Gradual vs. Rapid Weight Loss: Which Is More Effective?

Debunking another diet myth, researchers found that losing weight gradually is not any better than achieving rapid weight loss.

“Guidelines recommend gradual weight loss for the treatment of obesity, indicative of a widely held opinion that weight lost rapidly is more quickly regained. We aimed to investigate the effect of the rate of weight loss on the rate of regain in obese people,” said the authors of the study.
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In the recent study, Australian researchers randomly divided 200 obese adults between a 12-week rapid weight-loss diet known as Optifast or a gradual diet over the course of 36 weeks.

According to the study’s authors, participants who lost a minimum of 12.5% of their body weight were able to participate in the second phase of the study. Those participants were put on a maintenance regimen for a 144-week period.

The study showed that 50% of participants in the gradual diet group and 81% of the rapid diet individuals lost 12.5% of their body weight during the first phase of the study. In the second phase, about 70% of participants in both groups gained back most of the weight lost in the previous phase.

The complete study is published in the October issue of The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.

-Michelle Canales

Reference

Purcell K, Sumithran P, Prendergast LA, et al. The effect of rate of weight loss on long-term weight management: a randomized controlled trial. Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinol. 2014 October [epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1016/S2213-8587(14)70200-1.