A study published in the American Journal of Public Health, found that one in 210 obese men and one in 124 obese women would recover their normal weight. For severely obese people, the number is one in 1,290 for men, and one in 677 for women.

The researchers analyzed data for 76,704 obese men and 99,791 obese women. During a maximum of 9 years' follow-up, 1283 men and 2245 women attained normal body weight. A good lot of people were able to see a 5 percent reduction in body weight annually (one in 12 men and one in 10 women), but most of them (78%) had regained their weight within five years. The number of people who got back to their normal, healthy weight completely was extremely low — and the researchers observed plenty of weight cycling, or the yo-yo effect in which they lost weight, gained it back, lost it again, and gained it again.

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