Associations of dietitian follow-up counselling visits and physical exercise with weight loss one year after sleeve gastrectomy

Purpose To examine associations of patients' attendance to follow-up meetings with a registered dietitian (RD) and physical exercise practices with weight loss during the 1 year following laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (SG). Methods Of 241 patients with obesity who underwent SG during 2012, 184 (76.3%) participated in a 1-year follow-up telephone interview and had information on number of RD follow-up meetings. Clinical information was available from computerized patient files. Multiple logistic regression analysis, adjusting for propensity score, was computed to reveal factors associated with greater weight loss. Results The mean %TWL was 31.4 +/- 6.1 and the mean number of reported RD meetings during the year following SG was 4.6. The proportion of physically active patients increased by 15% (from 23 to 42) among those who attended at least 3 RD follow-up meetings (n = 123), and by 5% (from 18 to 23) among those who attended fewer than 3 meetings (n = 61) (p = 0.05). Patients conducting physical exercise reported a lower level of pain/discomfort on the EQ5D quality-of-life questionnaire (p = 0.03). The adjusted regression model revealed no association between the number of RD follow-up meetings and weight-reduction success, but physical exercise during the year following SG conferred a 2.6 times greater odds of belonging to the upper two tertiles of the % excess body weight loss ( 95% CI 1.2-5.3). Conclusions Patients with better adherence to RD follow-up meetings were also more physically active. Patients on physical exercise also achieved greater weight reduction following SG, and reported less pain or discomfort. Nutritional counselling and physical exercise are necessary to ensure maximal and sustainable benefits from SG.