Getting personalized help from your physician could be much more effective than commercial weight loss programs.

Researchers have concluded that their scientific paper has proven the hypothesis according to which, physicians can improve their patients’ condition by simply showing support towards them. Those who rated their doctors the lowest lost an average of 5 pounds during the two years.

Researchers reported that participants who gave their physicians the highest ratings for the helpfulness lost an average of 111 pounds. The study team analyzed the study group for a period of two years.

When it comes to weight problems, we are eager to try everything: diets, pills, exercise, programmed sleep, special cures, large quantities of water, alternative programs, even prayer to make the gods look in our direction and give us a helping hand in managing our weight issues.

Researchers are hopeful that these findings could help develop weight loss programs that are more focused on primary care physicians. Within this study, some obese patients worked to lose weight with the aid of health coaches during the trial, an effort that was supervised by their primary care physician.

A recent study by doctors at Johns Hopkins University have discovered that patients who want to lose weight are often more successful when they work with their physician to shed pounds rather than using weight-loss programs which do not utilize regular interaction with a doctor.

She added it’s always been known that doctor-patient relationships that include empathy, good communication, collaboration and trust improve the chances that patients will take medicines as prescribed, keep medical appointments and have better outcomes.

“This trial supports other evidence that providers are very important in their patients’ weight-loss efforts”, explains Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine assistant professor of medicine Dr. Wendy Bennett.

Data collected from 347 people participating in the Practice-based Opportunities for Weight Reduction, or POWER, helped researchers reach their conclusion.

Most of the weight loss programs are joined by individuals without the doctor’s knowledge.

According to the National Institutes of Health statistics more than 33% of adults in the U.S. are at present obese.

The results of the clinic weight-loss trial, funded federally, were modest in general.