Stick with a weight loss program for at least 3 months to be effective study shows.

Johns Hopkins Health Alerts reviews the latest research on weight loss and whether or not commercial weight loss programs actually work.

New York, NY (PRWEB) March 11, 2008 -- Johns Hopkins Health Alerts has just released a review of the latest research on weight loss, which shows that the longer you stay in a commercial weight-loss program, the more likely you are to achieve weight loss, and the greater weight loss you will achieve overall.

Successful Weight Loss Approaches
Successful weight loss requires a three-pronged approach: changing your behavior, altering your diet, and increasing your physical activity.

Making The Changes And Sticking To Them
Permanent alterations in your lifelong attitudes toward diet and exercise are the keys to successful weight management. You must be motivated enough to change habits not for a few weeks or months, but for a lifetime. The importance of this cannot be underestimated. The desire to lose weight must come from within.

The Benefits Of Commercial Weight Loss Programs
Commercial weight-loss programs can be effective tools for weight loss, but you do need to stick with the program for at least three months to see benefits. That was the conclusion of a one-year study of men and women enrolled in the Jenny Craig Platinum program.

The study results
After a month, 73% of the 60,164 people who joined the program were still enrolled. The number dropped to 42% at three months and 22% at six months. Only 7% remained at one year.

For those who stuck it out, the weight loss achieved was substantially greater. Men and women who lasted a year lost 13-16% of their initial body weight, compared with only a 1% loss in those who dropped out in the first month.

The men and women who stayed in the program for at least three months lost about 8% of their baseline weight.

The Substantial Health Benefits Of Weight Loss
Any weight loss is beneficial if you are overweight, but a loss of 5-10% of body weight can lead to significant reductions in blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and other conditions associated with overweight or obesity.

But there's a good chance that the three-month dropouts gained back the lost weight by the end of the year.

Nonetheless, the longer you can stay in a commercial weight-loss program, the more weight loss you're likely to achieve.