Have you ever gone on a diet only to find the weight is already back before you can really start enjoying your new size? It can be frustrating, to say the least, but it’s more common than you think. When studying the participants of “The Biggest Loser” television show, researchers found that although participants on average lost a whopping 129 pounds each, after six years, they had gained 70 percent of that weight back and were actually burning about 500 calories less per day than those of similar weight and age who had not dieted.

Furthermore, after six years, most of the participants had gained about 70 percent of the weight back. What the study ultimately showed was that dieting rarely works to maintain weight. And your genes might be to blame—your weight has a natural way of staying around a certain point, and it can be hard to change this set point. So what can be done to actually achieve and maintain a healthy body weight?