Slow Weight Loss May Not Always Be Best

Obese women who lose weight faster may lose more and keep the weight off just as well as those who lose more slowly, a new study finds. Researchers looked at data on 262 obese women who were in a study on weight loss. They were divided into three groups based on how quickly they lost weight. The fastest group lost 1.5 or more pounds a week. The slow group lost less than half a pound a week. The middle group lost in between these two amounts. After 6 months, average weight loss was 29.7 pounds for the fast group. It was 19.6 pounds for the moderate group and 11.2 pounds for the slow group. Follow-up on the study totaled 18 months. At this point, the fast group was 5 times as likely as the slow group to have lost 10% of body weight. Regaining weight was equally likely among the three groups. The International Journal of Behavioral Medicine published the study online.