Research

Energy balance

Bone Mineral Content (BMC) continues to decline during the weight regain phase (6-12 months) even when total body weight and fat mass are increasing.

If you lose a significant amount of weight (5% or more), your bone density may drop. This drop can continue even if you regain some of the weight later. To protect your bones, consider baseline bone density assessments if you are at risk (e.g., postmenopausal women) and ensure adequate calcium and vitamin D intake alongside resistance training.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
All groups, except for women losing 10% or more, significantly regained weight and fat mass at 12 months, while BMC continued to decline.
Sun H. Kim et al. · Journal of the Endocrine Society · 2026

Why this rating

Based on the same robust DIETFITS secondary analysis with DXA data.

Source

Body composition changes after 6 and 12 months of dietary weight loss: insights from the DIETFITS trial

Sun H. Kim et al. · Journal of the Endocrine Society · 2026

DOI 10.1210/jendso/bvag015

rct · n=609
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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