Research

Energy balance

Modest weight loss (mean 8% of initial body weight) achieved through energy-restricted diets with or without exercise significantly improves arterial stiffness, as measured by carotid-femoral and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity.

You do not need to achieve massive weight loss to improve your arterial health. This analysis shows that losing about 8% of your body weight through diet and lifestyle changes significantly improves arterial stiffness (measured by PWV). Focus on achieving this modest, sustainable reduction rather than aiming for extreme weight loss.

ModerateSupportsLOW confidence
Modest weight loss (mean 8% of initial body weight) achieved with diet and lifestyle measures improved PWV.
Kristina Petersen et al. · Arteriosclerosis Thrombosis and Vascular Biology · 2014

Why this rating

The study is a meta-analysis, but the authors explicitly note the low quality of included studies (only 3 RCTs) and evidence of publication bias.

Source

Effect of Weight Loss on Pulse Wave Velocity

Kristina Petersen et al. · Arteriosclerosis Thrombosis and Vascular Biology · 2014

DOI 10.1161/atvbaha.114.304798

Meta-analysis · 20 studiesCited 116×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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