In an opinion column on the Brisbane Times news site, Kasey Edwards wrote about the recent struggles that weight loss company Jenny Craig have had finding celebrities to endorse their product.

Edwards cited Australian actor Magda Szubanski, and Kirstie Alley before her, as typifying the difficulties that dieters have. She also stated that over the last 50 years of research, dieting has a typical success rate of only 5%.

Her source was unstated, but if it’s correct, then it’s somewhat disheartening. She said, “With such damning rates it is extraordinary that we still blame individuals for ”failing” at weight loss programs rather than accusing the diet companies of selling snake oil. Can you imagine buying any other product with a 95 per cent failure rate and then blaming yourself when it didn’t deliver on its promise?”

The question is then, “Do all diets suffer from the same failure rate, or are there one or two really successful diets who’s success is diluted by the failure of others?” The answer, not really. It depends on how long you measure for.

From the eMedicine article on obesity, “The results of most weight-loss programs are dismal. On average, participants in the best programs lose approximately 10% of their body weight, but people generally regain two thirds of the weight lost within a year. When defined as sustained weight loss over a 5-year follow-up period, the success of even the best medical weight-loss programs is next to nil. Most available data indicate that, irrespective of the method of medical intervention, 90-95% of the weight lost is regained in 5 years.” (Reference)

So, you can invest thousands of hours, and hundreds of dollars into a program, and the end result is most likely the same, nothing.

That sounds depressing. So what’s the point? Perhaps we should just quit while we’re ahead.

You could, but I think there is a solution. Dieting is not the answer, but I think making healthy lifestyle choices is.

That’s for another post.