Just in time for New Year’s resolutions, an article published in the Annals of Internal Medicine last week finds little to no scientific evidence to support the claims made by popular dieting programs.
The review of 10 diet programs found that only Weight Watchers could provide scientific data to back up the claims that its program leads to any maintainable weight loss — and even then, the results were unimpressive.
The authors of the study say a lack of scientific data does not mean these diets don’t work — just that no one has been able to prove that they do.
“There are no data on weight loss when you go to a health club either,” said study co-author Dr. Thomas Wadden of the University of Pennsylvania in a New York Daily News article.
So basically there is no scientific data to suggest that significant, maintainable weight loss is possible. However, there is no shortage of scientific evidence detailing the severe health risks of obesity. Cancer, diabetes, arthritis, hypertension and heart disease are just some of the side effects of the widening of America.
America’s $43 billion-a-year obsession with weight loss is not merely an attempt to live up to some superficial concept of beauty — it’s motivated by serious health concerns. There’s a healthy middle ground between Calista Flockhart and Rosie O’Donnell that over half of all Americans have not achieved.
This is a complicated problem with no simple solution. Fad diets add to the problem by propagating the lie that there is a magic solution for weight loss. If you don’t eat bread you’ll be thin as a rail. If you drink a milkshake for breakfast, you’ll drop three dress sizes. If you eat gourmet TV dinners, you’ll be skinny beyond your wildest dreams. This seemingly endless cycle of failed fad dieting breeds a failure mentality that can lower self esteem, reducing the chance of success for future dieting programs. This vicious cycle probably helps explain why obesity and depression have been linked in some studies.
Interestingly, the people who most seem to buy into a silver bullet theory of weight loss are those insensitive people who’ve never had to deal with the issue themselves. “Why don’t these fatties just get on a treadmill?” goes the argument. From a purely cause-and-effect point of view, limiting intake and increasing exercise will lead to weight loss. But understanding the behaviors that can lead to weight loss is only half the story.
Millions of Americans know that they should eat less and exercise more, but they don’t. Where’s the disconnect? Certainly these people aren’t hurting for lack of knowledge — they are deluged with information. Overweight people don’t need more information or controls on their eating and exercise behaviors — they need help and support in order to integrate the personal values that motivate healthy behaviors.
Any weight loss program that merely tries to control behavior (don’t eat this, don’t eat that) is fighting the problem blindly. Perhaps that’s one reason why Weight Watchers, which uses support groups as an integral part of its program, has been as successful as it has.
People trapped in an unhealthy relationship with food create an environment that rewards and encourages their behavior. The challenge for those struggling to lose weight is not merely to eat less and exercise more, but to identify and eliminate the ways in which they set up payoffs for their unhealthy behavior.
This process is difficult because it takes emotional maturity for people to honestly evaluate their lifestyles, to look at the role food plays in how they deal with their emotions and then make real changes. Far more tempting is the lie that one can achieve the same results by eating a Big Mac sans bun. This is why people trying to make major changes in their lives need support and mentorship.
This is especially true because we are surrounded by a culture that encourages gross overconsumption. We have microwave burritos that won’t fit in most microwaves. We drink soda by the bucket. Portion sizes increase while activity levels decrease.
If this study tells us anything about weight loss, it’s that we can give up the guru search. There is not now, nor will there ever be, a magic eating plan that will instantly lead to weight loss. Your weight loss guru should always be your doctor.
However, I will give props to my man Dr. Phil who talks about getting into the right head space to experience successful weight loss in his book, “The Ultimate Weight Loss Solution.” At least he is willing to recognize that the solution is more complicated than simply giving up bagels and getting these fatties on a treadmill.

[email protected]