Obese people less likely to return to normal weight, study says

When the calculations were done, this meant that 1 in 210 men and 1 in 124 women would reach their normal body weight.

An obese man has very less chances of losing weight, given only one in 210 manages to lose weight to attain a healthy body weight.

The researchers monitored the weight of 279,000 people, both men and women over 10 years, from 2004 to 2014.

While the results of this study are not going to inspire those who now fight undesired weight, it may be of great use for doctors, showing that the current strategies are not working and a there is a dire need to different approaches.

Furthermore, Lead study author Dr. Alison Fildes notes that simply achieving a body weight loss of about 5 percent is a significant step in the right direction towards a healthy lifestyle. More than one in three people, overall, weight cycled, but weight cycling was more common among people with morbid obesity (51% of men weight cycled and 52% of women). However, they were often unable to maintain the reduced weight.

People who had had weight loss surgery were excluded.

She also concluded that treatments for these patients should not only be focused on losing weight but mostly on preventing weight gain after certain results have been achieved.

People who are obese are highly unlikely to ever reach a normal weight in their lifetime, according to a new study.

The study, published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health, highlights the real world outcomes for obese adults in developed countries. The analysis showed that, of the men in the data who had a BMI of 30 to 35, only 0.47 percent dropped their BMI below 25, a level considered to be normal.

A clinical dietitian at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Lisa Cimperman, “The thing that I was discouraged about was that individuals had a hard time even maintaining that 5 percent weight loss”.

Men already know that women have a particularly frustrated relationship with food.

“We would recommend obesity treatment programs prioritize preventing further weight gain and maintaining weight loss when it is achieved”, she said. Those categorized with severe obesity, the chance for men is one in 1290 and for women, one in 677.

“Research is needed to develop wide-reaching effective public health policies that target obesity prevention at the population level”, Fildes said. That loss is ephemeral; 53 percent of those who attain a 5 percent weight loss will regain it within two years and 78 percent will within five years.