Before I get into today’s blog, there is now an official petition asking the National Eating Disorders Association to end their harmful partnership with the STOP Obesity Alliance. Of course these things run on signatures so if you would like to add yours that would be awesome (and if you passed it on via FB, Twitter etc. that would be even awesomer!) The signature goal is 500 but I’d like to blow that out of the water. Just Click Here to Sign! (The link to pass it on is http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-neda-to-stop-working-with-the-stop-alliance)
On to today’s blog:
I got the following comment on my blog about Fat Activism, and it’s a question that I hear a lot so I thought now was a good time to address it:
5% of people DO SUCCEED in losing weight and maintaining the loss. Thus, 5 out of every hundred, 50 out of every 1000, 500 out of every 10,000… 5,000 out of every 100,000 succeed, In spite of the now near constant chant that it “can’t” be done About the same number of people who manage to turn around failing businesses, become proficient at difficult skills of any kind, – you see my point?
I am against fat-phobia, and I agree that people are healthy at many weights. What I am tired of is “why try since it can’t be done?” – when what is really meant is “It is extremely difficult and means life changes at several levels, not a temporary diet… but some do succeed”.
My point is, that if people want to give it a try to lose some of their weight, for whatever reason (unless they are anorexic), the it is equally offensive for you and other bloggers to keep telling them “It’s nice to see you “try” but it won’t work” as you find the remarks of those who you helped with your consulting.
My answer
Thanks for the questions. The reason lies not just in the “can it be done” (and it should be noted that the 5% success rate is generally within the margin of error for the studies), but also in whether it makes sense to do it. The 95% of people who are likely to fail at weight loss are also likely to become less healthy than they were before those attempts (including markers of physical and mental health) which means that the most common outcome of weight loss attempts is weight gain and endangerment of health. The consequences become worse the more that people attempt weight loss.
There is also no proof that losing weight causes an increase in health – as weight has not been proven to cause health problems (only to be correlated with them) and weight loss has not been proven to cure them since it’s most likely that the behaviors and not the weight loss are responsible for the health changes . A Health at Every Size perspective where we concentrate on health rather than weight offers all of the health benefits of a weight loss regimen without the risks. Therefore the only benefits of weight loss are social which makes it a civil rights issue and not a health issue at all.
You’ll note that I never tell people not to lose weight, but I think it’s important – especially in a world where weight loss is marketed as a successful cure for things – that people understand that suggesting weight loss is prescribing something that nobody has proved is possible for a reason that nobody can prove is valid. I was always honest with consulting clients about their odds of success and also about the consequences of lack of success as I am when it comes to weight loss.
But there’s more to it than that. When the commenter says ““It is extremely difficult and means life changes at several levels, not a temporary diet… but some do succeed”, that makes it sound like most people fail because they just don’t try hard enough or aren’t willing to make “life changes” and that’s simply not what the data reflects. In truth the body has a series of very strong psychological and physiologic deterrents to weight loss that may make long term weight loss impossible for many people.
She says “About the same number of people who manage to turn around failing businesses, become proficient at difficult skills of any kind”. The trouble is that this isn’t about being proficient at a skill, this is about our health. If Viagara worked 5% of the time and 95% of guys who took it became LESS able to get erections, I seriously doubt that we would be telling guys to keep taking it and just try harder. If a health intervention only works 5% of the time with a negative outcome 95% of the time, then we call it a failure and go looking for another health intervention. For some reason dieting and weight loss have been exempted from this rule. That’s dangerous because the rule exists to protect our health.
The commenter is tired of “why try since it can’t be done?” For the record, I’ve never said that. I make great effort to avoid telling other people how to live since I want the way that I live to be respected. If you want to diet, that’s fine but I think that you should have access to true and correct numbers about success rate, possible side effects, and long term dangers.
As far as being offensive, people are allowed to decide to be offended by the truth but that’s entirely their deal and I’m certainly not going to gloss over it or ignore to protect someone’s delicate sensibilities. The truth is that dieting leads to weight gain and endangered health in 95% of the people who try it. If someone disagrees that’s fine, but in the immortal (paraphrased) words of Jerry McGuire: SHOW ME THE RESEARCH!
