Blame evolution, not that colossal family-sized tin of chocolates, if you’re feeling a little heavier than you’d like as spring arrives.
Our bodies are programmed to store more fat during the colder months. We tend to consume more calories and move less when the temperatures are lower.
It’s a biological hangover from pre-industrial times, when our bodies adapted for scarce food supplies by storing fat as a winter-ready energy source.
For many of us, that scarcity is no longer a problem, however. Thanks to innovations like refrigeration, cross-continental shipping and three-for-two deals on party nibbles, winter has – if anything – become a period not of insufficient calories, but delicious excess.
It’s also one of the reasons that winter weight-loss drives are so hard to maintain. Our bodies rebel against the sudden loss of calories, increasing our appetites or surreptitiously lowering our energy expenditure in ways we don’t notice.
But if, like me, you’re carrying a little extra weight after a particularly indulgent colder season, there may be a surprising solution: perhaps we just need to carry a little extra weight.
Add weight to lose weight
In 2025, researchers investigated weighted vests as a way to help people keep weight off. If you’re unfamiliar, a weighted vest is exactly what it sounds like: a vest worn on the torso with pockets for slim weights that can be added or taken away.
When loaded up, the vests can weigh anything from 3–30kg – sometimes even more, if you don’t mind looking like an armoured robot.
A small study, reported in the International Journal of Obesity, followed a group of obese people over the course of two years. They were split into two groups: one underwent calorie restriction for six months, the other group did too, but also wore a weighted vest for 10 hours a day.
Both groups lost weight in the first six months. But two years into the study, both groups had also regained weight – the classic yo-yo effect that many of us know all too well. Here’s where it gets interesting, though.
The group that just did calorie restriction regained all of the weight they had lost. The group that wore a weighted vest during the first six months only regained half the weight.
Why? Scientists found their resting metabolic rate (RMR) – the number of calories your body burns performing basic functions like moving and breathing – increased.
“Because decreases in RMR after weight loss are known to promote weight regain, preserving RMR likely helped participants sustain their lower body weight,” says Prof Kristen Beavers, a health and exercise scientist at Wake Forest University in the US, who co-authored the paper. “People who maintained higher RMR tended to retain more of their weight loss.”
The study adds to a growing body of research into how resistance training, such as lifting weights or doing body weight exercises like squats, can be an effective way to lose weight in the longer term.
Weighted vests are no different; they simply increase the body’s energy expenditure as you move.
“When additional weight is added to the body, the muscles, bones and cardiovascular system work harder to perform the same activities, such as walking or climbing stairs,” Beavers says. “This increased effort raises the overall energy cost of movement, leading to greater calorie burn without necessarily changing the type or duration of activity.
“The extra load also provides a form of resistance training, which can build muscle mass and strength over time. Because muscle tissue burns more calories at rest than fat tissue, maintaining or increasing muscle mass can raise resting metabolic rate, which also contributes to weight loss.”
How to use a weighted vest
If you’re thinking of loading up in the New Year, Beavers has a few recommendations. First, most people find weighted vests comfortable once they get used to them, but she says it helps to gradually increase the weight. Be mindful of changes to your posture so that you avoid discomfort or injury.
You also need to make sure the vest is heavy enough. “Based on current literature, wearing loads of approximately 8–10 per cent of your body weight appears necessary to meaningfully affect energy balance and weight regulation,” Beavers says.
It also depends on how long you’ll be wearing it for and whether you’re just sitting around or going for a run.
The evidence around weighted vests for weight loss is already building, but researchers are also looking into the promising effects they can have on bone and cardiovascular health. In other words, this might be one wearable that definitely improves your health.
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