

Qualitative inquiry with persons with obesity about weight management in primary care and referrals.

Introduction: Referrals to evidence-based weight management in the community-commercial sector are aligned with clinical recommendations but underutilized.

Methods: This qualitative study explored patients' perceptions and expectations about obesity treatment in primary care and referral to community-commercial sector programs. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of US persons with obesity via telephone.

Vertical and horizontal gene transfer shaped plant colonization and biomass degradation in the fungal genus Armillaria.

The fungal genus Armillaria contains necrotrophic pathogens and some of the largest terrestrial organisms that cause tremendous losses in diverse ecosystems, yet how they evolved pathogenicity in a clade of dominantly non-pathogenic wood degraders remains elusive. Here we show that Armillaria species, in addition to gene duplications and de novo gene origins, acquired at least 1,025 genes via 124 horizontal gene transfer events, primarily from Ascomycota. Horizontal gene transfer might have affected plant biomass degrading and virulence abilities of Armillaria, and provides an explanation for their unusual, soft rot-like wood decay strategy.

Parental Communication About Body Weight and Adolescent Health: The Role of Positive and Negative Weight-Related Comments.

Objective: Research has consistently documented adverse effects of parent weight-related comments on adolescent health. However, little empirical attention has focused on isolating the impact of weight-related comments from mothers versus fathers, and the valence of their comments. The present study examined the extent to which positive and negative weight-related comments from mothers and fathers are related to adolescent health and wellbeing, and whether these associations differ according to adolescent sociodemographic characteristics.

How much food tracking during a digital weight-management program is enough to produce clinically significant weight loss?

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the levels of food-tracking adherence that best predict ≥3%, ≥5%, and ≥10% weight loss at 6 months and to identify distinctive food-tracking trajectories among participants in a 6-month, commercial digital weight-management program.

Methods: This study used data from 153 participants of a single-arm trial of a commercial digital weight-management program, WeightWatchers (WW). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was conducted to identify the optimum thresholds of food tracking that can predict ≥3%, ≥5%, and ≥10% weight loss at 6 months.

Family-based weight stigma and psychosocial health: A multinational comparison.

Objective: Family-based weight stigma can be expressed as criticism, judgment, teasing, and mistreatment by family members because of an individual's body weight. The current study compared the prevalence and psychosocial correlates of family-based weight stigma among adult members of a weight-management program living in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the UK, and the US.

Methods: Participants (N = 8100 adults who reported having ever experienced weight stigma; 95% female; 94% White) completed an identical online survey in their country's dominant language that assessed their experiences of weight stigma from 16 different family member sources, as well as internalized weight bias, body image, eating behaviors, perceived stress, and self-rated health.