Researchers claiming it's impossible to keep weight off

A lot of people are trying to poo on this article because they don't like what it's saying. Unfortunately there is very solid research to support exactly what it's saying. The mass majority of people who attempt to lose weight will indeed fail. Of those who succeed, the vast majority of them will eventually regain the weight. It's not meant to be motivating or demotivating. It's simply reporting factual data. I feel like those numbers are correct too. We all know plenty of people who lost a dramatic amount of weight and regained all of it (or more in some cases). Outside of the internet how many people do you know that lost dramatic weight and kept it off 5+ years, 10 years, 15? You probably don't no that many.

Now think about people you know from the internet. The number is a lot bigger because many of the success stories like to congregate around diet and fitness related websites/forums. Between MFP and the bodybuilding.com forums losing fat section, I know countless people who have lost and kept off massive amounts of weight. What researchers need to do is study these statistical anomalies. What separates this group from the much larger group of people who lost weight but gained it back? While the following is all pure anecdotal, observational evidence, I have noticed the following traits exist in the a great deal of the people I know, myself included, who have lost and kept off large quantities of weight:

1. They did not do a "fad" diet or did so only for a portion of their weight loss.
2. They ultimately ended up doing some kind of calorie counting or calorie and macro nutrient tracking
3. They continued to count calories even after weight was lost. Many never stopped and don't have any plans to at any point.
4. They still regularly monitor their weight as well as other markers of body composition (measurements, progress pictures, etc.)
5. They do some kind of resistance training.
6. Possibly most importantly, once achieving goal weight, they did not attempt to simply maintain weight. They continued to want to improve body composition by doing rotating periods of muscle gain and fat loss (also known as bulk/cut cycles).

I feel like number 6 is really the key here. It is why they continue to do numbers 1-5. When people no longer have a goal and simply want to focus on maintaining the can become relaxed. The work is done, now it's just smooth sailing. This is unfortunately not true at all. The only thing "easier" about maintenance vs. fat loss is that calories can be slightly higher. Not even a ton higher, we're talking around 500 calories a day higher. Not really a ton of wiggle room. If instead of just maintaining you decide to focus on body re-composition, you have no room to be relaxed. A muscle gaining phase involves more precise control then a fat loss phase does. It's much harder work. It's slower, results are less dramatic. You can lose 100 lbs in a year if you try hard. You can only hope to gain a fraction of that over a lifetime of attempting muscle gain. It probably takes most people 5-10 years worth of bulk/cut cycling to reach their muscular genetic potential. Spending that long tracking calories, working out, weighing in, seems like adequate time to have fully integrated those habits into your life. 10 years in you probably have little worry of falling off the wagon. Also since you spent a decade improving body composition you have much more wiggle room then someone who simply lost fat. I would really love someone do research the group of individuals who manage to keep weight off long term. I feel like that is where the money needs to be spent. Not on stating the obvious like this article. We all know that most people fail at long term weight loss. That isn't helpful information. Let's look at why the minority manages to keep it off!

LOL

"An appropriate rebalancing of the primal needs of humans with food availability is essential," University of Oxford epidemiologist Klim McPherson wrote in a Lancet commentary following last week's study. But to do that, he suggested, "would entail curtailing many aspects of production and marketing for food industries."

Hysterical. They're stating that an economy of abundance (here, anyway) and technological convenience has produced people who are eating more than they need. So their solution is apparently to ration out the food, or something similar? In any event, they want to make the food less available. Alternatively, we could just eat less.

Yes, that's exactly what they are saying in the article in the Lancet - that we all need to eat less, and doing so (in order to get the collective BMI back down to the level it was in 1980) will cost the food industry several billion dollars in lost revenue, which they aren't going to like. I agree with everyone saying it is about individual responsibility, however we live in an environment based on a cheap food model. It would also be interesting to revisit this thread in 10 years to follow up on everyone (myself included) who pledged not to regain the weight. It's complex and bigger than us, at the same time as being down to just us as individuals.

I would really love someone do research the group of individuals who manage to keep weight off long term. I feel like that is where the money needs to be spent. Not on stating the obvious like this article. We all know that most people fail at long term weight loss. That isn't helpful information. Let's look at why the minority manages to keep it off!

The upshot is our bodies are designed to protect fat stores, and will make you miserable when you reduce them.

There's a disturbing truth that is emerging from the science of obesity. After years of study, it's becoming apparent that it's nearly impossible to permanently lose weight.

Lost in all of the noise about dieting and obesity is the difficult concept of prevention, of not putting weight on in the first place.

Where did the article suggest those the regained maintained their habits developed while losing weight? It says:

"Researchers are divided about why weight gain seems to be irreversible, probably a combination of biological and social forces."

This seems to me to suggest that people slowly go back to old habits. Eating out a little more often, having that extra treat a little more often, shortening or skipping the workouts a little more often, etc.

I lost about 45 lbs in 1994 and kept it off until my first pregnancy almost 10 years later. It can be done and I am doing it again. I've spent most of my life doing things other people said were "too hard". I am the 5%.

I lost about 45 lbs in 1994 and kept it off until my first pregnancy almost 10 years later. It can be done and I am doing it again. I've spent most of my life doing things other people said were "too hard". I am the 5%.

I agree, you will feel miserable, but if you do it right, that misery will pass as your body starts to become accustom to foods with lower calorie densities. If you eat the right foods, you can eat all you want and still lose weight, feel great, and still perform anaerobic exercise (you can't in ketosis).

There is evidence to suggest that this is not true. The reduction in metabolism from losing body fat may be permanent. The effect has been tracked in people who have kept their weight off for several years. Their metabolisms are still 12% - 20% lower than people of the same weight who were never obese.

If it became easier over time I would expect to see more people succeed long term, too, which we don't.