Gains and losses

Studies help scientists understand keys to keeping weight off

There’s a lot of belt tightening going on at Kansas University these days due to budget cuts. And KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway is doing some serious belt tightening of his own.

Since the beginning of June, Hemenway has lost 37 pounds, dropping from 227 to 190. He’d like to lose more.

Exercise therapist James LeCheminant, left, works with Kansas University Chancellor Robert Hemenway on the treadmill at Robinson Gymnasium. Hemenway is among the participants in a special weight-loss program at the Energy Balance Lab who have lost a substantial amount of weight. Inset, Hemenway in March 1998.

“My hope is that I’ll get down to about 180 or 185,” said Hemenway, 60.

How has he achieved the dramatic loss?

Through a regimen of low-calorie, nutritionally complete shakes and regular exercise.

“You’re basically operating on about 500 calories a day, but you don’t get hungry. The reduced intake is quite manageable. As long as you exercise and drink a lot of water, you feel vigorous,” he said.

“I feel great. Obviously, there’s a certain amount of vanity involved you feel you look better. But I also have extra energy now that I’m not dragging around that weight.”

So striking is the change in Hemenway’s appearance that he has taken to addressing the weight loss directly when he speaks at various events, defusing any worries about his health.

The findings The researchers at KU have learned a few things about how people can maintain a significant weight loss. There are three components to success: Continued participation in an organized weight management program supervised by health and exercise professionals. Keeping detailed, daily records of food intake and physical activity. Expending roughly 2,000 calories per week through five exercise periods of about 45 minutes each. Thirty-five to 40 percent of those who undergo an organized, professionally monitored weight management program are able to maintain a loss of 10 percent, or more, of their baseline body weight for at least one year. Researchers have discovered that a 10-percent weight loss will yield 80 percent of the health-risk reductions that a person would get from a much larger weight loss.

“I’ll give you the joke that I use. I told the Rotary Club in Wichita that we had a difficult legislative session, I knew at the university that we were supposed to tighten our belts, and I wanted to show some leadership,” he said, chuckling.

University research

Hemenway is one of about 250 subjects taking part in six research studies conducted by the KU Weight Management Programs, headquartered at the university’s Energy Balance Laboratory in Robinson Gymnasium.

The interdisciplinary faculty and staff involved in the research, and the programs themselves, are under the umbrella of KU’s Schiefelbusch Life-span Institute.

The studies last anywhere from six months to two years and are broken down into groups called cohorts of 15 to 20 subjects.

The goal of the overall research is to gain a better understanding of how to help people maintain a significant weight loss for an extended period of time.

Subjects in the studies adopt an initial 12-week special diet of 500- to 800-calorie daily meals in the form of shakes, soups or puddings.

The goal during this phase is for the subjects, except for those in a six-month study, to take off about 20 percent of their weight.

They typically transition to eating pre-packaged, dietetic meals from 200 to 300 calories per entree provided by the researchers. They end the study by eating food they provide and prepare according to a diet that has been designed for them based upon their specific nutritional needs.

Throughout the studies, subjects get social support from their peers, nutritional and behavioral education about eating habits and strict medical supervision by health experts.

Subjects are expected to exercise for about an hour, five times a week, expending a total of 2,000 calories during that time. They also have to keep scrupulous records of how much they’re eating and exercising.

The results of such a regimen can be dramatic.

“We have several folks who’ve lost 70 or 100 pounds. Often, subjects like to hear how much they’ve lost as a group. Sometimes 18 to 20 people will lose a total of 800 pounds in 12 weeks,” said Chelbie Glenn, coordinator for the KU Weight Management Programs.

Service to Kansans

The research studies underway at KU are a serious business especially in a society in which obesity, and health problems related to it, are rampant.

“We’re in the business of medical risk reduction, not cosmetic weight reduction. University research is not about helping people fit into blue jeans and swimsuits. It’s about improving their health and reducing their risks,” said Joe Donnelly, director of the KU Weight Management Programs and the Energy Balance Laboratory.

“The direct service we provide is to the people who enroll in our programs. The indirect service is the new treatment paradigms that we develop that can be replicated by (weight management) clinics throughout the state of Kansas or wherever.”

Hemenway is pleased to be taking part in the work at KU.

“I feel like it’s a privilege. You’re actually part of a research protocol that will help other people and make us a little more aware as a society that we don’t have to be overweight,” he said.