[Weight cycling during treatment of obese women]

Long-term treatment of obese patients shows that the majority of them regains weight or has weight cycling (WC). We have studied the frequency of WC (weight lost and regain of at least 5% of initial weight, IW) in 218 obese women selected from a University Hospital with a follow-up of >12 months admitted between 1992 and 2000. Patients with psychiatric, infectious or chronic disease (except metabolic syndrome), pregnancy, or using glucocorticoids were excluded. Mean age was 38+/-10 years (range 18 to 68) and the mean BMI was 41.0+/-6.6 kg/m2 (range 30 to 76). All were treated with a hypocaloric diet and increased physical activity. Anti-obesity medications were used in 61% of them for short periods of time. In the follow-up of 28+/-16 months (range 12 to 92 mo, median 23 mo), WC was observed in 62/218 (28.4%) of them and 53 had weight lost followed by weight regain. In the weight-cyclers, 59.1% of patients regained weight before the first year of treatment. WC was associated with alcohol consumption higher than 60 g/week, (RR 2.4; 95% CI= 1.2-4.7) but not with obesity class, smoking or smoke cessation. We conclude that WC is highly frequent and alcohol consumption is a predictive risk factor.