Don’t forget to sign the NEDA petition if you are so inclined (and pass it on!)
WORLD TOUR UPDATE
The Schedule is F&#$ed. It’s nobody’s fault – the first leg was intended to be in the States and follow the American the Beautiful 2 Premiere schedule. The premiere schedule has changed quite a bit and is in flux so it doesn’t make a lot of sense for me to follow the movie around since we can’t get everything scheduled and marketed in time (although it’s super fun to go to the premieres and feel like a Movie Star and meet cool people and Darryl -the film-maker- is awesome).
I will be in Dallas this weekend for the Friday and Saturday premieres (and if you want to have lunch on Saturday then e-mail me at ragen at danceswithfat dot org and we’ll get an awesome Fatty and Fatty Friendly lunch together)
After that we’re continuing with an independent tour.
My awesome PR Team is hard at work with connections in a series of cities in the US, Canada and overseas both booking gigs and getting the cities in some kind of reasonable order. It’s no small feat! In the meantime I’m using this time to finish my book, get the dance classes ready to go online and blog until 2am.
If you want a tour stop in your city you can definitely e-mail me (ragen at danceswithfat dot org) and we’ll see what we can do! I’ll get the new and improved schedule up as soon as possible and hope to see you soon!
Dances With Fat 
Signed, and thrilled to be the first. 🙂
When you say “Dieting causes weight gain” are you talking about fad diets that are restricting or are you talking about maintaining healthy eating habits where you are making sure that you are getting proper nutrition and not overdoing it on the sweets and fatty foods? I am often confused about what people mean by dieting.
I have been aiming to make small changes in my eating habits because I eat too much junk and fast food as it is, and it makes me feel sluggish, so I want to try to incorporate more fruits, veggies, and foods that encourage a healthy heart and boost energy, not for the purpose of changing my appearance but just for the purpose of getting my energy back and saving myself from having heart and artery problems when I’m older. Would you consider that as me on a diet?
I wouldn’t consider that a “weight-loss” diet. Just a healthy one. Actually, from what I understand, eating foods that make you feel good is a basic tenet of Intuitive Eating.
I totally wouldn’t consider that a diet. Restricting calories, dropping or severely restricting whole food groups (no sweets, no white foods, etc.), having to exercise to “make up” for what you’re eating, that’s more what I’d call a “diet.” Granted, it’s possible to get so obsessive about healthy eating habits that it would become harmful mentally.
The tricky thing is that we have a warped sense of what it means to “overdo it” or what’s “too much” when it comes to foods that are considered fattening. And if you get too wrapped up in what you “should” eat, you can end up ignoring hunger.
I think the real test is that if you are making changes to your diet that make you feel healthy and energized, and not deprived, run-down, and exhausted, then those are good changes for you.
I’m not Ragen, but I’ll take a crack at this. I believe when Ragen mentions dieting, she means an eating plan which restricts something (ie calories, fat, carbs, etc) that the body requires to function, in order to induce weight loss/gain (obv usually loss). I personally would also include in that the notion of “labeling” foods as good or bad (And I have a feeling Ragen would agree), which tends to create a psychological “diet plan” without necessarily the rigid structure plan of other fad diets. Also, make no mistake, when someone says something akin to “it’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle change” they are also referring to dieting (a rose by any other name and all that). What is meant by dieting causes weight gain is simply that. Restriction causes bodies to hold onto every calorie it can get, thus weight gain. (Also all sorts of things that science doesn’t understand cause weight gain- we know very little in general about bodies and weight gain/loss).
What you seem to be doing is increasing healthy behaviors and listening to what your body wants, which is called intuitive eating. Incidentally, it’s also the foundation of HAES. What makes it different from dieting is weight change is factored out as the focus, and instead health (which is multi-dimensional and different for every body, even different for the same body at different points in that body’s lifetime) is focused on.
