Obese binge eating women had no weight loss with diet or non-diet therapies
Question In women who are overweight and binge eat, is a non-dieting intervention as effective as a behavioural dieting intervention?
Design
Randomised controlled trial with follow up at 6 and 18 months.
Setting
Texas, USA.
Patients
219 women between 25–50 years of age (mean age 40 y, 85% white) who responded to media advertisements and were 14–41 kg overweight; scored >20 on the Binge Eating Scale (BES); had no history of diabetes, cardiovascular, or gastrointestinal diseases; had no purging behaviour within the previous 6 months; were not pregnant or breast feeding; had physician clearance for a walking regimen; were not enrolled in another weight loss programme; and did not smoke.
Intervention
Women were allocated to dieting treatment (DT) (n=79), non-dieting treatment (NDT) (n=78), or to a waiting list control (WLC) group (n=62). Participants in the 2 treatment groups attended 24 weekly 1 hour group sessions led by a psychotherapist and a dietitian and 26 biweekly maintenance classes led by a dietitian only. DT focused on self control methods to regulate eating and exercise patterns …
