Loading...
Prior studies have suggested that weight fluctuations and weight cycling are associated with adverse health outcomes. Using data from the Nurses’ Health Study, researchers assessed the association between weight cycling and mortality. Among 45,000 women who self-reported their weights from 1972 to 1992, 8% were classified as severe weight cyclers (intentional weight loss of ≥9.1 kg at least 3 times), 19% as mild cyclers (weight loss of ≥4.5 kg at least 3 times), and the rest as noncyclers.
During 12 years of follow-up, nearly 2900 women died. Severe cyclers gained more weight (mean, 5.2 kg) during follow-up than mild cyclers (mean, 4.1 kg) or noncyclers (mean, 2.6 kg). After adjustments for confounders, risk for all-cause or cardiovascular m…