For the study, researchers analyzed responses from 27,350 adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1988 and 2014. Researchers separated survey data into three time periods: 1988-1994, 1999-2004 and 2009-2014.
While obesity prevalence increased among the participants from 53 percent in 1988-1994 to 66 percent in 2009-2014, the rate of participants who were overweight or obese and said they’d tried to lose weight in the last 12 months dropped from 56 percent to 49 percent for the same time periods.
“This observation may be due to body weight misperception reducing motivation to engage in weight loss efforts or primary care clinicians not discussing weight issues with patients,” wrote the study’s authors. “The chronicity of obesity may also contribute. The longer adults live with obesity, the less they may be willing to attempt weight loss, in particular if they had attempted weight loss multiple times without success.”
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