Researchers claiming it's impossible to keep weight off

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Replies

  • maillemaker
    maillemaker Posts: 1,253 Member
    The article is correct. Many doctors are now coming to the conclusion that it is not a viable solution to the obesity problem to rely on behavioral change. Most people cannot tolerate the discomfort of weight loss long term.

    http://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?live=2993&bhcp=20

    The above video is Dr. Liebel from Columbia University Medical Center.

    The upshot is our bodies are designed to protect fat stores, and will make you miserable when you reduce them.
  • EvanKeel
    EvanKeel Posts: 1,904 Member
    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 have no particular ideological problem with regulating markets; I'm a bit of socialist at heart. It's a completely unrealistic stance to take because it'll never happen, barring collapse of our economy. So who knows.

    And anyone who makes a pledge not to regain the weight is just begging for trouble. We know what it takes to lose weight, and we do the best we can on any given day. That's the only thing I'd pledge to.
  • BigGuy47
    BigGuy47 Posts: 1,768 Member
    I know countless people who have lost and kept off massive amounts of weight. What researchers need to do is study these statistical anomalies.
    The National Weight Control Registry collects data from people that have managed to keep the weight off.

    http://www.nwcr.ws/
  • Nedra19455
    Nedra19455 Posts: 241 Member
    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!

    Yes! I agree!

    I also think that there was a study (maybe by the NIH?) that looked at habits of people who were able to maintain their weight after weightloss. But I think it was just after 1 year of maintenance, so I'm not sure if that would be enough to get usable information. I remember that stepping on the scale daily was one of the common habits of successful maintainers.
  • aarnwine2013
    aarnwine2013 Posts: 317 Member
    I've been worried about this exact topic for weeks... I'm about 14lbs from my goal weight and then what?? I've lost this weight 100 times in my lifetime. Losing isn't the problem, it's keeping it off.

    I'm going to continue to read the responses but lately I've been reading about how people keep it off. I think I've changed my way of thinking from I have to lose this weight right now to , let's get healthy and fit. I workout because it makes me feel good now... Hopefully as I continue to lose weight I will look up different exercises and continue my journey to fitness.

    Good post.
  • VeganCappy
    VeganCappy Posts: 122

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

    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).
  • Lindzpnc
    Lindzpnc Posts: 98 Member
    aww man I knew it!!!!! im destined to be obese! im gonna go have a snickers bar for breakfast instead of my egg whites!

    yay!!!!!!


    thanks!
  • GFreg
    GFreg Posts: 404
    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.

    So if I gain weight, it is "nearly impossible" to permanently lose the weight but if I never gained the weight in the first place then I wouldn't have to worry about becoming obese in the future. Sounds like 'Grade A' science to me. /sarcasm

    I owned up to the fact that I ate like crap and gained weight. I am in the process of losing the weight. If I lose the weight and then return to a 4500 calorie a day diet, of course I will get fat again.
  • sculli123
    sculli123 Posts: 1,221 Member
    OP you're right of course that's the reason. I don't want to insult anyone but it's lack of discipline and willpower that causes people to gain the weight back after they lose it. That and the mentality that they thing they're "done" once they reach a goal. Forgetting to set new goals and living a lifestyle rather than getting in shape for one day.
  • maillemaker
    maillemaker Posts: 1,253 Member
    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.

    As the video I posted above shows, the reason why people gain weight is that they can't deal with the discomfort of weight loss for long term.

    Our bodies seem to be programmed to protect fat stores once they have been acquired. Body fat produces leptin. The less body fat you have, the less leptin you have. As leptin declines, it triggers other hormonal changes that result in your body reducing metabolism and increasing sensations of hunger. The reduced metabolism can make you feel cold or irritable.

    Worse, the effect may be permanent, even if you lose all the weight and become non-obese. A person who has been obese and loses fat will have a metabolism that is 12% - 20% less than someone who has the same body mass but was never obese.

    This means that once you lose the weight, your maintenance calories will be 12% - 20% less than the normal maintenance calories for a person of that body weight.

