Research
Hormonal
Weight loss achieved through primary care interventions, whether pharmacologic or lifestyle-based, significantly attenuates over time, with an average regain of 0.53 kg per six months.
Do not expect your initial weight loss to stick if you stop the intervention. The body fights back against weight loss through hormonal changes. To maintain weight loss, you likely need to continue the intervention (medication or intensive lifestyle support) long-term, rather than treating it as a finite 'course'.
ModerateRefutesLOW confidence
In all interventions, efficacy declined with time (reduction in weight loss by 0.53 kg per six months, 95%CI: 0.04-1.0 kg, p-value=0.04).
Why this rating
Meta-analysis finding, but heterogeneity is high.
Source
A closer look at weight loss interventions in primary care: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Leigh Perreault et al. · medRxiv · 2022
DOI 10.1101/2022.08.03.22278290
Meta-analysis · 7 studies
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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