Obesity Treatment With a Very Low Energy Diet in Mexican Adults

Clinical practice guidelines recommend behavioral change protocols for obesity treatment, such as the Diabetes Prevention Program, which involves a low-energy diet, physical activity recommendations, behavioral therapy, and frequent visits. Weight losses of 7-9% per year have achieve with this type of intervention. However, evidence suggests that a very low-energy diet may reach 10-15% weight loss and conduce superior clinical effects. Therefore, the objective will be to evaluate the efficacy of the Diabetes Prevention Program with a very-low energy diet and a low-energy diet on body weight change at four months in Mexican adults with obesity. The study will be a randomized controlled trial. Participants will be randomized to an intensive lifestyle change program with a very low-energy diet or an intensive lifestyle change program with a low-energy diet. The primary outcome will be a change in body weight. Secondary outcomes will be changes in waist circumference, body mass index, total body fat, fat-free mass, abdominal fat, blood pressure, and quality of life. Data will be analyzed on an intention-to-treat (ITT) using Student's t-tests or Mann-Whitney's U-test. The protocol was performed following the SPIRIT guidelines. Ethical approval was obtained from the Research Ethics Committee of the Department of Medicine of the University of Sonora.