Dietary behaviours, weight loss attempts and change in waist circumference: 15-year longitudinal study in Australian adults.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Dietary behaviours are suitable as clearly identifiable targets of dietary counselling to prevent weight gain. We therefore investigated associations between dietary behaviours, weight loss attempts and waist circumference change.

METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: Participants were a community-based sample population residing in Nambour, Australia, including 1,317 adults, aged 25-75 years at baseline. Waist circumference was measured in 1992 and 2007, and dietary behaviours data were derived concurrently from repeated self-completed short dietary questions. Multivariable models, stratified by sex, were adjusted for potential confounders.

RESULTS: In men, consumption of visible fat on meat and in women, weight loss attempts in the last 10 years were the most important predictors of waist circumference gain independent of socio-demographic and lifestyle characteristics and energy intake. Men who consumed most visible fat on meat had a 2.6 times larger yearly increase in waist circumference than men who tended to cut the fat off meat: 0.47 (95% CI 0.23, 0.72) vs 0.18 (95% CI 0.01, 0.34) cm/year, p=0.01. Women who reported that they were always trying to lose weight had a 2.7 times larger yearly increase in waist circumference than women who never tried to lose weight: 0.78 (0.54, 1.02) vs 0.29 (0.06, 0.52) cm/year, p=0.0001. Other dietary behaviours were not associated with change in waist circumference.

CONCLUSIONS: Consumption of visible fat on meat by men and more frequent attempts to lose weight by women were main dietary behaviours associated with gain in abdominal adiposity in Australian adults.