A NEW weight-loss plan available on the NHS for the severely obese is safer and more cost-effective than gastric surgery, according to a new study.
Researchers at Glasgow University evaluated the success and costs of the Counterweight Plus programme, developed by seven UK universities, which is aimed at people with a BMI greater than 40 and available from GPs.
They looked at results from 22 general practices in Scotland where 91 severely obese patients were put on the programme which incorporates Cambridge Weight Plan diet, with users placed on an 810 calorie per day liquid diet of shakes and soups with food reintroduced at specific points of the programme.
The study found the results came close to those achieved by surgery, with almost all patients losing weight – up to 40kg in some cases. Average losses of 17kg were recorded after 14 weeks with at least one-third (33%) of the 91 dieters maintaining a loss of more than 15kg – or two stone – for 12 months.
Further analysis, published in the British Journal of General Practice, found each £1 million spent on Counterweight Plus would result in about 360 severely obese patients losing more than 15 kg, compared with only about 105 patients if the same £1m were spent on proving lap-band surgery.
Professor Mike Lean, a human nutrition expert in the School of Medicine, said: "This amount of weight loss is enough to reverse most cases of type 2 diabetes and approached the levels achieved by lap-band surgery, but is much cheaper and safer than surgery. It is also much more accessible. Weight loss surgery is only available for a tiny number of patients, and requires a great deal of training and back-up."
The Cambridge plan replaced food with nutritionally complete, low-calorie drinks and gave fast results, although critics say it is too extreme and can provoke health problems. It was developed in the 1960s at Cambridge University by Dr Alan Howard. The diet was re-launched in 1984 as the Cambridge Weight Plan.
The ethos, participants have said, is to put your body in a state called ketosis – a state in which you are undernourished and your body must process your fat stores in order to survive.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article