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Long-term success rates by approach or type of diet?

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  • gwynethsomeday
    gwynethsomeday Posts: 31 Member
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    Stanford study - low carb (atkins) came out on top both for amount of weight initially lost and amount kept off long term.


    No link handy but google is your friend :)

  • The_Enginerd
    The_Enginerd Posts: 3,982 Member
    edited July 2016
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    Personally, I think the
    NorthCascades wrote: »
    I keep hearing that 90+ % of people who lose weight gain it back. Usually it seems to mean people shouldn't bother trying to lose weight. Here's an example:

    Other people take different approaches. Some use calorie counting over time to come to an understanding about energy balance or to change their ideas about portion sizes, then apply what they've learned going forward.

    I personally think those that come to understand energy balance and change their approach about portion sizes are probably the ones with the best long term results. It may not necessarily be because this is the best approach, but the person who is willing to put in that much time and effort into something is a lot more motivated to do it right and stick with it. The person who using other methods that are basically short cuts to getting CI<CI (Atkins/Low Carb, WW Points, cabbage soups diet, etc...) aren't nearly as invested or motivated and also tend to be looking for quick, unrealistic or unhealthy results. I think if you gave the scientific, unsexy energy balance and nutrition information to some people, all they are going to hear is this...


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss2hULhXf04
  • ilex70
    ilex70 Posts: 727 Member
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    Honestly think that a big educational push on weighing/calorie counting targeting the general public would be helpful. Wouldn't be profitable though, so not likely.

    Yes, measuring and tracking is a PITA. I'm old enough to have tried it back in dinosaur days with a spring scale that had no TARE function and a thick paperback book that you had to search through for every food...pre-internet. That sucked.

    So I tried all kinds of things with varying levels of success, because I just really could not deal with that long term.

    An app and a scale that you can TARE? Not so bad. Not fun by any means, but not so bad.
  • The_Enginerd
    The_Enginerd Posts: 3,982 Member
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    LauraCoth wrote: »
    The_Enginerd wrote: »
    The person who using other methods that are basically short cuts to getting CI<CI (Atkins/Low Carb, WW Points, cabbage soups diet, etc...) aren't nearly as invested or motivated and also tend to be looking for quick, unrealistic or unhealthy results.

    This is just an opinion, though. No evidence presented.
    And I stated it was my personal thoughts in the first sentence of my post... which you snipped out of my reply you quoted... but you are welcome to point to a study if you know of one which has the long term success rates for the different types of diets.

    That opinion is based on 5+ years of experience of seeing who was successful long term (both on MFP and in real life) and on the ebb and flow of MFP users who stuck around and stayed successful.
  • xmichaelyx
    xmichaelyx Posts: 883 Member
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    It's not the "diet"; it's the person.

    Anything that restricts calories can succeed, but there's no point in trying if it's not part of a lifestyle change. And many (most?) people aren't willing to change their lifestyle.
  • Gallowmere1984
    Gallowmere1984 Posts: 6,626 Member
    edited July 2016
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    WinoGelato wrote: »
    I've lost 30 lbs on MFP and have been maintaining for over a year now. This was really my first concentrated effort to lose weight, having slowly gained after college and then with marriage and a couple kids... So I don't have experience with losing and failing to keep the weight off.

    What I will say is I feel like knowledge of my numbers is the single biggest factor for me in predicting that I will be able to maintain a healthy weight forever. I fully understand and appreciate how the CICO energy balance works, and so knowing what calories I need to maintain my weight makes it pretty simple to commit myself to staying within that number. I know the number may change over time or that there may be extenuating circumstances that would change my habits (injury, illness, change in personal situation) but I feel like having the fundamental knowledge of how the energy balance works means that when things do change, or weight starts to creep back on, I have all the tools to be able to address it swiftly as long as I remain committed to maintaining this healthy weight.

    If more people understood the energy balance concept and took the time to accurately determine their own numbers I feel like success rates would be higher. Losing weight via a particular "diet" or method without learning the fundamentals behind it seems easier to just let things slip, but again, no direct experience just a hypothesis.

