The Truth About Weight-Loss “Success Stories”

We’ve all heard the statistic that long-term weight loss is impossible for 95 to 98 percent of people (Content Warning: weight numbers and fatphobic language), yet millions of people still keep dieting, hoping that they’ll be among the statistical unicorns in that 2 to 5 percent.

The sad reality is that many of those unicorns who lose weight “successfully” are actually engaging in incredibly disordered, mentally and physically punishing behaviors in order to maintain their weight loss.

For example, as a 2017 paper put it (CW: disordered behaviors, weight numbers, and fatphobic language), “there are remarkable parallels between the behavioral patterns of successful weight loss maintainers…and individuals with chronic anorexia nervosa.”

And in fact, many of these dieting “success stories” may just be people with chronic anorexia nervosa, who happened to start out at high weights—aka folks with high-weight anorexia.

Are the minuscule chances of long-term weight suppression really worth signing over your precious time and resources—not to mention your well-being—to The Life Thief that is diet culture? Or would you rather spend your time, money, and energy pursuing the things that you actually care about in life?

For fellow dietitian and journalist Carrie Dennett, my guest on episode 194 of Food Psych (one of our all-time fan-favorites, which we're reposting this week), the answer was clear. Years ago she was one of those rare “successful” long-term dieters, but maintaining the weight loss took more and more effort over time, and at a certain point she just decided enough was enough—she’d rather live her life than manage her weight.

Tune in to hear her share what made her finally decide to turn away from dieting for good and embrace the Health At Every Size® approach in her life and work.

We also discuss why the research on weight loss is so flawed, why nearly all intentional weight-loss efforts fail, how weight stigma affects people of all sizes, and so much more. With all the fearmongering right now about weight and health, this episode is more relevant than ever. (Speaking of which: stay tuned for an update next week on what the science really says about COVID-19 and weight.)

In addition to my interview with Carrie, in this episode I answer a listener question about why it’s problematic to expect weight loss with intuitive eating.

Check it out right here, and be sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode!

Here’s to ALL the things in life that are so much more important than your weight,
Christy