Research

Macro partitioning

Repeated intensive lifestyle interventions result in a progressively less favorable ratio of fat mass loss to fat-free mass loss, indicating a shift towards preserving less lean mass relative to fat loss with each subsequent intervention.

Be aware that as you lose weight repeatedly, you might lose a higher proportion of muscle relative to fat. To mitigate this, ensure your protein intake is adequate (15-20% of calories as per the study) and incorporate resistance training if possible, although the study used mixed activities.

ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
The ratios between cumulated loss of fat and fat free mass after one to four interventions decreased with the number of interventions (2.4, 2.2, 2.1 and 1.4).
Sune Dandanell et al. · Scandinavian Journal of Public Health · 2017

Why this rating

Retrospective data, bioimpedance measurements have known limitations, and the trend is statistically significant but the absolute difference in ratio is modest.

Source

Repeated lifestyle interventions lead to progressive weight loss: A retrospective review chart study

Sune Dandanell et al. · Scandinavian Journal of Public Health · 2017

DOI 10.1177/1403494817693709

cohort · n=2120Cited 12×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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