Research

Hormonal

Maintaining weight loss after formula diet-induced weight loss requires specific strategies, including continued use of formula products, behavioral support, and gradual food reintroduction, as physiological hunger hormones (ghrelin) increase post-weight loss.

After losing weight with formula meals, your body will naturally try to regain it by increasing hunger hormones. To keep the weight off, you must actively maintain your progress. This means continuing to use some formula products (daily or periodically), engaging in behavioral strategies like self-monitoring, and slowly reintroducing solid foods over 6 weeks rather than rushing back to normal eating.

GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
Weight regain following the initial TDR phase of formula VLEDs and LEDs is common without additional support... Following weight loss on a VLED, a compensatory increase in subjective hunger has been reported and associated with higher circulating levels of ghrelin... Recent well-controlled studies suggest that weight loss maintenance is possible with the addition of several key strategies... continued use of formula products either daily (1–2 products per day) or intermittently... has been shown to aid weight maintenance for up to 4 years.
Adrian Brown et al. · Nutrition Bulletin · 2019

Why this rating

Supported by multiple controlled trials and systematic reviews on maintenance strategies.

Source

Very low‐energy and low‐energy formula diets: Effects on weight loss, obesity co‐morbidities and type 2 diabetes remission – an update on the evidence for their use in clinical practice

Adrian Brown et al. · Nutrition Bulletin · 2019

DOI 10.1111/nbu.12372

narrative_reviewCited 44×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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