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Updated: Jun 11, 2026

Multidisciplinary Approach to Obesity Management: A Case Report
Published on: May 30, 2025
A multicomponent intervention reduces body weight and cardiovascular risk at a GEICO corporate site
Hope R Ferdowsian1, Neal D Barnard, Valerie J Hoover
1Department of Medicine, The George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA. hferdowsian@washingtonccr.org
Purpose:
To determine whether a multicomponent nutrition intervention program at a corporate site reduces body weight and improves other cardiovascular risk factors in overweight individuals.
Design:
Prospective clinical intervention study.
Subjects/Setting:
Employees of the Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO) (N = 113), aged 21 to 65 years, with a body mass index > or =25 kg/m(2) and/or previous diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.
Intervention:
A 22-week intervention including a low-fat, vegan diet.
Measures:
Changes in body weight, anthropometric measures, blood pressure, lipid profile, and dietary intake.
Analysis:
Multivariate analyses of variance were calculated for clinical and nutrient measures, followed by univariate analyses of variance, to determine the significance of differences between groups in changes over time.
Results:
Intervention-group participants experienced greater weight changes compared with control-group participants (mean, -5.1 [SE, .6] kg vs. + .1 [SE, .6] kg, p < .0001), as well as greater changes in waist circumference (mean, -4.7 [SE, .6] cm vs. + .8 [SE, .6] cm, p < .0001) and waistratiohip ratio (mean, -.006 [SE, .003] vs. + .014 [SE, .005], p = .0007). Weight loss of 5% of body weight was more frequently observed in the intervention group (48.5%) compared with the control group (11.1%) (chi(2)[1, N = 113] = 16.99, p < .0001).
Conclusions:
Among individuals volunteering for a 22-week worksite research study, an intervention using a low-fat, vegan diet effectively reduced body weight and waist circumference.
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