Talk about faith-based initiatives. A new study found that taking a church-based weight loss program helped its participants keep off the pounds.
In the study, leaders from the Gospel Water Branch Baptist Church near Augusta, Georgia, received a two-day training on the 12 modules of Fit Body and Soul, a faith-based diabetes prevention regimen adapted from the U.S. National Institute of Health-sponsored Diabetes Prevention Program. The leaders then conducted a church-weight loss program that included 35 male and female participants. Of those, 16 lost 5 percent or more of their starting weight and about 26 percent lost 7 percent or more. Also, 11 out of 16 participants who lost weight in the initial 12-week program maintained their weight after taking part in six-month-long follow-up sessions.
“This kind of result is remarkable in a faith-based program run by lay leaders when so many other community-based programs have failed,” says principal investigator Sunita Dodani, MD, associate professor at the Kansas University Medical Center in Kansas City.
Can we get an “Amen”?
Praise the Lord and Pare Off the Pounds!
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