Hope this helped! =)
I’d add to the other responses and say that dieting also involves an attitude of going against one’s body, believing it can’t regulate itself or know what is good for it. This attitude then requires lists of externally imposed rules, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods, etc. to keep one’s body in ‘check.’
This often leads to weight gain and poor health because one’s body has to switch into a sort of survival mode – it’s not being listened to and getting what it’s asking for, so it has to hold on to whatever it has for fear that food will never again be available freely.
Trying to find foods that your body likes and wants, that makes it feel good, on the other hand, is Intuitive Eating. This means you are working with your body, because you believe it knows how to regulate itself and ask for what it needs.
I try to do healthy eating (I’m not as consistent as I’d like to be, but I’m improving), and that consists of trying to eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts, and avoid eating “This makes me feel unwell” quantities of sugary, fatty, and processed foods. I’m not worrying about calories or declaring any food off-limits. This seems to be good for my health. It’s not leading to any weight loss, but even if it had, I wouldn’t consider that a diet. (And unlike diets, if I have a day of poor eating habits, it can be fixed with a couple of days of good ones instead of months of restriction and fussing with calorie counts and scales.)
In the past, I’ve set arbitrary “This is bad and I should eat as little as I can get myself to” limits on fatty and sugary food consumption, which lead to the stress and bad behavior patterns that accompany arbitrary restrictions. I’d call that behavior dieting.
Presumably, you know what you mean by “too much” and “not overdoing it”, so you’d be best able to judge whether your behavior constitutes a diet or not.
Thank you guys for your replies. It clears things up.
I’ve signed the petition, too!
You know what finally convinced me to get off the diet rollercoaster? When I started gaining again WHILE on the extremely restrictive diet and massive exercise regimen. I had plateaued and doubled my running time (killing my knees and grossly worsening my asthma) and was STILL gaining. That’s when I finally believed that the reason diets fail isn’t because we Fatties have no willpower, but because we’re literally trying to make our bodies into something that our bodies are not made to be!
Amen to that. I know for a FACT i have lived on 500 calories a day with 2 hours swimming lessons 3x a week. And gained weight
Ashley, Regan may have a different opinion, but what you’re describing sounds like HAES to me. However, if you’re counting calories or points or otherwise strictly restricting portions of healthy food to where you’re hungry a lot (not just for an hour or less before meals) and won’t allow yourself to eat, then it’s a diet.
“The trouble is that this isn’t about being proficient at a skill, this is about our health. If Viagara worked 5% of the time and 95% of guys who took it became LESS able to get erections, I seriously doubt that we would be telling guys to keep taking it and just try harder.”
Best. Quote. Ever. Ragen, I think I need to have your babies now. Just sayin’.
“The commenter is tired of “why try since it can’t be done?” For the record, I’ve never said that. I make great effort to avoid telling other people how to live since I want the way that I live to be respected.”
I was about to say, I don’t remember you ever telling people not to diet or that they should live their lives a certain way. So someone isn’t reading your posts very carefully!
Hi Ragen,
Just wanted to take the opportunity to say ‘thanks’ for the blog. I am a teacher of Food Studies/Nutrition in Australia’s national capital. I find your reflections very relevant – you force me to consider the problematic knowledge around nutrition, health & obesity and then challenge my students with that knowledge. You will be pleased to know that a basic component of the way that we teach nutrition in my school is that ‘dieting’ is not healthy eating. I’m still working on having HAES recognised in the curriculum, but I hope to get there.
Keep up the good, challenging, interesting work.
Hi Megan,
Thank you so much. It’s one of my favorite things when my work is used by teachers! It looks like the world tour may be rolling through Australia so maybe I’ll get a chance to meet you in person.
Thanks!
~Ragen
Why is there considered to be such wonderful value in “trying” to do something nearly impossible? If I jump off my roof holding an umbrella, it’s possible that a gust of wind might help me fly for a few seconds, 5% of the times I try. But that doesn’t mean that “trying” is such a great idea!
Trying to do something of value and achievable = good.
Trying to do something of questionable value and unlikely odds of success = stupid.
