[drewcrawford]

> Moreover, you won't find any reputable study on the web where the average person lost 10%+ of their body weight and kept it off for five years. Not even one.

Of course there is: http://www.nwcr.ws/Research/published%20research.htm.

Here's a good question: other than the fact that these people lost weight, what is identifiably unusual about them?

[npsimons]

Was going to link to the National Weight Control Registry, thanks! I'll just add that all those studies in GP seem to prove is that A) weight loss programs (especially fad diets) don't work and B) it is a psychological issue. There are plenty of people on MFP, /r/loseit or just counting calories themselves that have successfully kept off weight for years. I'm one of them.

In case someone out there is serious about losing weight and not making excuses, here's how you calculate your actual TDEE: https://www.reddit.com/r/leangains/comments/2rv09z/this_is_h...

[js2]

Many times I'll read a story of someone who lost weight and kept it off. And then they detail their pre weight-loss diet and I think, well of course you were overweight. You were inactive and had a terrible diet (sugary drinks, processed foods, etc). You started getting some exercise and learned a few things about nutrition and the weight fell off.

But then there are others who seem to do everything right and are over weight in spite of that.

For example. I was never overweight as a kid and relatively active. In college and for the start of my career, I stopped being active and my diet was awful (e.g. I thought a large Jamba Juice smoothie and a carrot cake was a healthy breakfast choice). My weight ballooned up to almost 190 lbs (20+ lbs overweight), my blood pressure went up, I started having rosacea.

I started running and fixed my diet. Quickly my weight dropped down to 150 and I've kept it in the 140-150 range for over a decade. The other health issues cleared up as well. But it wasn't hard work for me. Being thin is my natural state if you will, and I had to do everything wrong to stay overweight.

My wife meanwhile continues to struggle with her weight. She's successfully lost weight through extremely diligent calorie counting, but after a year or so she starts to put it back on. I have never counted calories. Our diets are similar (in kind, not quantity of course, she eats much less than me). She is active, but not quite as active as me. So similar diet and life styles, but my weight stays off and hers does not.

Hereditarily, no one in my family is over weight. There is obesity on both sides of her heredity.

And I see this playing out in our kids. My son has an athletic build and will probably never have weight issues. My daughter takes after her mom and it will take a life time of diligence for her to remain at a healthy weight.

It seems that some people are optimized for famine, and some for feast. :-(

Obviously there are a lot of factors involved in the growing obesity crises. But I feel for people who struggle with their weight despite doing all the right things, I really do.

[atomical]

The poster above linked this: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-...

Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, says that while the 10,000 people tracked in the registry are a useful resource, they also represent a tiny percentage of the tens of millions of people who have tried unsuccessfully to lose weight. “All it means is that there are rare individuals who do manage to keep it off,” Brownell says. “You find these people are incredibly vigilant about maintaining their weight. Years later they are paying attention to every calorie, spending an hour a day on exercise. They never don’t think about their weight.”

That just described reddit subs focused on weight loss.

[cm2012]

Thanks for following with a citation, but I am well aware of that research. The national weight control registry is a heavily self selected group of people who have already lost significant weight before joining - therefore weeding out most of the failure rate. And even then, only 20% of their audience lost over 10% of their initial body weight and kept it off for one year.

[drewcrawford]

That's not relevant. You said:

> you won't find any reputable study on the web where the average person lost 10%+ of their body weight and kept it off for five years. Not even one.

To refute this, it's sufficient to present a counterexample. Since many studies exist, and they are reputable, the only argument is whether the people in them are average.

You say they are not, because they lost weight. But that cannot be your whole argument, because if we assume average people don't lose weight we assume the premise you have taken up to prove.

So again: other than the fact that these people lost weight, what exactly is exceptional about them?