Effectiveness of weight loss interventions – is there a difference between men and women: a systematic review

Williams, Rebecca; Wood, Lisa G.; Collins, Claire; Callister, Robin

doi:10.1111/obr.12241

Cited by 183 publications

(155 citation statements)

References 83 publications

(295 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

138

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Dietary and physical activity prescriptions were rarely described, with little evidence that allowance was made for the greater body size and muscle mass of obese men in the prescription of the calorie deficit. Our findings are in contrast to recent metaanalyses conducted by Stroebele-Benschop and colleages [55] and Williams and colleagues [56], which found significantly higher relative weight loss for men than women, although both analyses contained few studies, effect sizes were small and both authors note that results are not conclusive.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Should weight loss and maintenance programmes be designed differently for men? A systematic review of long-term randomised controlled trials presenting data for men and women: The ROMEO project

Robertson

Avenell

Boachie

et al. 2016

Obesity Research & Clinical Practice

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

KeywordsWeight loss, weight maintenance, men and women, systematic review 3 AcknowledgementsThis review is one of a series of systematic reviews for the ROMEO project (Review Of MEn and Conflict of interestThe authors have no conflict of interests to declare. Contribution of authorsCR drafted the manuscript under the supervision of AA. FS developed and ran the electronic literature search. CR and AA conducted the eligibility screening, data extraction and quality assessment. All authors contributed to the study design and manuscript preparation. 5 AbstractWe systematically reviewed the randomised controlled trial (RCT) evidence for long-term (>12 months) weight management interventions for obese men in contrast to women to help understand whether programmes should be designed differently for men.We searched 11 databases up to October 2014. Twenty-two RCTs reported data separately for men and women in weight loss or weight maintenance interventions.We found men were under-represented in RCTs of weight loss interventions open to both sexes. Men comprised 36% of participants (4771 from 13,305 participants). Despite this, men were 11% (95% CI 8% to 14%, p<0.001) more likely to be trial completers compared to women. The trials did not report service user consultation and none were designed to investigate whether men and women responded differently to given interventions. Our meta-analysis of 13 trials showed no significant difference in weight loss between men and women, either for weight loss in kg ( p=0.90) or percentage weight loss (p=0.78), although men tended to lose more weight with intensive low fat reducing diets, with or without meal replacements, and structured physical activity/exercise programmes than women.Orlistat was less beneficial for men for weight maintenance. Individual support and tailoring appeared more helpful for men than women.We found evidence that men and women respond differently to, and have different preferences for, varying types of weight management programme. We suggest that it is important to understand men's views on weight loss, as this is likely to also improve the uptake and effectiveness of programmes for men.

show abstract

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Should weight loss and maintenance programmes be designed differently for men? A systematic review of long-term randomised controlled trials presenting data for men and women: The ROMEO project

Robertson

Avenell

Boachie

et al. 2016

Obesity Research & Clinical Practice

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The reason for the greater loss in men than in women is not fully known. Similar differences have been observed in other studies (30,31). Explanations tend to invoke sex differences in the proportions of fat mass and fat-free mass in body composition (32).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Changes in skeletal muscle and organ size after a weight-loss intervention in overweight and obese type 2 diabetic patients

