A Self-Regulation Program for Maintenance of Weight Loss

Since many successful dieters regain the weight they lose, programs that teach maintenance skills are needed. We developed a maintenance program based on self-regulation theory and tested the efficacy of delivering the program face to face or over the Internet.

We randomly assigned 314 participants who had lost a mean of 19.3 kg of body weight in the previous 2 years to one of three groups: a control group, which received quarterly newsletters (105 participants), a group that received face-to-face intervention (105), and a group that received Internet-based intervention (104). The content of the programs in the two intervention groups was the same, emphasizing daily self-weighing and self-regulation, as was the frequency of contact with the groups. The primary outcome was weight gain over a period of 18 months.