This post is an overview of the LIFE (Lose It For Ever) study, which I joined about eighteen months ago in November of 2005. The study was intended to assess the efficacy of different approaches to weight loss.
Volunteers were recruited via advertisements in local newspapers, which is where I saw the ad I answered. Each volunteer paid $50 for participating in the project and needed to meet specific BMI & health goals to qualify (I was one pound under being too fat to participate).
The material presented was in six modules, and the study volunteers were divided into two tracks.
Group A - attended every week for eight weeks with five week breaks
Group B - attended every other week ongoing, tapering off over time
The modules were
Module 1 - Calorie counting
Module 2 - Pedometers
Module 3 - Meal replacements (Slimfast and planned menus)
Module 4 - Exercise
Module 5 - Structured menus (Traffic Light diet)
Module 6 - Contracts
Group A focused on one module at a time. Group B mixed data from each module. I was part of Group A. I lost about 45 pounds (low point during meal replacements) and gained back about 12 pounds after that module ended. Every six months we went in for psychologial and physical examinations.
In following posts I will provide more details of the LIFE modules.
7 down, 23 to go.
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