Gallagher

Kelley

Thornton

et al. 2017

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: The effect of a weight-loss intervention on the masses of lean tissues and organs in humans is not well known. Objective: We studied the effects of a diet and exercise weight-loss intervention on skeletal muscle (SM) mass and selected organs over 2 y using MRI in overweight adults with type 2 diabetes. Design: Participants were 53 women and 39 men [mean 6 SD: age 58 6 7 y; body mass index (BMI; in kg/m 2 ) 32 6 3] enrolled in the Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) trial and randomly assigned to an intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) or diabetes support and education (DSE) on whom 2 y of data were collected. MRI-derived measurements of SM, heart, liver, kidney, spleen, and pancreas were acquired. Results: Adjusted for baseline weight, height, age, sex, and ethnicity, the ILI group weighed (mean 6 SE) 6.6 6 0.7 kg less after 1 y and 5.2 6 0.7 kg less after 2 y, whereas the DSE group did not change significantly (20.4 6 0.6 and 21.0 6 0.7 kg after 1 and 2 y, respectively; P-interaction , 0.001). Total SM decreased in both groups during year 1 (21.4 6 0.2 kg; P , 0.001) with appendicular SM regained during year 2. Liver and spleen masses decreased in the ILI group (20.12 6 0.02 and 20.006 6 0.003 kg, respectively) but were unchanged in the DSE group (0.00 6 0.02 and 0.004 6 0.003 kg, respectively). Kidney mass decreased by 0.013 6 0.003 kg (P , 0.001) over 2 y in both groups. Conclusions: Decreases in liver (in Caucasians but not African Americans) and spleen were detected after a 6.2-kg weight reduction compared with a control group. SM and kidney mass decreased in both groups. Appendicular SM was regained during the second year whereas trunk SM was not. No evidence of a disproportionate loss of high-metabolic rate organs (heart, liver, kidney, spleen) compared with SM was found.Am J Clin Nutr 2017;105:78-84.

show abstract

“…Investigating whether outcomes differ between men and women is import in developing gender‐specific treatment programmes, if required 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Differences in outcome after weight loss have been reported previously, with men commonly losing more body weight and fat than women 13. This difference is mainly explained by the concept of the LED, in which a fixed daily energy intake is provided to both genders, despite men and women having significantly different energy requirements because men characteristically have a greater body mass.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Men and women respond differently to rapid weight loss: Metabolic outcomes of a multi‐centre intervention study after a low‐energy diet in 2500 overweight, individuals with pre‐diabetes (PREVIEW)

Christensen

Larsen

Westerterp-Plantenga

et al. 2018

Diabetes Obesity Metabolism

139

106

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

AimsThe PREVIEW lifestyle intervention study (http://clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01777893) is, to date, the largest, multinational study concerning prevention of type‐2 diabetes. We hypothesized that the initial, fixed low‐energy diet (LED) would induce different metabolic outcomes in men vs women.Materials and methodsAll participants followed a LED (3.4 MJ/810 kcal/daily) for 8 weeks (Cambridge Weight Plan). Participants were recruited from 8 sites in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Those eligible for inclusion were overweight (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2) individuals with pre‐diabetes according to ADA‐criteria. Outcomes of interest included changes in insulin resistance, fat mass (FM), fat‐free mass (FFM) and metabolic syndrome Z‐score.ResultsIn total, 2224 individuals (1504 women, 720 men) attended the baseline visit and 2020 (90.8%) completed the follow‐up visit. Following the LED, weight loss was 16% greater in men than in women (11.8% vs 10.3%, respectively) but improvements in insulin resistance were similar. HOMA‐IR decreased by 1.50 ± 0.15 in men and by 1.35 ± 0.15 in women (ns). After adjusting for differences in weight loss, men had larger reductions in metabolic syndrome Z‐score, C‐peptide, FM and heart rate, while women had larger reductions in HDL cholesterol, FFM, hip circumference and pulse pressure. Following the LED, 35% of participants of both genders had reverted to normo‐glycaemia.ConclusionsAn 8‐week LED induced different effects in women than in men. These findings are clinically important and suggest gender‐specific changes after weight loss. It is important to investigate whether the greater decreases in FFM, hip circumference and HDL cholesterol in women after rapid weight loss compromise weight loss maintenance and future cardiovascular health.

show abstract

Effectiveness of weight loss interventions – is there a difference between men and women: a systematic review

Cited by 183 publications

References 83 publications

Should weight loss and maintenance programmes be designed differently for men? A systematic review of long-term randomised controlled trials presenting data for men and women: The ROMEO project

Should weight loss and maintenance programmes be designed differently for men? A systematic review of long-term randomised controlled trials presenting data for men and women: The ROMEO project

Changes in skeletal muscle and organ size after a weight-loss intervention in overweight and obese type 2 diabetic patients

Men and women respond differently to rapid weight loss: Metabolic outcomes of a multi‐centre intervention study after a low‐energy diet in 2500 overweight, individuals with pre‐diabetes (PREVIEW)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About