There are some very angry people in my notes and inbox this week. Apparently, I am “toxic” and “evil” because I reported the results of 50 years of weight-loss research. They are mad because the research definitively and conclusively demonstrates that long-term maintenance of weight loss is virtually impossible. They also think I am “delusional” because I criticize the medical establishment for keeping this fact a secret from the general public.
The truth is that the ineffectiveness and harmful nature of intentional weight-loss is well known within the scientific and medical communities. If pressed, most doctors will affirm that their clinical experience conforms to the scientific results: Basically everyone who loses weight will go on to regain that weight within 3-5 years. In 75% of cases, they will regain more weight than they lost.
This knowledge is why doctors became so desperate that they resorted to amputating parts of the digestive tract in the hopes that it might finally result in long-term weight-loss. Except oops, that doesn’t work either. Oh, and it causes death, addiction, malnutrition, and suicide. Whoopsie daisy.
Diet culture is fucking toxic. And people deserve to know the truth.
You are wrong!!! All you have to do is try xyz and you can lose weight!!
I will believe claims like this when you show me a meta analysis of at least 10 random and controlled experiments, published in a high caliber empirical journal. That is the burden of proof. I provided such proof of my claims (indeed, the first two links I provided reference multiple meta-analyses supporting my claims). Now it’s your turn.
Apparently my first link does not work. Here is another. And another. And the citation, it is readily available from google sources.
Mann, T., Tomiyama, A. J., Lew, A. M., Westling, E., Chatman, J., & Samuels, B. (2007). Medicare’s search for effective obesity treatments: Diets are not the answer. American Psychologist, 62, 220-233. PMID: 17469900
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