( TIME.com ) -- It 's one thing to find a strategy that works in the lab , but quite another to prove that it 's effective in the real world as well . A decade ago , researchers at the National Institutes of Health made headlines when they published the results of the Diabetes Prevention Program ( DPP ) . The study , which was designed to compare the effects of diet and exercise against the best medications to control the chronic disease , surprisingly showed that diet and exercise were better than the best drugs scientists had developed to protect those at highest risk from developing diabetes . The results were encouraging and disheartening at the time , however , since lifestyle changes are notoriously the most difficult to implement . It 's too challenging for patients to stick with a diet and exercise program , and even if they did , their motivation typically wanes after six months . TIME.com : Type 2 diabetes is tougher to treat in kids and teens . But the findings -- the diet and exercise group lowered their risk of getting diabetes by 58 % compared to those on medications -- were too stunning to ignore . The DPP relied on intensive and highly individualized coaching to help the patients stay on their diet and fitness regimens . How could the strategies used in the DPP be modified to work in the real world , where personal nutritionists and trainers are n't always at our beck and call ? Dr. Jun Ma , an associate investigator at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute and a consulting professor at Stanford University , was eager to find out . As a primary care physician , she says , `` we know there are huge numbers of patients out there who need this type of intervention . We just do n't have the manpower and resources to deliver interventions such as the one tested in the DPP . That motivated me and my collaborators to find practical ways of delivering the principles of DPP in a more realistic manner . '' TIME Video : Competing in the Olympics with Type 1 diabetes . Ma joined forces with scientists at the University of Pittsburgh who had participated in the government 's DPP study and were already tackling that very question . They had developed the Group Lifestyle Balance , a curriculum culled from the DPP that they were testing in both group-based and home-based settings . The 12-week program involved either weekly face-to-face sessions with a registered dietitian and fitness instructor in a class setting in which participants learned and discussed healthy diet and exercise techniques , or a self-motivated program based on DVDs that taught participants similar healthy living techniques . Ma used the same Group Lifestyle Balance curriculum and DVD in her study involving 241 people with pre-diabetes , but modified what the self-motivated group received by adding online and e-mail counseling as well . After three months of intensive training and a year of maintenance sessions , the coach-led group lost an average of 14 pounds , while the DVD group shed 10 pounds ; the control group , which received usual care but no specific weight-loss goals , lost only five pounds . More than double the proportion of people using the coach-led sessions ( 37 % ) reached the DPP goal of losing 7 % of their starting body weight , while 36 % of those using DVDs and only 14 % of those getting usual care reached that goal . TIME.com : Heart risk for diabetics may be exaggerated . The findings confirm that new strategies for helping at-risk people to control and even reverse impending symptoms may be just as effective , if not more so in some cases , than currently available treatments . `` I would want to encourage national initiatives to consider alternative ways for lowering diabetes risk , such as the ones we tested , '' says Ma . `` Based on the evidence , face-to-face interventions seem to have the strongest effect , but there is data accumulating to support alternative delivery strategies such as through DVDs or online . And considering the number of people at risk of diabetes and heart disease , we need to find meaningful and sustainable ways to reach these people . '' Ma says she and her colleagues intentionally tested strategies such as using e-mail reminders , online counseling and self-initiated DVD sessions because they rely on already-existing resources and would not require extensive investment in infrastructure . While the study only followed the participants for 15 months , Ma says continued research on such alternative strategies may lead to methods that are even longer-lasting and inspire even stronger compliance in the future . `` Longer-term follow-up and longer-term success is something that is attracting a lot of research interest right now , '' she says . And as the results suggest , for good reason . This story was originally published on TIME.com . Diet strategies show promise in lowering risk of diabetes . & copy 2012 TIME , Inc. TIME is a registered trademark of Time Inc. Used with permission .
Researchers aimed to make the Diabetes Prevention Program strategy more realistic . In the study , a group led by a fitness coach lost an average of 30 pounds . Alternative strategies can be an important tool in the fight against diabetes .