Back in 2008, Los Angeles launched a radical new initiative to tackle obesity in one of its poorest, least-healthy areas: a zoning law banned new fast-food restaurants in South L.A. It now appears that the effort, a first of its kind in the U.S., has backfired. In fact, under the ordinance, the number of heavy-set people in that part of Los Angeles increased at a far greater rate than the rest of the country, according to a new Rand Corp. study.

The report, first published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, found that from 2007 to 2012 the percentage of obese and overweight people in the designated area grew from 63 percent to 75 percent. During that same period, obesity rates in the U.S. increased from 57 percent to 58 percent. “The South Los Angeles fast food ban may have symbolic value, but it has had no measurable impact in improving diets or reducing obesity,” said Roland Sturm, a Rand Corp. economist and lead author of the study.

Proponents of the ban continue to urge patience. “We never believed it was going to be an overnight situation where all of a sudden the community was going to be healthy,” City Councilman Bernard C. Parks told the Los Angeles Times.

Read More:

Ban on fast-food eateries in South L.A. hasn’t cut obesity, study says (Los Angeles Times)

No Evidence That Los Angeles Fast-Food Curbs Have Improved Diets or Cut Obesity (Rand Corp.)

Obesity Rates For States, Metro Areas (Governing)