Why it's nearly impossible to shed those extra kilos

London: A new chart has been revealed that shows why it's nearly impossible to lose weight and keep it off.

The study, analysing electronic health records of over 278,000 people living in England over a nine-year period, found that in a given year, the average obese woman has roughly a 1 in 124 chance of returning to a normal weight and for obese men, the odds are even worse: 1 in 210, the Independent reported.

It also found that obese men and women have very low odds attaining even a 5 percent weight loss in a given year: 1 in 10 for women and 1 in 12 for men

The authors said that for patients with a BMI of 30 or greater kilograms per meters squared, maintaining weight loss was rare and the probability of achieving normal weight was extremely low.

They concluded that research to develop new and more effective approaches to obesity management is urgently required.

Wealthy western nations, like the U.S. and U.K., have been weight and body image-obsessed for decades now. But all that obsession, all those public health guidelines, all those exercise and dietary health standards issued by well-intentioned public agencies, none of them has seemed to make a dent in the trend toward gaining weight.

The study appears in the American Journal of Public Health.