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Beating The Weight Loss Odds
Can You Lose Weight and Keep it Off? What’s Healthy Anyway?
“You’re getting skinny, girl!” said one of my friends the other night. Over Halloween weekend, even my daughter said something about Mother’s thinness.
If Meredith commented how slim I looked, I know I’ve made at least a few changes.
This is showing in my appearance: it’s awesome when people notice something you’ve been working at since 2018.
And I think that’s one of the main lessons on how to beat the horrific weight loss odds in our U.S. toxic food and troubled health culture. Time. It takes time, nothing about it is “overnight” or “quick,” and it’s about lifestyle and long-term changes.
If we are overweight or obese, and 73% of us in the U.S. over age 12 officially are, the odds that we will lose more than 5% of our body weight and keep it off longer than 12 months are … well, almost as bad as the odds we’ll win the lottery.
Almost. Of those who lose more than 5% of their body weight using a diet or weight loss program of any type, Harvard Health estimates that 85% to 90% will regain all of the weight they’ve lost within one to two years. Even more dire, some massive longitudinal studies calculate terrible odds: only 1 in 210 obese men and 1 in 124 obese women will…
