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Odds are against reaching normal body weight for adults with obesity
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The probability of an adult with obesity reaching a normal body weight is 1 in 210 for men and 1 in 124 for a woman, with those odds decreasing to 1 in 1,290 for men and 1 in 677 for women with morbid obesity, according to research in the American Journal of Public Health.
In a longitudinal analysis of patient BMI records using primary care electronic health data, researchers also found that, among a majority adults who do lose 5% of body weight, the lost weight is regained within 5 years.
“This study highlights how difficult it is for people with obesity to attain a normal body weight,” Alison Fildes, PhD, of the division of health and social care research at King’s College London, told Endocrine Today. “What our findings suggest is that current strategies used to tackle obesity are not helping the majority of obese patients to lose weight and maintain that weight loss.”
Fildes and colleagues analyzed data from adults aged 20 years and older (99,791 women; mean age, 49 years; 76,704 men; mean age, 55 years) from the U.K. Clinical Practice Research Database. Researchers included participants with three or more BMI measurements recorded between Nov. 1, 2004 and Oct. 31, 2014. Researchers classified participants into six categories: normal weight, overweight, simple obesity, severe obesity and morbid obesity and excluded adults who had gastric bypass surgery.
During 9.9 years of follow-up, only 1,283 men and 2,245 women with a BMI between 30 and 35 kg/m² reached a normal body weight. The annual probability of achieving normal body weight for adults with simple obesity was 1 in 210 for men and 1 in 124 for women, with probability declining with increasing BMI.
Among participants who lost 5% of body weight, 52.7% of adults regained weight above the 5% weight loss threshold within 2 years, according to BMI records; 78% of adults regained the weight within 5 years.
Researchers also observed weight cycling, with both increases and decreases in body weight, in more than a third of participants.
“Obesity treatment programs should prioritize preventing further weight gain in obese patients and helping them to maintain weight loss when it is achieved,” Fildes said. “However, given the clear difficulties in achieving weight loss within the population, it is important that health policies emphasize obesity prevention.”
“Research is needed to develop wide-reaching effective public health policies that target obesity prevention at the population level,” Fildes said. – by Regina Schaffer
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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