Losing weight is good for your health even if you gain some back, according to new research.
Those who embark on a slimming journey work hard to make important lifestyle changes, but often the weight creeps back on. This can prompt people to see their efforts as pointless, but new evidence shows the health benefits will remain - especially when it comes to your heart.
Those who lost and regained some of the weight showed lower risk factors for cardiovascular diseases like heart attacks and type 2 diabetes — which remained for up to five years after weight loss programs ended, according to analysis published on Tuesday in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
Previous studies suggest that transitioning from losing to gaining weight can increase cardiovascular health risks, but authors of a new analysis claim follow up research is lacking in this area. Academics say their findings will help offer stronger support to those struggling to keep weight off.
Researchers examined 124 studies, totalling more than 50,000 participants and compared risk factors of both cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Those who undertook intense diet and exercise were examined against those who took part in low impact or no weight loss routines.
Co-senior author Susan A. Jebb, Ph.D, professor of diet and population health at the University of Oxford said: "Many doctors and patients recognize that weight loss is often followed by weight regain, and they fear that this renders an attempt to lose weight pointless.
"This concept has become a barrier to offering support to people to lose weight. For people with overweight or obesity issues, losing weight is an effective way to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease."
To come to this conclusion, researchers assessed international scientific studies available in 2018, which looked at diet, exercise, partial or total meal replacement, intermittent fasting, or financial incentives contingent on weight loss.
Weight loss programs took place in a variety of settings and included varying modes of delivery, from in person to app and telephone based.
Scientists combined the results of all studies, with an average follow-up of 28 months. They used these to estimate changes in risk factors for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes after weight loss.
The average weight loss across the different studies ranged from five to ten pounds (2-5kg). Weight regain averaged 0.26 to 0.7 pounds (0.12 to 0.32 kg) annually. Participants were an average age 51 years old, with a body mass index of 33, which is considered obese.
Professor Jebb added: "Most trials look at whether new treatments are effective and focus on weight change in the short-term rather than the effect on later disease."
"Individual studies are often too small to detect differences between groups in the incidence of cardiovascular conditions because, fortunately, they affect only a small proportion of the whole group, and studies may not continue long enough to see the effects on ‘hard’ outcomes, such as a new diagnosis of type 2 diabetes or a heart attack.
"Our findings should provide reassurance that weight loss programs are effective in controlling cardiovascular risk factors and very likely to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease."
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