Sedentary behavior, body mass index, and weight loss maintenance among African American women.

OBJECTIVES Relationships among sedentary behavior, weight gain, and weight loss and regain are understudied particularly for African Americans, a high risk group for obesity. The hypotheses were: sedentary behavior is positively associated with current body mass and % of weight loss maintained after initial weight loss; these associations differ by physical activity status. DESIGN Cross-sectional. SETTING National survey. PATIENTS OR PARTICIPANTS 1,110 African American women. INTERVENTIONS Observational study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES A cross-sectional survey was administered to African Americans who had intentionally lost 10% of their body weight. Those who lost weight and maintained at least a 10% weight loss for a year were classified as weight loss maintainers; all others were classified as weight loss re-gainers. Participants were classified into one of four categories based on low and high levels of sedentary behavior and physical activity. The high physical activity, low sedentary behavior category was the reference group. Sociodemographic characteristics and health conditions were covariates. Data were collected in 2009 and analyzed in 2013. RESULTS Each additional daily hour of sedentary time was associated with an increase in BMI (P<.001) and poorer weight loss maintenance (P<.01). Regardless of sedentary behavior, low physically active participants had BMIs that were greater (P<.001) compared to the reference group. Sedentary behavior had an independent effect on BMI and % of weight loss maintained for high but not low physically active participants. CONCLUSIONS High levels of sedentary behavior were associated with poorer weight-loss maintenance among African American women even for those with high levels of physical activity. The implications of this study are that physical activity and sedentary behavior, independently and combined, are associated with BMI and weight-loss maintenance.