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Fast early weight loss tends to stick
Early buy-in
That seems contradictory, since rapid loss doesn't sound sustainable. But buy-in is huge for sustainability. For many overweight or obese people, a diet that shows nothing quickly gets abandoned as not working, while a quick result makes them commit harder.
The trade-offs
It comes with trade-offs. Faster fat loss may mean faster lean mass loss, and an aggressive start is meant as a boost rather than a way to diet forever. At some point the person has to be comfortable moving to something more sustainable.
One line often credited to Thomas Sowell fits the situation: there are no solutions, only trade-offs.
Does losing weight fast mean regaining it faster?
Arne Astrup and Stephan Rössner reviewed this in a 2000 paper in Obesity Reviews. They found that rapid weight loss followed by a maintenance phase produced similar long-term outcomes to slower loss. Participants on very low calorie diets lost more at the start and ended up about as far along after follow-up. The review drew on controlled trials of different durations.
What does faster loss cost in lean mass?
In a 2011 study in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, Ina Garthe and colleagues in Norway compared athletes losing about 0.7 percent of body weight per week with athletes losing about 1.4 percent. The slower group gained lean mass over the diet, while the faster group did not. Both groups lost similar proportions of body fat. The athletes were elite and trained throughout.
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