Overweight patients who are referred to Weight Watchers by their doctors will lose twice as much fat as those who try to lose weight with the advice of their doctors. A study carried out last year by the Medical Research Council encouraged GPs to make such referrals. With overweight patients at risk of heart disease, diabetes and stroke, this is the best option for those who are trying to shed stones in a time where only one licensed diet pill is available.
The study carried out last year is published in the Lancet and compared patients who were referred to Weight Watchers with those who received standard care from their doctor in terms of weight loss advice.
772 adults who were overweight were observed for a period of 12 months. One group attended WeightWatchers and the other group followed the care plan that they had arranged with their doctor.
After one year, patients who had been working with weight watchers had lost 5.1kg on average and those who tried to lose the weight independently lost an average of 2.2kg. Those who went to weight watchers were three times more likely to lose 5% of their original body weight than the others.
Waist circumference and fat mass was also substantially lower and these are known to lead to diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular illness.