Overweight and obesity feature as number five on the WHO list of risk factors that lead to premature death. For many, the solution consists of going on one intensive slimming diet after the other, hoping that once the excessive weight has come off, they will be healthy again.
This is not the right way to go about it, according to a new report from Council on Health and Disease Prevention in Denmark in which prominent obesity researchers have reviewed the most important literature in the field to find out how weight loss affects the body.
The surprising conclusion is that weight loss does not lead to lower mortality. In fact, the report actually suggests the opposite, according to the head of the research group:
“Overweight people who lose weight have an average mortality rate that is about 15 percent higher than similar groups of overweight people who do not lose weight. One would expect that the former group would have a reduced risk of premature death, but in reality it is the other way round – the risk of dying increases if you lose weight,” says Professor Kim Overvad of the Department of Public Health – Institute of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, Aarhus University.
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