B. What Treatments Are Effective?

Dietary Therapy

Of the 86 RCT articles evaluated for the effectiveness of dietary therapy on weight loss, 49 were accepted; 37 were not considered for the following reasons:

• Diet alone was not evaluated (376, 405);
• There was no control group (442, 446, 675, 676, 680, 683, 686, 688, 693, 702, 709, 713-720);
• There was no appropriate control group (677, 704);
• The dropout rate was more than 35 percent (415);
• The weight loss intervention was less than 12 weeks (402, 474, 477, 576, 674, 708, 714, 721-723);
• The study did not provide specific information to assess the diet (724); or
• The patients were not overweight (689-691).