MODERATE-VIGOROUS PHYSICAL ACTIVITY ASSOCIATED WITH INITIAL WEIGHT LOSS IN PRIMARY CARE PATIENTS DESIRING WEIGHT LOSS MAINTAINENCE: BASELINE RESULTS FROM MAINTAIN PRIME TRIAL

PURPOSE: MAINTAIN PRIME promotes weight maintenance for primary care patients with recent intentional weight loss ≥5%. Previous research shows strong association between higher physical activity (PA) levels and weight management success. This analysis investigates the relationship between objective PA and baseline weight loss. METHODS: ActiGraph GT3X-BT accelerometer was worn on the dominant hip during waking hours for 14 days. We included sedentary time, light activity, average daily steps, MVPA, and peak 1-minute cadence in our analyses. Descriptive statistics, rate ratios (RR) of % weight loss with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated for each PA metric. Adjusted relative risk values controlled for gender, weight loss medications, and education. RESULTS: Baseline PA was assessed in 110 out of 268 randomized participants (41%) with at least 4 days of accelerometer data. There were no significant differences in gender, ethnicity, education level, or BMI between individuals with missing and non-missing accelerometer data. Participants spent an average of 433 (SD = 142) minutes daily in sedentary behavior, 327 (SD = 103) minutes in light activity, and 34 (SD = 27) minutes of daily MVPA. Participants averaged 5,485 (SD = 2878) steps/day with a peak 1-minute cadence of 121 (20), indicating most participants were performing moderate activity. MVPA emerged as the only activity significantly associated with baseline weight loss percentage after adjusting for confounders (Table 1). The RR for MVPA was 1.004 (95% CI: 1.001-1.008, p = 0.03) in Model 2 and 1.004 (95% CI: 1.001-1.008, p = 0.03) in Model 3, indicating a small but statistically significant increase in baseline weight loss percentage with each incremental increase in MVPA. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlight MVPA as a key factor in primary care patients with recent intentional weight loss, emphasizing its role in long-term weight management strategies. Supported by: NIH R18DK123372