Research
Energy balance
Long-term maintenance of significant weight loss (>10%) following a Very Low Calorie Diet (VLCD) is rare, with only 5.9% of healthy participants sustaining loss after 15 years.
VLCD can help you lose weight quickly, but it is not a permanent fix. Without ongoing lifestyle changes, most people regain the weight within 15 years. Use it as a starting point, not a solution.
ModerateRefutesMEDIUM confidence
Only 5.9% who remained healthy at follow- up had maintained >10% body weight reduction.
Why this rating
Retrospective observational study with high follow-up but potential selection bias and confounding factors.
Source
Body weight, diabetes incidence vascular events and survival 15 years after very low calorie diet in community medical clinics in the UK
Richard Paisey et al. · BMJ Nutrition Prevention & Health · 2022
DOI 10.1136/bmjnph-2021-000363
cohort · n=325Cited 1×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Greater weight loss achieved during VLCD is associated with a higher incidence of cardiovascular events in the 15 years following the intervention.Moderate
- VLCD does not prevent the development of type 2 diabetes or impaired fasting glucose in the long term (15 years) for the majority of participants.Moderate
Related findings · Energy balance
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