Men already know that women have a particularly frustrated relationship with food. In recent years, however, it seems that these issues aren’t only affecting the gentle sex. Obesity has become a problem and a large-scale study has revealed that losing weight is particularly difficult (if not impossible) for obese people.
According to data revealed by researchers who have been following the electronic health records of over 278,000 participants, losing weight is highly improbable for both men and women. Their results suggest that only 1 in 124 obese women and 1 in 210 obese men manage to attain a normal weight in any given year. But researchers examined additional variables.
They attempted to evaluate whether weight loss was possible and discovered that only eight in every 100 men managed to achieve a 5% loss in body weight. Severely obese study participants had an even more difficult time, as only one in 677 women and one in 1,290 men considered severely obese were capable of reaching a normal body weight in any given year.
And maintaining a healthy body weight was just as problematic as reaching it in the first place. Researchers determined that many of the study’s participants (over one third) experienced weight cycling. Increases and decreases in body weight were experienced often and this only seemed to further hinder participants form reaching a healthy weight for their body frame.
Though the CDC has produced data showing that a 5 percent body weight loss is immeasurably beneficial by reducing blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels, few people actually succeed in maintaining the lost weight even if they had initially experienced it. According to the study, 49% of men and 53% of women initially lost at least 5 percent of their body weight only to regain most of that weight back within the following two years.
Experts explain that obesity may come with specific changes in the brains of people gaining the weight. But what this study points out is that these changes are irreversible.
Photo credits: Outcaststate
