An e-Mail Program that Helps You Meet Your Health Goals

About 33% of Americans are overweight, 34% are obese, and 6% extremely obese, and all of them (well, almost all) have tried to eat a healthy but reduced-calorie diet. And most of them have failed to stick to their planned diet and exercise programs. The Kaiser Permanente Research Division has tried a new approach to help such people. Their findings are reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The 787 participants in the study were Kaiser Permanente employees. About half of them - 351, actually – were assigned to receive weekly e-mails and mid-week reminders with what was called “small-step goals” tailored to their individual lifestyles and health goals. They were asked to concentrate on one of three activities – increased exercise, more fruit and veggies, or decreased fat and sugar intake. The “small steps” were quite practical – a mother in the increased exercise group might be asked to take her children to the playground twice a week and walk around the area while they played. Or a fruit-&-veggie group member might be asked to add vegetables to pizza or other take-out dishes.

All the participants were surveyed after 16 weeks and again 16 weeks later. After 16 weeks those who had got e-mails – all 3 activities groups – showed significant improvements, compared with those who didn’t get e-mails. The most significant gains were in those who had not been doing recommended activities at the start of the study.

Most major weight-loss programs have e-mail support, which the consumer must pay for. Clearly, the program in this study worked rather well, probably because it was closely tailored to the individual and involved only small steps at a time. It’s called ALIVE! (A Lifestyle Intervention Via E-mail), and you can see an example at this site. As far as I can make out, this program is only available for groups of people, and it’s probably not cheap. But now you know the approach and sort of questions/challenges (‘small steps”) involved, you know what to look for in e-mail programs offered for individuals. A good one can really help.