Dr Marc-Andre Cornier Discusses COVID-19’s Influence on a Weight Loss Intervention Program

The findings underscore the efficacy of virtual-based platforms for weight reduction, stated Marc-Andre Cornier, MD, endocrinologist, professor, and director of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Illnesses on the Medical College of South Carolina.

Transcript

In a latest study, you discovered those that accomplished a behavioral weight reduction intervention program throughout COVID-19 lockdowns exhibited superior outcomes than these in this system pre-COVID-19. Did this discovering shock you and what do you assume accounts for it?

I feel the findings had been a shock, and but weren’t a shock. It is a secondary evaluation of a examine that we had designed to look at the results of time-restricted consuming on weight reduction. The general design was group intervention, the place folks had been randomized to both low-calorie food plan with time restriction, by way of after they might eat these energy, vs calorie restriction with none time restriction. In order that was the general purpose of the examine. And we had accomplished 2 cohorts pre-COVID-19, every cohort about 30 people, and so they had been group-based lessons; folks would are available in each week. After which the third cohort began simply previous to the preliminary COVID-19 shutdown. After which growth, impulsively, March thirteenth hit—I feel that was the date—and we rapidly transitioned that third cohort into digital programming, the place we had them meet nonetheless weekly, however by means of a digital Zoom-based platform.

We had talked about simply canceling that complete cohort altogether vs making an attempt to change them to a digital platform and determined that we’d give {that a} strive. So what we had been anticipating, in the event you’d appeared on the different analysis about weight achieve throughout COVID-19, is that folks tended to achieve weight. [There are] many potential causes behind that, and so we anticipated that folks wouldn’t do as nicely in that cohort. However we really discovered that they did simply nice. And I stated, I am shocked but not shocked. What we discovered is, with the digital platform, folks had been really extra adherent to coming to the lessons. And we all know that adherence predicts weight reduction in nearly each analysis examine on the market. And so, from that perspective, we weren’t shocked. So, they had been extra adherent to this system, due to this fact they misplaced as a lot, or if no more, weight. So we had been shocked, as a result of we thought possibly folks would not do as nicely due to the entire COVID-19 shut down. They don’t seem to be going to be as lively, probably extra, ; they’re at residence, in order that they [had] extra entry to meals extra readily. However then what we discovered is that these folks really had been extra adherent and so did nicely.

Now, in the event you take a look at the precise figures from the analysis examine, you will see that they misplaced extra weight earlier than the COVID-19 shut down. After the COVID-19 shut down, they had been on the identical weight reduction trajectory as the opposite cohort. So I personally do not conclude that they misplaced extra weight, as a result of the larger weight reduction for that group was really earlier than the shutdown. The constructive spin is that they then continued to lose as a lot weight, they did not cease. So on the finish of the day, they did lose extra weight. I feel that basically tells us that these digital applications and platforms work very nicely for weight reduction. Mainly from that second on, we modified all our weight reduction applications to digital platforms and had plenty of success with that, whether or not it was in analysis research or in additional commercial-based weight reduction applications that we had our at our middle in Colorado.

The examine additionally confirmed the COVID-19 cohort reported extra sedentary time through the day and time in mattress throughout weekdays. How did extra outcomes attenuate these findings?

I feel, as anticipated, there was decreased exercise, extra sedentary time, and that, I feel, has been usually the reason for why folks have gained weight through the COVID-19 pandemic. So one would have anticipated much less weight reduction in that group due to that, however but we noticed simply as a lot weight reduction, which means that they in all probability had been lowering their calorie consumption in a greater manner, which works with the elevated adherence to this system. Sleep, apparently, we all know that poor sleep is related to weight achieve, and so it is attainable the truth that they acquired extra sleep—and that is been proven in different research—that that had one thing to do with the the improved weight reduction that that group acquired.