Research

Energy balance

Detrimental changes in physical activity (decrease) and energy intake (increase) over time are predictive of greater weight regain, whereas improvements in both are associated with the least weight regain.

Consistency and improvement matter more than your starting point. If you reduce your activity or increase your food intake over time, you are likely to regain weight. Conversely, increasing activity and decreasing intake leads to the best maintenance outcomes. Monitor your trends, not just your baseline.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Although baseline levels of PA and EI were not predictive of weight regain, greater weight regain was observed in those with detrimental changes in PA (P < .0001) and EI (P = .0002) over time.
Victoria A. Catenacci et al. · Journal of Physical Activity and Health · 2014

Why this rating

Longitudinal data, clear statistical significance for changes.

Source

Dietary Habits and Weight Maintenance Success in High Versus Low Exercisers in the National Weight Control Registry

Victoria A. Catenacci et al. · Journal of Physical Activity and Health · 2014

DOI 10.1123/jpah.2012-0250

cohort · n=3591Cited 70×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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