It’s a weird American Puritan (i.e. WASP) value. I guess if you continue to try even after repeatedly failing, you’ll still be morally superior than everyone else around you.
have you listened to the freakonomics podcast about the virtues of quitting. its fantastic. – the trick they said is to fail fast, realize quickly there is no value in a particular pursuit and move on.
I keep failing at quitting smoking, yet I keep trying. I’ve done it before, yet relapsed, I’ll do it again. It’s harder than before, yet, so worth doing, that I’ll try again.
julie, a quote from my upcoming book _Talking Fat_, a section discussing this comparison of smoking, drinking and obesity: “The American Heart Association says that “Since 1965, more than 49 percent of all adults who have ever smoked have quit.” ” That number is WAY, WAY different than 5%. You may struggle, but you have a 1 in 2 chance of getting there. That isn’t true for fat individuals.
Also, there is a HUGE difference between quitting an addiction to an unneeded substance and artificially trying to change body size. My body size does NOT indicate addiction. Nor is my body size mean I have an eating disorder. In fact, body size in no way indicates anything more than body size.
julie – every time you quit smoking, even temporarily, you reduce the amount of smoke inhaled over your lifetime, so it’s probably a health “win” even when it doesn’t last. (Unlike a crash diet, which can cause long-term health damage!)
Very nontechnical comment: recent study found elevated levels of the hormone that makes us hungry a YEAR after dieting ended. Restricting food (dieting) throws the body into “Help, I’m starving!” mode. This has your body make the most of every calorie, making it harder to lose. It also causes the release of the hormone that makes us feel like it is urgently important to eat. So a YEAR after you stop restricting your food intake, you’re still getting messages to EAT. That’s a biological imperative that willpower can’t beat.
I saw a segment about that on the news….you’d think when reporting it the media might come to the reasonable conclusion of “hey, diets don’t work like we think they do”….Nope, they were discussing how research will be done to be able to *remove* the hormone. Because I certainly know that if someone’s screaming for help the first thing I want to do is take their voice away….-_-
Yes – for those who are interested, here are a couple reports about the study, which was in the New England Journal of Medicine:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/26/health/post-diet-weight-regain/
I admire Ragen for staying neutral about dieting. I try to be neutral, but seldom succeed. The reality is that dieting HARMS our bodies in many, many ways — messing up our hormones is only one way.
Signed the petition, and just wanted to say…you have NEVER said on this blog, “Go do this…don’t do that…” Your angle has always been, “This is what I’VE experienced, what *I* have found, what *I* have been through.” Anyone who suggests you are misleading them or advising or trying to make excuses really needs to re-read the “Who Is This Chick” section of your blog!
“If Viagara worked 5% of the time and 95% of guys who took it became LESS able to get erections, I seriously doubt that we would be telling guys to keep taking it and just try harder. If a health intervention only works 5% of the time with a negative outcome 95% of the time, then we call it a failure and go looking for another health intervention. ” I like this. The example the pops to my mind is something like: “We can give you a vaccine for HIV that has a 5% chance of success, the 95% failure chance would me you are now HIV positive but we can prolong your life with these other medications so we HIGHLY RECOMMEND that every single person everywhere get this vaccine or you don’t care about yourself, are to lazy to put any effort into your well being, and generally don’t deserve society’s respect.”
I signed very willingly!! My body size is not an eating disorder.
One note, of the 5% who do succeed in losing weight, this is the first diet for almost every one and the vast majority do not have a predisposition towards fat. They may have just had a depressive episode after some big event (divorce, death of a loved one), had a baby, taken some medication, etc. that caused a weight gain. Their weight loss is the body’s attempt to return to it’s set point. A very, very, very small percentage (well below 1%) of individuals who have dieted more than three times may succeed at keeping the weight off if they are willing to make it their life’s work. Personally, I want a life and not a weight maintenance routine!
This is a really important point. A lot of that 5% dieted a little bit to get back o what was a normal weight for them after an event that pushed their weight above their normal.
Also, “success” for that 5% can be losing as little as 15 or 20 pounds and keeping it off for a few years (not necessarily permanently.) It’s not as though even 5% of fat people can become thin by dieting.
