A Test of Nutritional Interventions to Enhance Weight Loss Maintenance

The purpose of this study is to compare standard Behavior Therapy (BT), BT plus Meal Replacements (MR) and a condition focusing on the nutritional changes to the home food environment (HFE) on weight loss, weight loss maintenance, nutritional composition of the diet and psychosocial outcomes. A second aim is to determine the degree to which the specific targets of the experimental interventions do in fact change in the anticipated direction during the intervention and to evaluate whether such changes might account for improvements in weight loss maintenance. This study is important because it could provide the first evidence that the current standard of care for obesity lifestyle treatment could be improved by the addition of MRs or a program of comprehensive nutritional change.