If You Can't Lose Weight, Maintain It

Obesity and its health consequences affect black women disproportionately. When premenopausal, they typically gain about 1 kg yearly, and few strategies achieve clinically significant weight loss. Preventing this gain in black women who are overweight (body-mass index [BMI], 25.0–29.9 kg/m²) or have class 1 obesity (BMI, 30.0–34.9] — in whom obesity-related morbidity is less common than those with BMI ≥35 — may be a more achievable goal. In the SHAPE program, investigators randomized 194 black women (mean BMI, 30.2; mean age, 35.4) to usual care or a 12-month weight-gain prevention intervention. Most participants had low incomes and less than a college education. Interventions included goal-setting for behavioral change, weekly self-monitor…