I second that opinion. I have enough stress and difficulty in my life, I really don’t want to devote my emotional and physical energy to reaching and maintaining a socially acceptable weight. From my previous experiences I have no doubt that maintaining a low weight would require lifelong restriction and dedication. For example, on Jenny Craig I plateaued five pounds from my goal weight, while on 1000 Kcal/day and doing regular aerobics– which began my knee issues– and I decided five lousy pounds wasn’t worth going to 800 Kcal. What I didn’t realize and no one told me was that to even have a hope of maintaining, I would have had to stay at 1000 Kcal forever and ever. Like most people, I believed that maintaining was just a matter of keeping up the regular exercise and eating sensibly– HAH! Well, I was willing to sacrifice to meet my goal, but I know better than to think I could keep this up for the rest of my life. We just don’t see a real picture of weight loss in the media– they trumpet weight loss stories to the sky, but the regains rarely get any attention. Sure, there are some people who can keep weight off with a little attention to healthy eating and exercise, but I’m not one of those people. I’d rather live now than live to be thin, since tomorrow is not guaranteed for anyone, fat or thin.
Very small suggestion, RC: Try substituting “and” for “but” some of the time. It’s interesting how it alters the tone of the sentence. Just a thought…
Example: If you want to diet, that’s fine AND I think that you should have access to true and correct numbers about success rate, possible side effects, and long term dangers.
I love your writing, especially your ability to stay calm and factual in the face of all the BUTs flying at you!!
I like it and iI think it will be useful. (see what I did there 🙂 Seriously, it’s a great suggestion, thanks a bunch!!!
~Ragen
You’re a blogger – you present the information you know (like 95% of diets fail) and you give your stance. If people agree with you then it’s their business to follow your advice. And if a person is not dieting, I think that’s their choice, just like dieting can be another person’s choice. Whether they make that choice based on info on your blog or because they think diets are stupid is their business.
“For some reason dieting and weight loss have been exempted from this rule.”
I’ve noticed, both from my life and your blog, that weight loss is exempt from a lot of health rules and that’s sad. When I was diagnosed with diabetes, my doctors told me to lose weight. They didn’t say how, they didn’t give me a clear explanation of what my body was doing nor why weight loss would help. So I did, rather unhealthily, lose about 30 lbs. My glucose continues to to be at high levels two years later.
BTW I hope to see you at the premiere on Saturday. I’ve felt really inspired since I started reading your blog.
Thanks Isabel, I think that your story is one that happens to a lot of people and I’m sorry that you didn’t get proper medical care.
I will be at the premiere and I hope to see you there (if you miss me before the cast usually hangs out in the lobby afterwards for a while. Also, we are doing a fun fatty/fatty friendly meet-up lunch at the Twisted Root Cafe at 5609 SMU Blvd Dallas, TX 75206 on Saturday if you would like to join us. I’ll get there at 11:30 to hold the table, come anytime after that!
~Ragen
As I said on tumblr some time ago, “If a birth control method had a 5% success rate and a 95% failure rate, we wouldn’t call it birth control, we’d call it wishful thinking and hope the parents-to-be were ready for a baby.”
On the subject the 5% who *are* able to maintain, I have found this blog entry ([content warning: explicit descriptions of food restriction, calorie-counting and disordered eating behavior] http://justmaintaining.com/2010/09/30/weight-loss-maintenance-the-job-description/) to be incredibly illuminating on what maintenance takes for some – perhaps even many – of those who can maintain a weight-loss long-term. Even when it *is* possible, it may take vast amounts of time, effort, willpower, and energy to do so. It’s like the person who worked their way out of homelessness by working 80-hour weeks at hard labor and then lectures others about pulling themselves up by their bootstraps because “I was able to do it” – okay, you did it, so it’s obviously *possible*, but why on earth would we want to encourage people to think that’s how things *should* be?
To maybe put it in even starker comparison — On average, couples using no method of contraception have an 85% chance of pregnancy over the course of a year. If a birth control method had a 95% pregnancy rate — we’d call that a fertility treatment.
