Could 8,500 steps a day be key to maintaining weight loss?

• Maintaining weight loss can sometimes be just as hard as losing the weight in the first place. 
• More than 50% of people who lose weight regain it within two years, and up to 80% regain it within five years. 
• A new study found that walking about 8,500 steps a day may help a person maintain their weight loss after dieting. 

While everyone knows that losing weight can be hard, it can sometimes be just as tricky to keep it off once you hit a healthy goal weight. 

Past research shows that more than 50% of people who lose weight regain it within two years, and up to 80% regain it within five years. 

Maintaining weight loss is currently a hot topic of discussion, thanks to the recent increase in glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonistsTrusted Source such as Wegovy and Zepbound. Recent studies show that some people who stop taking a GLP-1 regain as much as 60%Trusted Source of their lost weight within one year. 

“A major part of people with obesity who initially lose weight tend to put some or all of it back on again,” Marwan El Ghoch, MD, associate professor of food science in the Department of Biomedical, Metabolic, and Neural Sciences at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy, told Medical News Today.

“This usually happens three to five years after weight loss, regardless [of] the treatment they underwent. Therefore, I think that the most important and greatest challenge when treating obesity is preventing weight regain in the long term,” he said. 

El Ghoch is the co-lead author of a new study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health that found walking about 8,500 steps a day may help a person maintain their weight loss after dieting.

Read the story here with other weight lose tips...