95% percent of all weight loss attempts fail:

• Successful weight loss practices would be evidenced by maintenance of a stable or reduced weight over time.¹
• Weight loss efforts can lead to initial losses of more than 10% of initial body weight, but there is a strong tendency to regain the weight:^2,3,4
• Up to two thirds of lost weight is usually regained within one year.
• Within five years, 95% of dieters will have regained all of their weight .
• Some will actually be heavier then when they started.
 
“Each review article on the effectiveness of diet and exercise for weight control over the past 40 years concluded that diet  and exercise are ineffective for producing substantial long-term weight loss for a majority of the participants.”⁵
• The failure of weight loss practices is exemplified by steadily increasing weights within American society despite the prevalence of dieting. From 1976-1991, mean weights increased by 3.6 kilograms, while mean heights increased less than 1 centimeter for individuals 20-74 years of age.^6,7
• Hypothesis: Human beings have evolved to maintain genetically determined weights by participation in a physically active lifestyle coupled with ingestion of a low fat diet. Relatively recent societal changes have led to increasing participation in sedentary lifestyles coupled with increased fat intake. These changes have caused genetically determined set-point weights to be over ridden.⁸
• Today's weight loss methods cannot alter thousands of years of evolution.
• The real issues surrounding weight are being missed: "The 'blame' for the obesity problem and for other 'diseases of civilization' must be placed squarely on the shoulders of a culture that promotes sedentary living, high-fat eating, and, at the same time (particularly for women), tremendous psychological and social pressure to be thin "(p. 423).⁹

References

Back to Unit 3 A: The Failures of The Old Paradigm