Why is it virtually impossible for fat people to lose significant amount of weight long term?

I've read a study which proves that only around 0,2% of people who start a diet manage to lose more than 10% of their original weight and keep it that way for longer than 5 years. All others gain it back or fail to lose any weight at all. Can anyone offer a scientific explanation?

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Recommended Answer:

It's certainly true that a temporary diet is doomed to fail, but it goes much deeper than that. One reason is that someone with a tendency to eat so wrong that they gain a lot of weight, will always have trouble breaking that tendency ... because that's how they've learned to eat. But even people who permanently change habits have great difficulty, because being significantly overweight for a period of many years truly breaks your metabolism. People get to a point where they simply cannot lose weight even on very low calorie diets .... or the can for a time, but then the weight loss stops and they regain weight even while still eating very low calorie. And, if they eat any decent amount of food at all they can regain weight astonishingly fast. I've read of people who've regained 100 lbs in a matter of months. Hardly seems physically possible.That said, the numbers you quote are probably misleading. Considering that skinny teenaged girls constantly go on diets again and again, that really skews the statistics. There definitely ARE people who permanently keep off big-time weight loss. But they definitely have to continue focusing on living a lifestyle that worked for them and not going back to just eating freely.All in all no one can give you a simple scientific explanation, because scientists do not understand this very well. And nutrition is rife with junk science which muddies all issues about nutrition.

Other Answers:

• Easy to explain, No diets work, it has to be a total life style change. You can't stop eating for a period loose weight and go back to your old habits. You have to find a solution that will work for you. This is not easy because your eating habits have to change and most people started eating like they do when small. So talk to yourself and figure out if you can change, because if you can't, no sense in putting yourself through the torture and fail. It takes a strong person to make this change.
• Lippie is right, but you should also consider some other factors.A study cannot 'prove' anything. The one that you have read 'demonstrates' an effect. A different study might 'demonstrate' that important elements of the first one were incorrect.And the fact that a study looking at diets has found that they don't work long-term doesn't 'demonstrate' that long-term weight-loss is impossible; it only shows that 'dieting' cannot achieve it.