The whole ‘long term weight loss is impossible’ thing

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  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,088 Member
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    GaleHawkins wrote: »
    shw112 wrote: »
    As someone who is currently maintaining a 50 pound weight loss, I find myself getting anxious when I hear those statistics about the success of long term weight loss. Almost all of them seem to say that 90%+ of people who lose weight gain it back within 5 years. Are these statistics true? Is my body going to do everything it can to get me back where I was? I am getting very stressed thinking about this 😕

    Stress alone is a cause of weight gain for some of us. In 2014 after deciding never try to lose weight again after 40 years of failure I did change my Way Of Eating and over the next year was down my 50 pounds. I still have the same WOE and have maintained that loss for the last 4 years. In my case when my WOE resolved cravings and binging the weight loss was automatic.

    Best of continued success. Listen to your body instead of strangers. :)

    I have read about your WOE, I wonder if it has less to do with carbs vs reward value of foods chosen. If it works for you awesome. I will never make fun of something that works for an N=1.
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,287 Member
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    love all the success stories here.. but there are many more stories of "I'm back again"... the other night I was at my favorite restaurant, and the female bartender who lost all her weight a few years ago...is as big as ever. it was depressing. I am maintaining.. and have read the dire studies about sure regaining.

    All I can say.. is that as I continue to maintain I find I am truly really changing how active I am and my food choices. I think if you can stick to it long enough, true change can happen. There are also some great articles with tips on how people keep it off. I choose to study those and be positive.
  • SoaringOccamy
    SoaringOccamy Posts: 57 Member
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    I'd be interested to know where the statistics come from and how they are obtained/calculated. For example, lots of people do lose and then gain it back quite a few times before they ultimately succeed. Do those people count as having gained back or having kept it off? Do the stats refer to fad dieters and vanity pounds or serious weight loss lifestyle changes?

    But I would basically say that a lot of that is really best left unanswered anyway because no individual person is a statistic. We all have to strive to be the 5% (or whatever percentage of people succeed). I have failed before but I'm pushing for success this time. Hope to one day join you there at maintenance and see how I fare.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,088 Member
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    SoaringOccamy wrote: »
    I'd be interested to know where the statistics come from and how they are obtained/calculated. For example, lots of people do lose and then gain it back quite a few times before they ultimately succeed. Do those people count as having gained back or having kept it off? Do the stats refer to fad dieters and vanity pounds or serious weight loss lifestyle changes?

    But I would basically say that a lot of that is really best left unanswered anyway because no individual person is a statistic. We all have to strive to be the 5% (or whatever percentage of people succeed). I have failed before but I'm pushing for success this time. Hope to one day join you there at maintenance and see how I fare.

    If I remember correctly, its data from the 1950's. Reality is that MANY people are successful. What level of sucess, is up to interpretation I think. Many people lose 50 and regain 20. Is that sucess? I think it is.
  • zeejane4
    zeejane4 Posts: 230 Member
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    shw112 wrote: »
    As someone who is currently maintaining a 50 pound weight loss, I find myself getting anxious when I hear those statistics about the success of long term weight loss. Almost all of them seem to say that 90%+ of people who lose weight gain it back within 5 years. Are these statistics true? Is my body going to do everything it can to get me back where I was? I am getting very stressed thinking about this 😕

    So be a part of the 10% that do succeed :) Maintenance has its own challenges, but it's not impossible and there's many of us who've been successfully maintaining for many years.
  • kgeyser
    kgeyser Posts: 22,505 Member
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    Terytha wrote: »
    As far as I can tell, that stat is specifically for people who go on fad diets. They cut bread and cheese, or go keto and cut carbs, or do Jenny Craig or whatever, lose a ton of weight, then start eating all that stuff they cut again.

    If you just eat what you like but within your calories, there's no reason for you to regain.

    I'm not sure where you are getting the information that this stat is for "fad diets," I think the regain stats are pretty comparable across the board. A quick peek into the Introduce Yourself and Getting Started forums, and you'll see lots of people who lost weight by counting calories but regained. Even some of the veteran forum users who preach eating what you like within your calories have regained and are back to losing again.
  • s1im62
    s1im62 Posts: 29,431 Member
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    I like to think the 10% who don't gain the weight back are mostly made up of those of us who keep on logging our meals and exercise and use tools like MFP to avoid reverting back to the old bad habits that got us overweight in the first place.

    I lost more weight than I thought I could by using MFP, and I plan to buck the odds and keep the weight off for life!
  • hixa30
    hixa30 Posts: 274 Member
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    There is a study of people with diabetes, who lost weight and while some people drop out or gain weight, a lot don't. Unfortunately I can't remember the name, but I'll try and find it. Don't forget the study of people who have lost 30+ pounds for more than a year. Just google NWCR.
  • hixa30
    hixa30 Posts: 274 Member
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    Okay the diabetes study is called Look AHEAD. It's about 10 years long. If someone is at goal weight for 10 years, they'll probably be at goal weight for another 10 years, or so.

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