Study looks at long-term effects of weight loss

Researchers at The Miriam Hospital are focusing on the prevention and treatment of what has become an epidemic: obesity.

The hospital’s Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center recently received six grants from the National Institutes of Health totaling more than $12 million to fund new research and to extend a current long-term study that looks at the long term effects of weight loss.

There was a time when Kelly Beaulieu tipped the scales at more than 190 pounds.

A self-confessed junk food junkie, she could easily consume a whole bag of potato chips.

“Not a small bag,“ she said, “a pint of ice cream, Milky Ways, Almond Joys.“

It was not a good behavior for someone with diabetes. All that junk food pushed her blood sugar levels well in to the danger zone. 

Then six years ago, she heard about and signed up for a study that seemed tailor made for her. 

The Look Ahead Study is for overweight adults with diabetes.

“The goal of Look Ahead is really to see if we help individuals who are overweight and have diabetes to lose weight whether that will help them reduce their risk of heart disease, developing heart disease or dying from heart disease,“  Dr. Rena Wing said.

Half the participants in the study are given some basic strategies to help them lose the weight, and then they’re pretty much on their own except for yearly visits.

The other half receives more intensive lifestyle interventions, which at first included weekly and now monthly group and individual meetings.

Beaulieu’s in that group.

“They gave us different exercises. First of all, they taught us how to eat. I’m going to tell you, it was very hard for a junkie it was very hard,“ Beaulieu said.

But in the six years since Beaulieu signed up, she’s lost more than 30 pounds.

“And now I’m down to 156,“ Beaulieu said.

“We know short term that weight loss is great for people, their blood pressure improves, their diabetes improves, they feel happier,“ Wing said.

But surprisingly, they’re not so sure if losing weight in the long term is a good thing.

“There’s actually some worrisome data that weight loss could not always be so helpful to people, could actually be a risk factor for disease,“ Wing said.

And that’s what Look Ahead intends to answer: to prove definitively whether in the long term weight loss is more beneficial or harmful. 

All Beaulieu knows is this:  “I feel so much better. Matter of fact, I never did exercise before. I walk two miles a day.“

This study is in progress, but there are several other weight-loss studies that will be starting in the next few months, including an Internet-based program and a weight gain prevention study for young adults between the ages of 18 and 35.