Posted on 06/16/2025 6:56:30 AM PDT by Red Badger
A new study by Harvard and Ben Gurion University researchers found that nearly one-third of individuals who followed a healthy diet did not lose weight, but still saw meaningful improvements in cardiometabolic health. Credit: Stock Healthy eating can significantly improve metabolic health even without weight loss.
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New research from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Ben Gurion University in Israel reveals that nearly one-third of people who stuck to a healthy diet didn’t lose any weight, but still saw impressive health improvements.
Even without shedding pounds, participants experienced key benefits to their cardiometabolic health. These included higher levels of HDL cholesterol (often called the “good” cholesterol), reduced levels of leptin (a hormone that drives hunger), and less visceral fat, which is the deep belly fat that can surround vital organs.
“We have been conditioned to equate weight loss with health, and weight loss-resistant individuals are often labeled as failures,” said lead author Anat Yaskolka Meir, postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Epidemiology at Harvard Chan School. “Our findings reframe how we define clinical success. People who do not lose weight can improve their metabolism and reduce their long-term risk for disease. That’s a message of hope, not failure.”
The study was recently published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
Diverse Diets and Participants
To conduct the study, researchers tracked 761 people in Israel who had abdominal obesity and participated in three large-scale, workplace-based nutrition trials: DIRECT, CENTRAL, and DIRECT-PLUS. These participants followed healthy diets with strong commitment and received detailed metabolic assessments throughout.
Each participant was randomly assigned to one of several diet plans, including low-fat, low-carb, Mediterranean, or green-Mediterranean diets. They followed these plans for 18 to 24 months, allowing scientists to observe long-term changes in weight and metabolic health.
The study revealed that across all of the clinical trials and all of the diets:
36% of participants lost more than 5% of their initial body weight (considered clinically significant weight loss),
36% lost up to 5% of their body weight,
28% lost no weight or even gained some weight, and were considered weight loss-resistant.
Weight loss was associated with a variety of health improvements:
The researchers calculated that each kilogram lost was associated with a 1.44% increase in HDL cholesterol, a 1.37% decrease in triglycerides, a 2.46% drop in insulin, a 2.79% drop in leptin, and a 0.49-unit reduction in liver fat, along with reductions in blood pressure and liver enzymes.
Weight-Resistant Participants Also Improved
The study also found, however, that participants who were resistant to weight change—who tended to be older and/or women—showed many of the same improvements. They had more good cholesterol; lower levels of leptin, leading to less hunger; and less harmful visceral fat.
“These are deep metabolic shifts with real cardiometabolic consequences,” said Yaskolka Meir. “Our study showed that a healthy diet works, even when weight doesn’t shift.”
The researchers also utilized cutting-edge omics tools and discovered 12 specific DNA methylation sites that strongly predict long-term weight loss.
“This novel finding shows that some people may be biologically wired to respond differently to the same diet,” said corresponding author Iris Shai, principal investigator of the nutrition trials and adjunct professor of nutrition at Harvard Chan School. “This isn’t just about willpower or discipline—it’s about biology. And now we’re getting close to understanding it.”
The study had some limitations, namely that the majority of participants were men. The researchers noted that future similar studies should focus on women.
Reference:
“Individual response to lifestyle interventions: a pooled analysis of three long-term weight loss trials”
by Anat Yaskolka Meir, Gal Tsaban, Ehud Rinott, Hila Zelicha, Dan Schwarzfuchs, Yftach Gepner, Assaf Rudich, Ilan Shelef, Matthias Blüher, Michael Stumvoll, Uta Ceglarek, Berend Isermann, Nora Klöting, Maria Keller, Peter Kovacs, Lu Qi, Dong D Wang, Liming Liang, Frank B Hu, Meir J Stampfer and Iris Shai, 5 June 2025, European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
DOI: 10.1093/eurjpc/zwaf308
Other Harvard Chan co-authors included Lu Qi, Dong Wang, Liming Liang, Frank Hu, and Meir Stampfer.
The study was funded by the German Research Foundation (project 209933838).
Well, Maybe Jim Fixx was one................🙄
Get off carbs and go carnivore. It works. Sounds simple, buy giving up carbs is key.
Except you need fiber.
Protein and resistance training are vital on weight loss drugs especially and also losing lean mass, including muscle mass.
Political- big fat purple haired uglies gotta feel alright, too.
RFK needs to pull more money out of that dope show
I always remember a simple rule
Many more people die from chronic over eating than eating less.
All healthy people die...Jack Lalanne for one...
Lol. Mom used to say that in her day, every girl group needed a fat friend.
I saw this a number of years ago - called “Stealth Health” - not losing any weight but huge gains such as lowered blood pressure, from a healthy diet and exercise.
My doctor already told me losing weight “at my age” is extremely difficult - he’s not wrong about that...
Right on!!
Losing excess weight has a significant impact on your body. From the stress it puts on joints to the way it processes food, nourishment, and waste being a reasonable weight is critical to a painless life.
I am amazed at the people in our culture who want to normalize obesity.
5-10 pounds over a target goal is not what I am talking about. There are people who are 30-50 pounds over a reasonable weight who will tell you that they are “healthy.”
That might be true for the moment…but being that far over the target is brutal when you are older than 50 or 60 years old.
96 is a good run!......................
You can also eat fruit and vegetables.
Eat an orange or an apple.
Don’t drink orange juice or apple or grape juice.
There is way too much sugar.
Basically don’t eat any refined sugar products.
This means bread, pasta, cereal, sodas of any kind, beer, desserts of any kind, wine, etc.
All of these are complex carbohydrates.
Which means you are eating sugar.
I always make a point to walk 20-30 minutes after every meal. It helps to lessen the blood sugar spikes.
Intermittent fasting is an easy way to lose weight.
All you need to do is NOT eat anything for 24-36 hours twice a week.
I do it on Monday and Thursday typically.
I have lost 25+ pounds since December.
My program is as follows.
I don’t eat from Sunday night after dinner until Tuesday morning. I sleep twice during this time period.
I repeat this from Wednesday night after dinner until Friday morning.
In addition to the weight loss I have also dropped my overall total cholesterol from 290 to 205 in the first month of fasting.
It is simple.
Just don’t eat.
If you do Intermittent Fasting, it’s much easier to do if you are on the Keto Diet, since you’ll be using Ketones for the energy.
I don’t understand why the schools pass out orange juice because it’s so loaded with sugar. Milk...whole milk and not the little tiny cartons the schools are passing out.
Thanks for the link.
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