Evaluation of a Commercial Telehealth Weight Loss and Management Program

Objective: This study assesses the effectiveness of the Bright Line Eating Boot Camp (BLE: BC), an eight-week telehealth weight management program.Methods: Data come from participants in the BLE: BC research program.The final sample (n=5,374) contained primarily white adults (92.8%), females (95.2%), and individuals who reported high socioeconomic status (96.0% had completed at least some college and 47.4% reported an annual family income of at least $100,000).We focus in this manuscript on the primary outcomes of percent weight loss and change in body mass index from baseline.Secondary outcomes include program satisfaction and perceptions of healthy eating.Results: Approximately 95% of participants lost weight between baseline and completion of the BLE: BC.During the eight weeks, average percent weight loss was 7.8 (SD=7.5)and body mass index declined by an average of 2.6 (SD=2.3).Spearman's correlation tests show that participants who reported expending more effort and participating more in the program reported greater percent weight loss (rs=0.39,p<0.001 and rs=0.34,p<0.001, respectively) and larger reduction in body mass index (rs=0.36,p<0.001 and rs=0.33,p<0.001, respectively).The majority of participants (88.6%) reported being satisfied with the program and 90.4% reported that healthy eating became easier. Conclusion:The results of this study support the efficacy of the BLE: BC as a fully online, telehealth weight loss program.Future studies should assess the long-term weight loss and maintenance of BLE: BC participants and endeavor to specify mechanisms for the observed weight change.Although we acknowledge limitations in generalizability of the results due to the lack of a comparison group and selection bias in the sample, the results show clinically-significant weight loss among the majority of BLE: BC participants.