We want your weight management journey to be a success—and that starts with knowing the facts so you can prepare effectively.
Here’s what the evidence says:
Nearly 50% of weight is regained within 2 years.
By 5 years, 80% of people have regained what they lost.
Only about 20% of people sustain their weight loss long-term (Wing & Phelan, 2005).
Why is it so hard? Because biology pushes back--weight loss triggers metabolic adaptation (lower resting metabolic rate, increased hunger hormones like ghrelin, decreased satiety hormones like leptin), making it harder to keep the weight off (Rosenbaum & Leibel, 2010). Your brain and body fight to restore lost weight by slowing metabolism, ramping up hunger signals, and dialing down satiety. It’s not about willpower—it’s about physiology.
Peter Attia explains this process extremely well in his recent blog exploring how weighted vests might help to maintain weight loss (Check it out). He also flags a study published in Nature where researchers DeLong and colleagues examined if adding a weight vest after weight loss could provide a 'counter-trick' to the brain to preserve the resting metabolic rate. By changing the gravitational load, called the 'gravitostat', the hypothesis is by tricking the brain that the body weight has not been altered that the body would not trigger metabolic and hormone actions to promote regaining weight. While the results are inconclusive, there was some evidence to support this might be somewhat effective.
There is another theory called the 'lipostat' model that claims the brain tries to maintain a certain body fat mass, rather than gravitational force (or entire body mass). At the end of the day, the body has many interconnected pathways that make it difficult to tease apart what specific theory or model is the largest driver. What has strong evidence is the body wants to maintain status quo. When you aim to change things- there will be a mechanism to counter. Education is the start to ready yourself!
There are other ways your brain can play tricks on you as you try to alter your nutrition -both what you eat and how much. There is evidence that when the brain sees a 'health' label on food such as organic, low-fat, high-protein, keto, sugar-free, that people tend to underestimate calories and often eat more of them compared to when the same foods are presented without a health label.
A study in 2006 found that if M&Ms or cookies were presented at 'low-fat', people ate more of them compared to when this description was not provided.
Our beliefs, attitudes, and how we think about food can also impact how we eat. There is a bias for many people to believe if something is tasty-it must be indulgent and unhealthy. Conversely, if food is labeled 'healthy' people believe the food will not taste good, or as delightful as an indulgent version.
When food is labeled as a 'treat', people naturally become more mindful, slow down, and end up eating smaller portions with greater satisfaction. Moreover, in one study, when ghrelin (hormone for hunger) was measured, for participants told the food was a treat had lower ghrelin levels after consuming the food whereas, those told it was a sensible snack, had a flat ghrelin response. This is evidence for the mind-body link associated with weight management.
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