Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jan;21(1):e12949.
doi: 10.1111/obr.12949. Epub 2019 Nov 1.

The challenge of keeping it off, a descriptive systematic review of high-quality, follow-up studies of obesity treatments

Morten Nordmo  1 , Yngvild Sørebø Danielsen  2 , Magnus Nordmo  3
Affiliations

The challenge of keeping it off, a descriptive systematic review of high-quality, follow-up studies of obesity treatments

Morten Nordmo et al. Obes Rev. 2020 Jan.

Abstract

The aim of this systematic review is to answer the question: Is substantial, stable, and long-term weight loss a viable goal for adults with obesity? To answer this question, we conducted a broad systematic search of non-surgical and non-pharmacological obesity treatment studies with the following strict criteria: (a) minimum 3-year follow-up, (b) 5% body mass lost, (c) no continued interventions in the follow-up-period, (d) prospective design, and (e) less than 30% attrition from the start of the follow-up period. While the search revealed a very large number of published articles, only eight studies met the inclusion criteria. Several of the nonincluded studies report a majority of participants achieving satisfactory weight loss and little regain, especially among studies with continued interventions during the follow-up period. In contrast, the eight high-quality studies included in this study demonstrate a trend of weight regain towards pretreatment baseline. This review concludes that the majority of high-quality follow-up treatment studies of individuals with obesity are not successful in maintaining weight loss over time. The results suggest that excess weight can be lost but is likely regained over time, for the majority of participants.

Keywords: follow-up; obesity; review; weight loss.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Stunkard A, McLaren-Hume M. The results of treatment for obesity: a review of the literature and report of a series. AMA Arch Intern Med. 1959;103(1):79-85.
    1. Wadden TA, Stunkard AJ, Brownell KD. Very low calorie diets: their efficacy, safety, and future. Ann Intern Med. 1983;99(5):675-684.
    1. Brownell KD, Rodin J. The dieting maelstrom: is it possible and advisable to lose weight? Am Psychol. 1994;49(9):781-791.
    1. Hill JO, Wyatt H, Phelan S, Wing R. The National Weight Control Registry: is it useful in helping deal with our obesity epidemic? J Nutr Educ Behav. 2005;37(4):206-210.
    1. Ikeda J, Amy NK, Ernsberger P, et al. The National Weight Control Registry: a critique. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2005;37(4):203-205.

Publication types