Weight-loss study calls for volunteers

Would you like to make a long-term commitment to losing weight and make sure you avoid diabetes?

A three-year study to determine the best lifestyle strategies for weight loss and diabetes prevention is about to begin in Auckland and researchers from the University of Auckland are seeking people to take part.

Participants in the study will be overweight and can expect to lose a significant amount of that weight and avoid developing diabetes.

They will learn a new way of eating and exercising which they may choose to maintain for the rest of their lives.

The study will compare two nutritional programmes known to be very effective in helping people lose weight and avoid diabetes, and which are comparatively simple to follow.

Participants will also be asked to follow one of two physical activity plans, so that the combined effects of diet and exercise can be tracked.

The aim is to use results to develop guidelines to tackle obesity and diabetes in adults.

The three-year study will be run in New Zealand and Australia and six European countries.

For the first two months, study participants will follow a low-energy diet using meal replacement sachets and are expected to lose at least eight per cent of their body weight.

They will then be randomly assigned to a nutrition and exercise programme which will be the basis of their new healthy lifestyle programme over the next three years to ensure they maintain their new weight or lose more.

Meal replacement sachets and dietary and exercise counselling will be provided free.

The study is open to men and women aged 25-45 and 55-70 years who are overweight but do not have diabetes. Participants must be able to travel to the University of Auckland’s Human Nutrition Unit in Mt Eden and Tamaki campus in Glen Innes for regular visits with the study team.