Lifestyle changes often fail due to loss of motivation. Telemedicine and personal coaching have the potential to support lifestyle change and weight loss. Therefore, the aim of our randomized controlled trial was to examine the effect of telemedicine with and without coaching in comparison to a control group on weight loss in overweight participants.

In an occupational health care setting overweight employees were randomized into a three arm 12-week trial. Participants in the telemedical (TM) and telemedical coaching (TMC) group got a weighing machine and a step counter, with automatic transfer into a personalized online portal, which could be monitored from both, the participant and the study centre. The TMC group weekly got care calls from the study centre aiming to discuss measured data and to fix target agreements. The control group remained in routine care. Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to determine if differences (baseline vs. after 12 weeks) were significantly different from 0 and ANOVA test for determination of inter group differences.

Inclusion Criteria:

• BMI ≥27 kg/m2

Exclusion Criteria:

• Hypoglycemia inducing medication
• severe disease with hospital stay during the last 3 months
• smoking cessation for less then 3 months
• planned smoking cessation during study phase
• acute infects
• chronic diseases