Weight Watchers patients lose approximately twice as much weight as people receiving standard weight loss care over 12 months, according to study findings.
The study, published in the Lancet medical journal, found those who stuck to the Weight Watchers diet lost more weight, fat mass and inches off their waistline than those assigned to standard care, Reuters reports.
Researchers for the study assessed 772 overweight and obese adults in Australia, Germany and Britain, according to Reuters. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either 12 months of standard care as usually offered by the primary care team, or referred to and given a 12-month free membership for a Weight Watchers group in their neighborhood.
For those who completed the full 12 months, average weight loss was 6.7 kg on Weight Watchers versus 3.3 kg on standard care, according to Reuters.
Weight Watchers is "a robust intervention that is generalizable to other economically developed countries," says Susan Jebb of Britain's Medical Research Council (MRC) Human Nutrition Research Unit, who led the study, as reported by Reuters.
"This kind of research is important so that we can identify clinically effective interventions to treat obesity," Jebb added.
