First, lets define some terms.
Some of us are not talking about a few pounds, or even a few dozen pounds.
We're talking about CHRONIC MORBID OBESITY.
Chronic=persisting for more than 10 years
Morbid=life threatening
Obesity=the amount of OVERweight is equal to or greater than 50% of the ideal body weight. Example; if your ideal weight is 160, to be morbidly obese you have to wiegh 240 plus for more than 10 years.
Some time ago, the National Institutes Of Health (NIH for short) issued a concensus report on chronic morbid obesity. Now, an NIH concensus report is the closest thing there is to an official position of the US medical profession on a given topic.
So, what did this NIH concensus report say about chronic morbid obesity?
1-It is almost ALWAYS (99.98%) caused by genetic predisposition, not simple overeating or lack of willpower.
2-Speaking of long term results, diet flat out does not work.
3-Speaking of long term results, excercise flat out does not work.
4-Speaking of long term results, behavior modification/lifestyle change flat out does not work.
5-Speaking of long term results, any combination of the above flat out does not work.
Long term in this case means over five years after the initial weight loss. According to the report, all the highly pulicized and famous diet programs, substances and devices that claim such impressive "long term sucess rates", when examined by professionals, show very, very small sucess rates after TWO years, and none at all after 5. They deliberately end their studies at 5 years. Most of them drop people who regain the weight from the study in order to keep the percentage up, and they end the study when the total number left gets too small.
They investigated Jenny Craig, Deal a Meal, Bahaama diet, weight watchers, and all and I do mean all of the rest. Same deal with all of them.
So, what DOES work for chronic morbid obesity? Digestive tract contraction surgery! This comes in several variations nowadays. Some shrink the stomach surgically, some remove part of the intestinal tract, but there is general agreement that the stomach is a safer way to go. Stomach stapling, banded gastroplasty, gastric bypass, they all work!
In 1990 I wieghed over 700 pounds. Today I weigh 380. I had a gastric bypass. In 2001, before I sustained the injury that put me in a wheelchair, I was doing 90 minute sessions with a personal trainer 3 times a week, was down to 312, and was told that at the rate I was going I could probably complete a triathlon (Complete; NOT win) in another two years. The hip injury put paid to that of course. I was despondent, didn't give a damn, and went back up to 430. In the two years since moving from NYC to Pittsburgh, I'm back down to 380 again, and will keep losing. I will end up at about 240 in another few years. Why so long? because that's as fast as it can be done without the speed of the weight reduction doing more harm to ones' health than just staying fat would have done, that's why.
Every one of the many, many weight loss doctors I've consulted over the years has agreed, BTW, that 2 to 5 pounds a month is as fast as it is safe to lose large amounts of weight.
I hate to say this, but Flock, if your friend/acquaintance really dropped 350 pounds, from 550 down to 200, in just 2 years, there is a 95% chance that he has done SERIOUS harm to his own health in the process, and any specialist in Bariatrics (weight loss) will tell you so. Hell, man, that's over 63% of his original weight in just two years! He's lucky he's not dead!
The point is, what he did is NOT something anyone wants to emulate! There are easier, less painful ways to commit suicide.
Those of us, me included, who have been dealt the obesity gene as part of our somatotype (and yes, that gene has now been identified and isolated in a laboratory) face a lifelong struggle which we will never totally win. If we ever reach our goal weights, we will have to remain on maintainence diets (which would be weight LOSS diets for anyone normal) for the rest of our lives, just to stay where we then are.
So far, the only bright spot is that digestive tract surgery can stack the deck in our favor. Most of us know that if we just give up and let go, we can binge ourselves up a hundred pounds in a couple of months! Due to the surgery I had, what amounted to a FOUR YEAR despondent binge put only 118 pounds back on. I'vbe already lost back almost half of that in the two years I've been back on track. But for us who have the obesity gene, it's never easy.
So, why is this information not more widely available? Because there is a 10 bill;ion dollar a year industry which depends on selling us diets and supplements and excercise devices that they KNOW will not do us any good, that's why! Why is the info I mentioned not on the news media? Helloooooo! Look at the sponsors whose commercials air during the news programs! How many are from weight loss/fitness products which would be revealed as bogus by that report? Thank you!
The future hope is that someone will invent an effective gene therapy that will reverse the effect of the obesity gene so that our bodies will no longer fight us as we try to control our weight. If it can be sold profitably, it will be. If not, it will be suppressed.
I expect some flames aimed at me for this, because a lot of people out there seem to be hugely ego-invested in believing that just diet and excercise will work for everyone. Sorry, but you're just wrong. It is NOT a matter of opinion. It is proven scientific truth. (The info can be obtained from the NIH by anyone who cares to make the effort.) Deal with it.
