I swear (often – as you probably already know) – I get tired of seeing studies about weight loss that simply rehash the same old/same old.

For example, here is a study about studies!

Review of high-quality, follow-up studies of obesity treatments

That, in and of itself, is not a bad thing.

And I guess these researchers have a point – that the conclusion of a study may be affected by the quality of the study itself!

Their purpose was to see if substantial, stable and long term weight loss was a viable goal?

Ooooh, ooooh.  Call on me.  Call on me!  I know this one.

NO!!!!!

We know this.

It has been studied to death.

And it turns out, I am right!

(Gasp.)

But they found out one tidbit of interest.

These researchers created a list of pretty reasonable criteria that result in a high-quality study – things like at least a 3-year follow-up and less than 30% of your participants dropping out of the study, etc.

And they found 8 studies that qualified.

EIGHT!

Out of all of the weight loss treatment studies out there!

And all of the eight high-quality studies show a trend of weight regain towards pretreatment baseline.

This means, in all of the studies, most of the participants were regaining and on their way back to what they weighed before the study and treatment started.

And for some of these studies this was only 3 years out.

So the study tells us what?

Ooooh, ooooh!  Me!  Me!  I know this one too!

Substantial, stable, and long term weight loss is not possible for most people!

And the studies that show otherwise, may not be of a high quality.  (Ya think?)

And it also tells us:

NO FUCKING DUH.

Why do we have to keep rehashing this?

Yes, weight can be lost; but it comes right back – with a vengeance.

Could somebody take this study and just fucking nail it to the forehead of every fat phobic healthcare professional on the planet?

At least then it might be of some practical use!