    So not only do you have to suffer to lose the weight, you have to suffer to maintain it once you lost it.

    The real key here, as the article states, is to not get fat in the first place. Once you've pushed your leptin levels high, the effects may be irreversible with current medical technology.
  • pinkyslippers
    pinkyslippers Posts: 188 Member

    And anyone who makes a pledge not to regain the weight is just begging for trouble. We know what it takes to lose weight, and we do the best we can on any given day. That's the only thing I'd pledge to.

    Amen to that, brother :drinker:
  • sculli123
    sculli123 Posts: 1,221 Member
    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%.
    dats it!
  • maillemaker
    maillemaker Posts: 1,253 Member
    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.
  • ValGogo
    ValGogo Posts: 2,168 Member
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  • ValGogo
    ValGogo Posts: 2,168 Member
    Is this pseudoscience or just plain caca?
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    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%.

    Wasn't the 5% those who kept it off for more than 10 years? It sounds like you are exactly what the article is talking about. You are doing it again.
  • Slacker16
    Slacker16 Posts: 1,184 Member
    True story:
    When I was 15, I reached 105 kilos. It made me :frown:
    By the age of 16, I was 85 kilos and :indifferent:
    By 17 I was 70 kilos and :smile:

    I've yo-yo'ed quite a bit in the 12 years since I was 16, but never got above 85 kilos. That's still pretty big given my height and bone structure, but nowhere near as bad as 105. I is anomaly?

    It didn't take nearly as much effort as the article linked and some of the replies would suggest, just enough vigilance not to let myself get too big and a bit of long-term change. I didn't do any sort of calorie-counting until I was 25-26 and started because I was tired of yo-yo'ing.

    My point being that, while maintaining an ideal weight might require more effort than it's worth, my experience has been that maintaining a reasonable weight doesn't.

    I intend to let myself go in my sixties. I'ma be a fat old dude.
  • Riiseli
    Riiseli Posts: 18 Member
    I'm too lazy to check, but I'm guessing this article is based on a review article published in Lancet. A review article isn't necessarily meant to discuss reasons behind certain results, they just summarize what other scientists have found in their studies. A review article is based on trial results published, most likely, in peer-reviewed literature. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Review_article
  • echofm1
    echofm1 Posts: 471 Member
    The reason I'm hesitant to trust the numbers of the researchers, in this case, is because long-term weight loss is difficult to do in a highly controlled study. In fact, the more controlled it is in this case, the less likely participants probably are to keep the weight off. This is because it sets up the diet problem: Follow our strict plan to lose the weight. Then we let you go into the world and see if you regain (Spoiler! Most of them do). It's a hard metric to track because if you don't control it at all it's hard to gather results, but if you do control it then your results are likely to be skewed.

    That being said, a lot of people probably do regain the weight, or at least part of it, for various reasons. Women might have a baby, or it might just be the result of getting older, or maybe something happens in their lives. And maybe after that point they go back down, maybe they don't.

    I think it would be interesting to see the long term success of people after they've hit goal weight though, and comparing the programs used to see which methods of weight loss have the highest chance of long term success. We all say that it's calorie counting and a reasonable deficit (and I agree!), but it would be neat to see it in comparison to things like Shakeology, Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem, etc.

    It would also be neat to see if there's a difference depending on how much weight you lose. How likely is it that someone who lost 150 lbs will regain all the weight (within 2 lbs like the article claims) vs. someone who lost 100, vs. 50, vs 25, vs. 10. More interesting things to consider!
  • defauIt
    defauIt Posts: 118 Member
    It's really amazing how 100% of the people in this thread are the 5%.

    Also fun to note, the 5% count someone who has lost 5% of their weight permanently as a success. So if you're 300lbs and go to 285lbs you're part of the very rare 5%. People going from 300lbs to 180lbs are a tiny subgroup of the 5%.

    But feel free to say every single study which has found the same result to be wrong. Your anecdotal evidence and disbelief is much more credible then thousands upon thousands of data points.

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