The efficacy of diets for weight maintenance and future weight variation

Abstract

Introduction. Approximately 80% of individuals who intentionally achieve weight loss of ≥10% body weight will regain that weight within one year (yo-yo effect). By between 1 and 5 years after finishing a hypocaloric diet, around 95% of people return to their initial weight (Brownell & Rodin, 1994). Aim of the study. To investigate the association between history of multiple weight loss diets followed by weight regain, namely weight cycling (WCy). Materials and methods. This study is based on a literature review of different articles from the open acces data base https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed and scientific papers.Results. The results show a large range of deviation due to their different intervention and follow-up-periods. In one study the high-protein diet achieves a weight maintenance of 9.7% after twelve months. In other study, low-fat diets can stabilize a 18% weight reduction from the original weight after nine months. Three study results about effectiveness of highcarbohydrate diets are available (Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2005). One study shows a weight loss of 13% after 15 months, the second study 8% weight loss after twelve months, the third study shows 4% after 30 months. Five studies deal with the effectiveness of reduced energy consumption on a permanent weight maintenance (The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2003). About one year after the end of intervention a weight reduction of 7.6 to 9.4% can be maintained with this type of diet. After nearly 30 months the weight reduction is 4%. Only one study deals with the effectiveness of vegan diets. It records a weight loss of 5.6% after one year and 3.5% after two years. Six studies examine formuladiets as successful weight reduction and maintenance measure. However, the results vary considerably and range from 2.5% weight reduction after 34 weeks to about 10% in the followup after twelve months (Dieter Korczak, 2013). Conclusions. The aim to maintain a 10% weight loss in comparison to the original weight over a long period is challenging. These findings support the importance of designing adequate weight loss programs to achieve long-term weight maintenance . Combined programmes consisting of diet and physical activity obtain a bigger long-term weight loss than an intervention which is based only on diet.