Weight Loss Truisms

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Janine81

-Eat small healthy meals frequently instead of "big" meals once,

Irrelevant.

6 meals X 200 calories/meal = 2 meals X 600 calories/meal

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Charles

There are three types of people: thin people, overweight people, and temporarily thin people. If you are overweight, then you are overweight. If you are thin, then 1) you are thin or 2) you were overweight, you lost weight but you are almost certain to put it back on.

Originally Posted by eevee

there are plenty of people who've learned portion control and the idea of moderation...there are also people who lost a lot of weight and kept it off for years

I guess it depends on what your definition of "plenty" is.

Three text references:

"DESIGN: A national sample (n=1002) was surveyed by phone to obtain demographic and weight-related information.
OBJECTIVE: To determine weight loss maintenance among participants in a commercial weight loss program (Weight Watchers) who had reached their goal weights 1-5 y previously.
RESULTS: Based on corrected weights, weight regain from 1 to 5 y following weight loss ranged between 31.5 and 76.5%. At 5 y, 19.4% were within 5 lb of goal weight, 42.6% maintained a loss of 5% or more, 18.8% maintained a loss of 10% or more, and 70.3% were below initial weight."

and

"In comprehensive programs combining dietary and lifestyle interventions, one-third to two-thirds of lost weight is regained within 1 y and virtually all lost weight is regained within 5 y."


and

"The discouraging conclusion from most clinical studies is that almost everyone returns to, or surpasses, their starting weight within 5 y following treatment."

from


Weight-loss maintenance in overweight individuals one to five years following successful completion of a commercial weight loss program

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Charles

There are three types of people: thin people, overweight people, and temporarily thin people. If you are overweight, then you are overweight. If you are thin, then 1) you are thin or 2) you were overweight, you lost weight but you are almost certain to put it back on.

"Traci Mann looked at how successful dieters were at keeping weight off; the answer was not at all. Mann’s review analyzed 31 long-term studies involving tens of thousands of dieters. One of the studies in Mann's review found that 83 percent of dieters had gained all the weight back in two years, which was typical of the papers Mann reviewed. After five years only rare statistical outliers kept off the weight they had lost. "It doesn't matter what diet you go on," Mann says. "They all work for a little while, and then they fail.""

and

"A lot of our weight-loss recommendations are unethical because we shouldn't be saying lose weight when there is no chance people will keep it off"

from

Fat and Healthy: Why It's Possible | Newsweek Health | Newsweek.com

[thepinksquid]

Originally Posted by Charles

Irrelevant.

6 meals X 200 calories/meal = 2 meals X 600 calories/meal

The relevance from eating many smaller meals is not so much in the caloric intake overall, but the fact that it's an excellent way to control hunger pangs for most people.