Ha! You’re right. And for 95% of people, weight-loss dieting is a fattening-up treatment.
I think what people are missing is the “health” part of health at every size. AND reading the book prior to making any arguements would be beneficial for them. You are not saying ” hey, just give up, sit on the couch, and eat icecream and chips every day until you burst”. You are saying ” be healthy (if you want), but don’t confuse weight with health, because thet are not the same thing”. Just as diet should mean eating foods your body needs to stay healthy, rather than starve and over-exercise.
Diet, is a noun, not a verb. And that comment was not directed at all the other smarties who commented and know:), just the meanies who comment cruelly while uneducated.
As for eating healthily, im not ruling out foods..just intuitive eating
You are not saying ” hey, just give up, sit on the couch, and eat icecream and chips every day until you burst”. You are saying ” be healthy (if you want), but don’t confuse weight with health, because thet are not the same thing”.
I think a lot of people are confused by the idea that health can be 1) generally desirable and 2) achieved by means other than a constant miserable slog of self-denial. Which makes sense if you keep in mind the weight=health messages people are constantly getting.
For a fat person, the normal social message is “You may think you feel healthy and can function, or that you have health problems that aren’t about weight, but the reality is that whatever you believe about yourself, you’re sick and incapacitated, and it’s all because of your fat.” And for people trying to lose weight, the message is “You may think you feel worse by virtue of being constantly hungry and sore and having to regularly force down foods you don’t find appetizing* and continually stressing about calorie counts, but this is what health means, and if you want to improve or maintain your health, you have to live like this indefinitely and hope you can find a way to enjoy it.” So it’s easy to think “unhealthy”=”comfortable and happy” and “healthy”=”continually forcing yourself into a state of unhappiness”, and assume that minus the guilt, people will all slide into the “unhealthy” state and die.
*Some people do enjoy a long run followed by a green juice smoothie. However, a lot of people are presented with extremely restrictive ideas on how to be healthy (such as “Eat vegetables, but not these ones, because they’re relatively high in sugar” and “You must do these five exercises, otherwise exercise doesn’t count”), pursue stuff that makes them miserable because they think it’s the only thing that counts, and end up thinking that all healthy eating and exercise options are sure tickets to misery.
Anything with a 5% chance of success is a Hail Mary. Nobody here is going to tell anyone never, ever to try… but we all find at some point that a particular Hail Mary move isn’t successful for us, and we’d appreciate not being told we’re failures when the rare outside chance doesn’t work out for us.
Go ahead and give it a go, if you want to. If you really want it, you have my blessings. There. Just like that. But pointing out that there’s something that seems to work better for the vast majority for whom the tiny minority chance doesn’t work seems to me a great deal like a sensible idea.
Most of the world spends a lot of time and effort promoting one diet after another as the answer for every single person on the planet, but in reality only a tiny, tiny minority will find it works for them. I’d rather point out that it doesn’t work for most people than lie to people about the success rate one can expect.
That way people can make informed decisions about how to live their lives. I did a lot of research before buying my new stove and before buying a new television. Why wouldn’t I want to be as fully informed before making a decision about how to care for my own body? Information doesn’t make the decision for us, but having as many facts as possible readily available sure makes making a decision easier and more likely to help us make good ones.
Will you beat the odds? I don’t know. You might, or you might not. It’s up to you whether or not to try to beat them. As for me, I have made my decision and I’m happy with it. I’m healthier in body and mind than I was when I was fighting my body every step of the way. I like me better, take better care of myself, and spend less time obsessed with something that it appears was always out of my direct control.
I can’t make myself taller than I am. I could wear platform shoes or very high heels, if I wanted to. But I’d rather accept the height I am and not give myself the well-documented back and leg issues that can be caused by wearing high heels and platforms. If others prefer how they look and/or feel in heels, though, that’s their choice and I have no interest in stopping them.
Intuitive eating vs going on a diet? Yeah, pretty much the same to me. I’ve made my choice. You’re free to make yours as you see fit.