    And this realization, is what has led me to, and constantly reaffirmed my belief that the mentally lazy are far more likely to remain obese, and/or relapse into it.

    It's not nice. There are exceptions. However, on the whole, this has been my observation. Basically, "durrhurr learning is effort"=fat.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited July 2016
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    gwynethsomeday wrote: »
    Stanford study - low carb (atkins) came out on top both for amount of weight initially lost and amount kept off long term.


    No link handy but google is your friend :)

    You mean this one?: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=205916

    I haven't seen anything more than a year, which isn't meaningful, and it doesn't correct for protein or include the non "specific diet" approaches. Also, even the best results (with Adkins in the study) aren't good at all -- 2-5% or about 8 lbs for overweight and obese women over a full year. Given that I did much better with MFP (not low carb), I am hardly going to conclude from this that low carb is some better way.

    But I'm sure you didn't mean to suggest that or be misleading! ;-)
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,506 Member
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    It's not the diet or the approach. It's the person and how they are willing to adhere to a change in habitual behavior. Regardless of how they do it the key factor is usually going to come down to if that person can adhere to a new habitual behavior. If not, then failure is likely. If so, then success is more imminent. Problem is, it may take 2-5 attempts to figure out which behavior they can adhere to.
    For me and what I try for my clients is the moderation approach. Based on my clients success/failure rates, this approach seems to have the most consistent results of success. But I'm willing to help any client even if it's a different approach (Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem, etc.)

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png
  • DeficitDuchess
    DeficitDuchess Posts: 3,099 Member
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    I don't consider anyone that loses weight & then gains it back, plus more; a failure because what if they didn't lose anything, at all & just continued to gain? I figure overall I've possibly lost 100 pounds, even though I've never been more than 1 pound away from obesity; at a time! If I never lost those 100 pounds; I'd be morbidly obese currently. True failure isn't failing to succeed, it's failing to try! Also because of my disability, lifestyle change has been impossible; long term. I go through periods of remission, where my health improves enough to focus on my health; beyond day to day survival but when I am bedridden and/or can't concentrate, weight loss/maintenance; isn't a priority & no my CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) wasn't caused by my weight gain, my CFS caused the weight gain. So even if I lose all of the weight, that I gained; I'd still have CFS. So I just do what I am able to do, when it's possible to do it & have been successful enough, to just remain within; my overweight range.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
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    jrulo16 wrote: »
    Where people fail is they view loosing weight as a temporary thing and go right back to treating their bodies like dumpsters and pick back up old habits once they loose some.

    Those who treat it as a permanent lifestyle change, keep it off.

    Certainly this happens a lot, but it is not always the case. I see people on this site talking of their success and how they've kept the weight off for a year or a few years as if they've learned some great secret. And perhaps they have. But having done that many times myself I know they may not be as safe from regain as they imagine. The statistics on high rate of weight regain are usually based on 10 years. So unless you've lost and kept it off for > 10 years you might just be in that statistic yet.

    The problem with a permanent lifestyle change is that no matter how intent you are on making it permanent, life changes. Marriage, kids, death, illness, injury, relocation, etc. It's just as often some change in lifestyle outside of weight control that causes weight gain.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
    jrulo16 wrote: »
    Where people fail is they view loosing weight as a temporary thing and go right back to treating their bodies like dumpsters and pick back up old habits once they loose some.

    Those who treat it as a permanent lifestyle change, keep it off.

    Certainly this happens a lot, but it is not always the case. I see people on this site talking of their success and how they've kept the weight off for a year or a few years as if they've learned some great secret. And perhaps they have. But having done that many times myself I know they may not be as safe from regain as they imagine. The statistics on high rate of weight regain are usually based on 10 years. So unless you've lost and kept it off for > 10 years you might just be in that statistic yet.

