It is often said that 95% of weight-loss measures don’t work. Only, it’s not true. Advances in behavioural treatments (such as cognitive behavioural therapy) for obesity and weight-loss drugs mean there are lots of approaches that help people lose weight.
In fact, weight loss is the easy part (relatively speaking). The problem is that when you come off a diet or stop taking a weight-loss drug, the weight will invariably creep back up.
To be clear, this does not mean that diets and other obesity treatments are useless. Far from it. In a recent study, published in Lancet Public Health, researchers checked in on participants five years after they took part in a 12- or 52-week WW programme (formerly called Weight Watchers). Although, on average, people’s weight had crept back up, some weight loss – about 2kg, on average – was sustained for up to five years.
