Weight fluctuations – like the typical pattern of weight loss followed by partial or total regain that affects most people attempting to lose weight – are strongly associated with higher mortality, more cardiovascular events, and new-onset diabetes, according to an analysis of the Treating to New Targets trial published online April 6 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Weight loss is commonly prescribed as a lifestyle intervention to improve health, especially cardiovascular health. However, “the usual pattern for most patients ... is weight loss followed by weight gain” (also termed weight cycling), which has been linked to poor cardiovascular outcomes, especially when the pattern is repeated over time, said Sripal Bangalore, MD, of New York University, and his coinvestigators.
Dr. Sripal Bangalore
The primary outcome measure – the composite rate of death from coronary heart disease, nonfatal MI, resuscitated cardiac arrest, revascularization, or angina – was significantly associated with weight fluctuations in a dose-dependent fashion so that greater degrees of variability in body weight were linked to higher event rates (N Engl J Med. 2017 April 6. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1606148).
“When compared with the lowest quintile, patients with the highest quintile of variability had an increase in the risk of any coronary event of 64%, an increase in the risk of any cardiovascular event of 85%, an increase in the risk of death of 124%, an increase in the risk of MI of 117%, an increase in the risk of stroke of 136%, and an increase in the risk of new-onset diabetes of 78%, independent of traditional risk factors,” Dr. Bangalore and his associates reported.
This association remained strong regardless of the patients’ weight at baseline, consistent among those of normal body weight and those who were overweight or obese. And the association also persisted across multiple sensitivity analyses.
This study was supported by Pfizer. Dr. Bangalore reported serving as a consultant to Pfizer, Daiichi-Sankyo, Boehringer Ingelheim, Merck, Menarini, Gilead, and Abbott Vascular; his associates reported ties to numerous industry sources.