Managing weight remains a major health goal for many adults, especially those dealing with overweight or obesity. A recent large-scale study published in JAMA Network Open has provided a clearer picture of how likely individuals are to achieve meaningful weight loss — and the results highlight how difficult it truly is.
Led by Dr. Lyudmyla Kompaniyets from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, the study analyzed electronic health records from around 18 million adults in the United States between 2009 and 2022.
The researchers focused on the rate at which individuals were able to lose at least 5% of their body weight each year — a level of weight loss considered clinically meaningful for improving health.
The results showed that just 1 in 10 adults with overweight or obesity lost 5% or more of their weight in a given year. This means that for the majority of people trying to lose weight, success within a single year is rare.
The chance of losing this amount of weight depended heavily on a person’s starting body mass index (BMI). People with a higher initial BMI were more likely to achieve significant weight loss. For instance, only 1 in 12 people who were overweight (but not obese) reached the 5% weight loss mark, compared to 1 in 6 among those with a BMI of 45 or higher.
The study also revealed gender and racial differences. Women were more likely than men to achieve both meaningful weight loss and reach a healthier BMI range. Among all groups studied, White women had the highest success rates in both categories.
Over a longer period — tracking weight changes for three to 14 years — the numbers improved slightly. About one-third of people who were initially overweight and nearly 42% of those who were obese managed to lose 5% or more of their body weight.
But when it came to reducing BMI into the “healthy” range (a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9), the rates were much lower: only 23.2% of the overweight group and just 2% of the obese group managed this over time.
These results highlight the ongoing difficulty people face in not only losing weight but keeping it off long enough to move into a healthy BMI range. Weight loss is influenced by many factors, including genetics, environment, access to resources, medical support, and social influences.
The study’s authors stress the importance of developing tailored interventions that take into account a person’s starting weight, gender, ethnicity, and other personal circumstances. They suggest that both healthcare systems and public health efforts need to be more supportive and individualized to improve weight loss outcomes and long-term health.
In short, this study provides important evidence that weight loss is hard — and that most people trying to lose weight need more help than they’re currently getting. Continued research, personalized healthcare, and realistic public messaging are key to helping more people manage their weight and improve their overall well-being.
If you care about weight loss, please read studies that hop extract could reduce belly fat in overweight people, and early time-restricted eating could help lose weight .
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