Is Losing Weight Always Healthy?
Weight loss is much more beneficial for people with excess weight compared to individuals who are already lean, according to new research. The study, which published in PLOS Medicine Tuesday, evaluated weight loss strategies and their health effects in nearly 200,000 people and found that people with obesity who lost weight had a significantly lower risk of type 2 diabetes, however, when lean people attempted to lose weight, their risk of type 2 diabetes increased.
Bariatric physicians were surprised to learn that weight loss strategies had such opposite health effects on people depending on their body mass index (BMI) at baseline. They suspect that underlying biological differences impact how and why people’s bodies respond differently to weight loss efforts.
“The main takeaway is that weight loss is beneficial for those who are overweight; lean individuals did not experience the same or more benefit,” Dr. Mir Ali, a bariatric surgeon and medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA, told Healthline.
Excerpted from Healthline
