Research
Energy balance
Both diet-only and diet-plus-exercise interventions are associated with partial weight regain, indicating that neither strategy alone prevents long-term regain.
Expect some weight regain after losing weight, regardless of whether you exercised or not. This is a normal physiological response. To maximize long-term success, focus on strategies that limit this regain, as even the best current interventions (diet + exercise) only result in partial maintenance.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
However, both diet-only and diet-plus-exercise programmes are associated with partial weight regain, and future studies should explore better strategies to limit weight regain and achieve greater long-term weight loss.
Why this rating
Derived from the same meta-analysis of 18 RCTs.
Source
Long‐term effectiveness of diet‐plus‐exercise interventions vs. diet‐only interventions for weight loss: a meta‐analysis
Ta‐Peng Wu et al. · Obesity Reviews · 2009
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-789x.2008.00547.x
Meta-analysis · 18 studiesCited 509×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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