Study Links Health Coaching to Weight Loss

By Lydell C. Bridgeford

Employers offer workers health coaching programs to help them manage and avoid certain chronic conditions, but new research suggests the programs are also an effective weight-management tool.

According to research by StayWell Health Management, a health promotion vendor, participants who completed a telephone-based health coaching program lost an average of 3 pounds, compared to 1 pound for those who did not complete the program.

The research found employees who followed the advice offered in the health coaching program were more likely to improve their eating habits and their physical activity levels.

In the study, the company examined the benefits of long-term weight management versus short-term weight loss. The final study sample size included 1,298 participants from 10 different employers and focused on clients who offered programs between 2004 and 2006.

Health experts agree that individuals who want to lose weight should focus on a lifetime goal of healthy eating and exercising and not on weight-loss challenges and programs aimed at dropping pounds over a short period.

"People often equate successfully managing your weight with losing a significant amount of weight, but past research has shown that even a modest weight loss of 2 pounds can have clinical benefits," says Paul Terry, president and CEO of StayWell Health Management. "And what’s more, even this modest level of success achieved across a large population can impact broader public health outcomes and health care costs."

In the health coaching program, "those who successfully lost weight lost an average of nearly 15 pounds, while the range of weight loss experienced among these successful program completers was 1 pound to 117 pounds," note StayWell researchers.

StayWell points to Lowe’s Home Improvement as an example of how a health coaching program can serve as a weight-management tool.

The company, which employs about 240,000 workers, rolled out a health coaching program that offered phone-based, mail-based coaching or a six-week interactive program to help workers identify and change unhealthy behaviors.

According to the company, a total of 3,461 pounds was dropped among program completers for an average weight loss of 9.25 pounds per person; and the average body mass index among all participants decreased from 35.3 kg/m2 at pre-assessment to 33.9 kg/m2 at post-assessment; a decrease of 3.9%.