Patients who receive specific weight loss advice from their healthcare providers can lose significantly more weight than patients whose providers offer only generic advice such as “exercise more.”
A study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine in 2019 found that providers who encouraged their patients to participate in a specific weight loss program lost nearly 7 pounds more on average than patients who received only generic advice from their provider.
In addition, the study found that “patients who rated their providers as empathetic and caring lost 7 pounds more on average than patients who did not.”
McVay, M., Steinberg, D., Askew, S. et al. Provider Counseling and Weight Loss Outcomes in a Primary Care-Based Digital Obesity Treatment. J GEN INTERN MED 34, 992–998 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-019-04944-5
Published on July 21, 2022
