Participants who regained weight (>2.3 kg) were compared with those who continued to maintain their body weight to examine whether there were any baseline characteristics that could distinguish the two groups. The single best predictor of risk of regain was how long participants had successfully maintained their weight loss (Table 1⇓). Individuals who had kept their weight off for 2 y or more had markedly increased odds of continuing to maintain their weight over the following year. This finding is encouraging because it suggests that, if individuals can succeed at maintaining their weight loss for 2 y, they can reduce their risk of subsequent regain by nearly 50%.