Despite the findings, there had been criticism of the first study by other experts who feared that patients would not maintain either the loss of weight or the symptom improvement, yet this follow up work shows that the benefits do stick around.
The one-year maintenance period after the initial nine weeks included group therapy each month and frequent meetings with both medical personal and a dietitian. The subjects, on average, gained back about a stone over the year, but collectively they continued to have just under a 50% improvement their symptoms. For 10% of the subjects, their improvements meant they stopped needing to use CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) masks.
http://ultimatediethack.com/strictiond-review/