The article header says "Daily weigh-ins help dieters lose pounds" but the article is actually about daily weigh ins (and support groups) helping people to keep off the pounds once they've lost them.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald...h/12919517.htm
Here are a few snippits
Research presented Sunday at an obesity conference suggests that the simple act of regularly weighing in helps prevent people from regaining lost pounds.
That's important because experience shows that most dieters regain a third of what they lost within the first year, and two-thirds of it in the second year.
"That's the biggest problem we have. We have lots of ways to help people lose weight. What's the real challenge is getting people to keep their lost weight off over the long term," said Dr. Susan Yanovski, director of the obesity and eating disorders program at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. She had no role in the study, which was funded by her institute.
At the start of the study, about 40 percent of participants in each group were weighing themselves daily. Eighteen months later, that had fallen to 30 percent in the newsletter group, but had increased to 65 percent of the Internet group and 72 percent of the face-to-face group.
Among daily weighers, only 39 percent regained 5 pounds or more, but 68 percent of those who weighed themselves less frequently did.
AP article on weight maintenance
