Happy Anniversary from the National Weight Control Registry

I just got my anniversary survey from the National Weight Control Registry – I apparently registered about a year ago. These folks track people who have successfully lost weight and try to figure out exactly how they did it – because it seems an absolute mystery to most docs how the hell anyone loses weight and keeps it off.

It’s depressing to know the criteria is 30 lbs for a year – if you kept 30 lbs off for a year, you are such an oddity that you warrant inclusion in a study – pathetic, isn’t it?

The odds of losing weight and keeping it off really are that discouraging. I think the stat is 95% of the people who lose significant weight put it back on – plus a little extra – in five years.

Those are the people who succeed.

Does it make you wonder if all the experts in the majority who tell us how we need to lose weight really know what they are talking about?

Anyway, I have put on a few pounds from last year – about 10 at the present moment.

I’m still down 70 lbs from my high after 4 years. Both times I lost weight low cal, the weight was back within the year.

Funny thing is – most of the people in the registry lost weight on a high carb diet. Is this because high carb is better or is it that many more people try the high carb approach? While the experts believe the former, I’m inclined to the latter. You can play with the numbers to make them say whatever you want them to say – it happens unintentionally. It’s called a ‘confirmation bias’ – you tend to see what you want to see.

I’m not immune to this either, but I think I’ll stick with my low carb lifestyle – it works for me.

My recommendation to you is:

1. If you’ve lost weight doing low carb, let the folks at the National Weight Control Registry know – maybe we can convince mainstream science that low carb works for a lot of people.
2. For those of you who still need to lose the weight, ask for a copy of the weight-loss survey. Keep it – when you do lose the weight, you’ll fill it out – it will be a motivator.