I can’t make myself taller than I am. I could wear platform shoes or very high heels, if I wanted to. But I’d rather accept the height I am and not give myself the well-documented back and leg issues that can be caused by wearing high heels and platforms. If others prefer how they look and/or feel in heels, though, that’s their choice and I have no interest in stopping them.
I love this analogy. It really is pretty similar. I have nothing against people who wear high heels. I think a lot of them are pretty, and being taller can certainly provide a confidence boost. But with the ankle issues I already have, and my deep-seated belief that hurting yourself to be pretty is a bad idea, I deeply resent any implication that I *have* to wear high heels to be “properly dressed” for work or a formal occasion or to be acceptably feminine or whatever.
Very much the same with dieting. I have no interest in controlling how other people choose to eat—I just don’t want their choices pushed on me as though they’re some kind of obligation.
I was convinced I needed to go on a diet and lose weight ever since high school, where I passed BMI muster with ease. Since that time I’ve weight cycled and developed hormonal problems. You can guess what the cure is… After going through the research I’m convinced I would have been better off had I never tried to lose weight. I now practice HAES in the hopes I can undo some of the damage inflicted on my body and get it to a point where it’s happy again.
In spite of the now near constant chant that it “can’t” be done About the same number of people who manage to turn around failing businesses, become proficient at difficult skills of any kind, – you see my point?
People are encouraged to seriously consider whether they can afford to fail and lose all of their initial investment precisely because the chances of failure are so high. It’d be irresponsible to tell everyone “Why not spend the last of your money starting a business? It couldn’t hurt!” Because failed businesses can worsen financial problems, and failed diets can worsen health problem (and also make a person fatter, which is contrary to the typical dieter’s goal of getting closer to a socially-approved weight).
If someone wants to take the risk of dieting, it’s not something I’d recommend, but it’s their choice. But they should know the risk, and the assumption shouldn’t be that everyone, or every fat person, is better off dieting.
I signed with this comment:
“As an Epidemiologist I find an alliance between an eating disorder association and an anti-obesity association deeply troubling. Weightloss and diet culture encourage disordered eating habits and do nothing to contribute to increased mental of physical health. This partnership is a clear conflict of interest.
A focus on Health At Every Size, as described by Linda Bacon, would benefit the general population and provide a sound model of behaviour for those with eating disorders and those who have been fortunate enough to avoid disordered eating. “
It’s beside the point, but I would much rather preserve a failing business or master five languages than make my body smaller. There is nothing that would suggest weight loss is the sort of commendable accomplishment this person seems to think it is. The thing about so many other things that are likely to fail is that they are worth it if they pay off (such as the other examples in the e-mail). Weight loss – even in those rare cases where it’s permanent – often doesn’t improve one’s life much at all. Wohoo, you look smaller. And then what?
You know, I think we need to get all Occupy up in the face of all of this. T-shirts with “I am the 95%” and “Occupy Your Body”. Move in en masse to Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers headquarters and set up tents. Make ourselves known and seen.
Where are you getting these statistics of 5% and 95% from? I read the journal article you linked to and I can’t find them, if they’re in there could you tell me what section?
Thanks!!
Hi Jenna,
This failure rate for weight loss was first identified in1959 study by Dr Albert Stunkard and Mavis McLaren-Hume, and has been reproduced over and over since then, and was acknowledged at both the Australian New Zealand Obesity Society conference in 2009 and again at the inaugural International Obesity Summit in 2010.
I cover most of it here: https://danceswithfat.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/do-95-of-dieters-really-fail/
You can also check these out:
http://www.rxpgnews.com/obesity/Overweight-people-will-stay-that-way-for-ever_524153.shtml
Click to access Diets_don%27t_work.pdf
Traci Mann also has an article that doesn’t give the 95% number exactly, but discusses numbers in that range. She does say that by the 2.5 year mark 82% have gained the weight back plus:
Mann, T., Westling, E., Lew, A.-M., Samuels, B., & Chatman, J. (2007). Medicare’s Search for Effective Obesity Treatments: Diets Are Not the Answer. American Psychologist, 62(3), 220-233.