Spouses of people who embark on a weight-loss program were also shown to lose weight despite not actively participating in the same program, according to a new study published Thursday in the journal Obesity.
The study, which was funded by Weight Watchers, followed 130 people over six months who either followed the structured Weight Watchers plan or general healthy eating guidelines.
Overall, one-third of the spouses registered a weight loss of greater than 3 percent of their body weight. The researchers called this “evidence of a ripple effect.”
“This was the first study to use a randomized controlled trial to examine whether individuals’ participation in less structured programs (i.e., Weight Watchers and a self-guided treatment condition) has a weight loss ripple effect on untreated spouses,” lead study author Amy Gorin said in a statement.
The researchers were also surprised to find that weight loss didn’t differ in untreated spouses between the weight-loss programs, whether Weight Watchers or healthy eating guidelines, “suggesting that ripple effects occur in both more and less structured approaches,” they wrote in the paper.
Participants were between the ages of 25 and 70 and, for the dieters, had a Body Mass Index of between 27 to 40 kg/m2. Spouses had to have a BMI of at least 25 kg/m2.
• Laura Kelly can be reached at lkelly@washingtontimes.com.
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