An American Journal of Public Health-published research has unveiled that there are very rare chances for obese people to reach normal weight. Without surgical intervention, the odds of clinically obese person coming to normal weight are 1 in 210 for men and 1 in 124 for women in a given year.

Study's lead researcher Alison Fildes from University College London said that the study indicates that the current measures to tackle obesity are not able to help majority of obese patients who want to lose and maintain a healthy weight.

In the study, the researchers have assessed more than 278,000 people from the UK's Clinical Practice Research database from 2004 to 2008. The database has highlighted about the problems obese people face in order to maintain the weight loss with the help of diet and exercise.

The study researchers said that the data include patients aged 20 and above. They have been designed as obese on at least 3 measurements of their body mass index (BMI). The researchers have not included patients who have undergone bariatric weight-loss surgery. The average age of patients was found to be 55 for men and 49 for women.

The researchers said that the higher was person's BMI, less were the chances that he would be able to achieve normal body weight. In the case of morbidly obese, one in 1,290 men and 49 for women were able to manage weight loss.

Fildes said, "This might be because people are unable to access weight-loss interventions or because the interventions being offered are ineffective -- or both".