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The 25‐Day Tipping Point: Everyday Adherence has Multiplicative – Not Additive – Benefits to Weight Loss.
Author(s) -
Just David R.,
Patterson Richard W.,
Wansink Brian
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.643.2
Subject(s) - weight loss , medicine , demography , zoology , obesity , biology , sociology
This study seeks to determine if there is a nonlinear convex relationship between number of days of adherence to weight loss advice and actual weight loss among spontaneous adult visitors to an eating behavior website. For an 11‐month period, adults who visited a weight loss website were given three randomly selected weight loss recommendations (tips) within broad categories. Self‐reported number of days of adherence and weight loss were recorded (n = 389, with 96.4% female) and follow‐up surveys were administered at the end of each month when three new tips were provided for the next month. Self‐reported weight loss per day of adherence increased significantly after the 25th day of adherence. Specifically, one day of adherence after the 25th day is results in nearly 133 grams of weight loss as opposed to 26 grams per day prior to the 25th day. This suggests a more than fivefold increase in rate of weight loss after the 25 th day. It's not what you do, it's how often you do it. The recommendation or tip one was given was less important than how often it was followed. Second, those who adhered 25 or more days/month lost dramatically more weight. This result may reflect the importance of adherence, or some underlying correlation between other healthful behaviors and propensity to adhere.