1. ¹Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
2. ²Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
3. ³Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

Correspondence: Dr J Stevens, Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology, University of North Carolina, Campus Box 7461, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. E-mail: June_Stevens@unc.edu

Received 18 January 2005; Revised 9 May 2005; Accepted 29 May 2005; Published online 22 November 2005.

Abstract

There is currently no consensus on the definition of weight maintenance in adults. Issues to consider in setting a standard definition include expert opinion, precedents set in previous studies, public health and clinical applications, comparability across body sizes, measurement error, normal weight fluctuations and biologic relevance. To be useful, this definition should indicate an amount of change less than is clinically relevant, but more than expected from measurement error or fluctuations in fluid balance under normal conditions. It is an advantage for the definition to be graded by body size and to be easily understood by the public as well as scientists. Taking all these factors into consideration, the authors recommend that long-term weight maintenance in adults be defined as a weight change of <3% of body weight.