A new study debunks previous beleifs that losing weight gradually is more effective than rapid weight loss.
The study was conducted by Joseph Proietto, Sir Edward Dunlop Professor of Medicine at the University of Melbourne and Head of the Weight Control Clinic at Austin Health in Australia. The aim of the study was to determine whether losing weight at a slow initial rate, as recommended by current guidelines worldwide, results in larger long-term weight reduction and less weight regain than losing weight at a faster initial rate in obese individuals.
For the study, researchers examined 200 obese adults who were assigned to either a 12-week rapid weight loss (RWL) program on a very-low-calorie diet (450-800 kcal/day) or a 36-week gradual weight-loss (GWL) program. In this program, participant's energy intake was reduced by approximately 500 kcal/day, in accordance with current dietary weight loss guidelines.
At the end of the study, researchers noted that those who lost weight rapidly were more likely to achieve target weight loss. The researchers said that 81 percent from the RWL group managed to lose about 12.5 percent of their bodyweight compared to just 50 percent in the GWL group.
The researchers also observed that initial rate of weight loss did not affect the amount or rate of weight regain in these patients who entered the subsequent weight maintenance period, as similar amounts of weight were regained after 3 years by participants who had lost weight on either diet program. Weight regain was around 71 percent in both groups after three years.
"Across the world, guidelines recommend gradual weight loss for the treatment of obesity, reflecting the widely held belief that fast weight loss is more quickly regained. However, our results show that achieving a weight loss target of 12.5% is more likely, and drop-out is lower, if losing weight is done quickly," Katrina Purcell, dietician and the first author on the paper from the University of Melbourne said in a press statement.
"The study...indicates that for weight loss, a slow and steady approach does not win the race, and the myth that rapid weight loss is associated with rapid weight regain is no more true than Aesop's fable. Clinicians should bear in mind that different weight loss approaches might be suitable for different patients in the management of clinical obesity, and that efforts to curb the speed of initial weight loss might hinder their ultimate weight loss success," Dr Corby Martin and Professor Kishore Gadde from Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, USA commented on the study.
Findings of this project were published online in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
