Intense behavioral therapy and meal replacement shakes, entrees and bars from Health Management Resources helped severely obese women lose an average of 52.6 pounds, or 18.5 percent of their body weight, and severely obese men lose an an average of 79.2 pounds, or 22.5 percent of their body weight, according to a review of more than one thousand patients treated at three Health Management Resources weight loss centers in the U.S..

“[B]ehavioral treatment [for obesity], typically delivered in 15 to 26 weekly group sessions, produced a mean [an average] weight loss of approximately [0.9 pounds per week] of treatment and a mean [an average] post-treatment weight loss [after one year] of approximately [18.7 pounds], according to a review paper.

Overweight and obese adolescents who, on average, were 15-years-old and were given ten weekly sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy followed by a phone call every two weeks were 12.6 pounds lighter after 5 months than children who acted as controls according to a study from Australia.

VTrim, an on-line, therapist-led structured behavioral weight loss website from the University of Vermont, produced greater initial weight loss and greater weight loss after one year than eDiets.com, a self-help commercial website according to a new study from the University of Vermont.

An intensive behavioral weight loss program combined with a low-calorie or very-low-calorie diet cause an average weight loss of 52.6 pounds or 18.5 percent of body weight in severely obese women and 79.2 pounds or 22.5 percent in severely obese men according to a study from the University of Kentucky and Health Management Resources Weight Management Program in Lexington, Kentucky, USA.

A father’s acceptance affects how much weight an overweight child will lose according to a new study from Leonard H. Epstein in the Department of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

People who received standard behavioral therapy lost a similar amount of weight compared to another group of people who received reformulated cognitive behavioral therapy which gave people more realistic expectations of how much weight loss they might lose, and how this might impact their appearance, attractiveness, and self-esteem.

The following behavioral strategies for losing weight are briefly discussed in the U.S. NIH’s Obesity Guidelines (p. 81).

Behavioral therapies to reinforce changes in diet and exercise cause roughly a 10 percent weight loss after four to twelve months according to the U.S. NIH’s Obesity Guidelines (p. 50).

Adding the fat-blocking drug Xenical (orlistat) to diet increases weight loss by an average of 7.2 pounds more than diet alone for up to two years according to a new paper which reviewed previous studies.

Modest weight loss does not improve weight maintenance according to a new study.