New Study: Weight Loss Is Harder If You're Overweight to Begin With

Here's some sobering news for people who want to bring down their weight. According to the UK's Medical Research Council (MRC), once a person starts gaining weight, she will spend a significant amount of time and effort to lose it.

This result was gleaned from two studies, one which involved 5,362 people who were born in 1946, and another which involved 20,000 more individuals who were born in 1958. According to a report on the findings that were published on MarieClaire.co.uk, Rebecca Hardy of the MRC said "both groups [of people] began increasing in weight in the 1980s and since then have been increasing in mass all through life." She adds, "For men it goes up steadily. For women it starts slowly and accelerates in [their] mid-thirties. Once people become overweight, they continue relentlessly upwards."

The MRC further states that instead of focusing on ways to diet and lose weight, they said health campaigners should focus on preventing people from becoming overweight to begin with. But despite the fact that diet may not have much to do with slimming down, the MRC continues to encourage people to increase their physical activity and eat healthier food.