    The problem with a permanent lifestyle change is that no matter how intent you are on making it permanent, life changes. Marriage, kids, death, illness, injury, relocation, etc. It's just as often some change in lifestyle outside of weight control that causes weight gain.

    Yeah, this was my experience. I lost, kept it off about 5 years, regained. I think I learned some stuff in the process and don't think it makes the prior weight loss a failure (or that I did it wrong), but it does make me conscious that stuff happens and I can think I won't let something happen again and yet do it -- I'm focused on how to make sure I catch some of the issues sooner this time, but I am aware that things change.

    I do think learning that I could lose weight and how to do it before made it easier this time. (In my head I knew how it worked, but not having ever lost weight before -- I never dieted while growing up -- it was easy to think that I ate without thinking about it and was normal weight and then stopped being that way do to something outside my control until I made myself think it through and did what I needed to do to lose.)
  • wackyfunster
    wackyfunster Posts: 944 Member
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    gwynethsomeday wrote: »
    Stanford study - low carb (atkins) came out on top both for amount of weight initially lost and amount kept off long term.


    No link handy but google is your friend :)

    There's actually a SNP that determines whether an individual will lose weight faster on a low-carb vs. low-fat diet, and the magnitude is quite significant. So you can't just make a blanket statement regarding which is superior, as genetics play a major role.

    To speculate, I would expect that there would be an edge for low carb for obese people since their insulin and leptin sensitivity is completely screwed, but as soon as they have restored normal hormone responsiveness that would go away. On the other hand, people in very good shape would likely have an edge towards low-fat as they are already more efficient at utilizing carb substrates. Both of those seem to be born out anecdotally in my experience.
  • thenananator
    thenananator Posts: 273 Member
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    Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
    jrulo16 wrote: »
    Where people fail is they view loosing weight as a temporary thing and go right back to treating their bodies like dumpsters and pick back up old habits once they loose some.

    Those who treat it as a permanent lifestyle change, keep it off.

    Certainly this happens a lot, but it is not always the case. I see people on this site talking of their success and how they've kept the weight off for a year or a few years as if they've learned some great secret. And perhaps they have. But having done that many times myself I know they may not be as safe from regain as they imagine. The statistics on high rate of weight regain are usually based on 10 years. So unless you've lost and kept it off for > 10 years you might just be in that statistic yet.

    The problem with a permanent lifestyle change is that no matter how intent you are on making it permanent, life changes. Marriage, kids, death, illness, injury, relocation, etc. It's just as often some change in lifestyle outside of weight control that causes weight gain.

    I am always saying I regret waiting until my 50's to get my a** moving...but maybe now I am glad so I dont have to worry about regaining it since I will probably reach my pull by date (croak) before the blub comes back. Just kidding of course but seriously....I am already worried about the regaining possibilties and trying to research maintenance techniques. It is, as near as I can tell, a real phenom. and to that I say: boo.
  • gwynethsomeday
    gwynethsomeday Posts: 31 Member
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    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    gwynethsomeday wrote: »
    Stanford study - low carb (atkins) came out on top both for amount of weight initially lost and amount kept off long term.


    No link handy but google is your friend :)

    You mean this one?: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=205916

    I haven't seen anything more than a year, which isn't meaningful, and it doesn't correct for protein or include the non "specific diet" approaches. Also, even the best results (with Adkins in the study) aren't good at all -- 2-5% or about 8 lbs for overweight and obese women over a full year. Given that I did much better with MFP (not low carb), I am hardly going to conclude from this that low carb is some better way.

    But I'm sure you didn't mean to suggest that or be misleading! ;-)

    Here's the lecture with the study results: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eREuZEdMAVo

    Pretty good lecture. Likewise a good study in that participants were simply given a certain diet book - really just the same diet books that anyone else would read and then left to do their own thing and just check in.

    Readers Digest Version: Participants (like the rest of us) stayed true to these diets for a while before either totally abandoning them or putting their own spin on them. None were an astounding success, but where there were successes, Atkins took the lead.

    Worth a watch.

  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    So the one I linked and commented on?

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