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  • Original Article
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Initial weight loss on an 800-kcal diet as a predictor of weight loss success after 8 weeks: the Diogenes study

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 64, pages 994–999 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective:

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether pre-treatment subject characteristics and weight change during the first weeks of a low-calorie diet (LCD) can predict weight loss outcomes at the end of a controlled 8-week weight loss period in overweight and obese adults.

Subjects:

A total of 932 overweight and obese subjects of both genders were included at eight European centers, and underwent an 8-week LCD period.

Results:

The weight loss at week 8 was positively correlated with initial body weight (Spearman's ρ=0.62), height (ρ=0.43), body mass index (ρ=0.43), waist (ρ=0.48) and hip circumference (ρ=0.33), sagittal diameter (ρ=0.45), fat mass (ρ=0.35) and fat-free mass (ρ=0.52), and gender (ρ=−0.36) (all P<0.01). In the multivariate regression model, adjusted for center, only initial body weight, early weight loss (week 1) and weight loss at week 3 were significant predictors of weight loss outcome at week 8: weight loss (kg) at week 8=0.09+0.046 × baseline body weight (kg)−0.311 × weight loss (kg) at week 1+1.284 × weight loss (kg) at week 3 (R2=68%, P<0.0001). A weight loss of ⩾2.6 kg at week 1 during the LCD period was identified as the optimal cut-off predictor for at least 10 kg weight loss at week 8.

Conclusions:

This study suggests that initial body weight, early weight loss (week 1) and weight loss at week 3 are predictors of final weight loss during an 8-week LCD, and may be used as early biomarkers of subsequent responses to an LCD diet.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the project staff and all the contributors to the project. DiOGenes is the acronym of the project ‘Diet, Obesity and Genes’ supported by the European Community (Contract no. FOOD-CT-2005–513946), http://www.diogenes-eu.org.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Multiprofile Transport Hospital, Sofia, Bulgaria

    T Handjieva-Darlenska & S Handjiev

  2. Department of Human Nutrition, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    T Handjieva-Darlenska, T M Larsen & A Astrup

  3. Department of Human Biology, NUTRIM School for Nutrition, Toxicology and Metabolism, Maastricht University Medical Centre,

    M A van Baak & W H M Saris

  4. +, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    M A van Baak & W H M Saris

  5. Human Nutrition Research, Elsie Widdowson Laboratory, Cambridge, UK

    S Jebb

  6. Department of Social Medicine, Preventive Medicine and Nutrition Clinic, University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, Greece

    A Papadaki

  7. Department of Clinical Nutrition, German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke, Nuthetal, Germany

    A F H Pfeiffer

  8. Department of Physiology and Nutrition, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain

    J A Martinez

  9. Obesity Management Centre, Institute of Endocrinology, Prague, The Czech Republic

    M Kunesova

  10. Centre for Health and Society, Institute of Preventive Medicine, Copenhagen, Denmark

    C Holst

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  1. T Handjieva-Darlenska
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  2. S Handjiev
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  3. T M Larsen
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  7. A F H Pfeiffer
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  10. C Holst
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  11. W H M Saris
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  12. A Astrup
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to A Astrup.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Handjieva-Darlenska, T., Handjiev, S., Larsen, T. et al. Initial weight loss on an 800-kcal diet as a predictor of weight loss success after 8 weeks: the Diogenes study. Eur J Clin Nutr 64, 994–999 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2010.110

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