| Suggesting surgery is dangerous advice. The "vast vast majority" of people that regain the weight in those studies are likely to be those who are the most prone to do so, and this can also be interpreted that structured weight-loss programs don't work: http://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/25/health/95-regain-lost-weig... Look AHEAD: 8-year results (nearly 40% of participants who lost >-10% of initial weight at year 1 maintained this loss at year 8):
http://www.obesity.org/obesity/news/press-releases/look-ahea... You are correct, that it is impossible to track your calories everyday, for every meal, for the rest of your life. If your diet takes work, or requires special foods (e.g. Nutrisystem), you'll eventually stop doing it and it'll fail. To lose weight you have to make permanent lifestyle changes. Stop eating junk/processed food, rarely eating out, learning to cook, and eating primarily healthy foods. I know this is anecdotal, but I know a dozen or so people in my life that have made lifestyle changes to their diet have kept the weight off for 10+ years. And they are the vast majority of people I know who have lost a significant amount of weight. They didn't join any weight loss programs, so I don't know how a researcher would ever find statistics on them. |