Why do most people regain the weight?

Because the diet ends and the body doesn’t go back to where it was. After losing weight you burn fewer calories than your new size predicts, and the old habits are still waiting. On average, more than half the weight lost in a program is back within two years. Keeping it off needs its own plan.

What the studies show

• Regain is the usual result. Across US weight loss programs, more than half of the weight lost came back within two years, and more than 80% by five years. The average person still kept off about 7 pounds (3 kg) at five years.
• The body burns less. People keeping off 10% or more of their weight burn about 10 to 15% less than their new size predicts.
• Drugs hold it only while you take them. A year after people stopped semaglutide in its main trial, two thirds of the loss was back.

Losing weight is like getting out of debt. The hard part is the spending habits after you’re debt free.

What the people who keep it off do

The National Weight Control Registry follows people who lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for at least a year. Members average about 73 pounds (33 kg) lost, kept off for more than five years. The habits they share:

• About an hour of activity a day
• A lower calorie diet they keep to
• Breakfast
• Weighing themselves regularly
• Eating the same way on weekdays and weekends

They’re a self-selected group, so this is what successful people do, not proof that the habits caused the success.

What to do

1. Keep weighing yourself after you reach your goal, and pick a number, like 5 pounds up, that means you act.
2. Keep lifting and walking. Activity is the habit the registry members share most.
3. Move to maintenance on purpose, with new calories for your new size. Find them with your maintenance calories after a diet.