This week, I came across this little gem from the Obesity Society.  And let me state for the record that while a society composed of rad fatties would be cool, this society is not it.  Nope this society is composed of a whole lot of people who think that fat people should not live on this planet.

In light of my recent posts about how intentional weight loss efforts don’t work, how intentional weight loss (when it does occur) tends to be temporary and fleeting, how there’s no real evidence that intentional weight loss in itself helps people be healthier (nor is there likely to be such a study anytime soon as you can’t get people to keep the weight off long enough to study it), and how behavior modification does make people healthier whether they lose weight or not, in light of all those things the Obesity Society press release title is at least good for a laugh:

Sixty-five Percent of American Adults are Recommended Behavioral Weight-Loss Treatment, Study Shows
Of those, 83% should be considered for pharmacotherapy, 23% could be candidates for bariatric surgery

Yep, weight loss efforts don’t work, so MORE people need to try them.  Yes!  Bariatric surgery has tons of sometimes irreversible side effects (including suicide and accidental death) and often doesn’t result in permanent weight loss or improved quality of life, so clearly THAT’S what we should do.  Yes, most of the weight loss drugs approved over the last 25 years were eventually pulled because they resulted in minimal up front weight loss, almost no permanent weight loss and caused little problems like heart defects, high blood pressure, heart attacks and death.  So OF COURSE we need more people to do that.

Honestly, I don’t even know what to type any more.  The evidence continues to pile up saying:

1.  We don’t know how to help people lose weight long term.

2.  We don’t know if that elusive long term weight loss will make people healthier.

3.  We do know that a lot of the stuff we try to help people lose weight makes them sicker and sometimes dead.

4.  We do know that modest behavior changes in eating well, stress management, getting good sleep, coping with stigma, and joyfully moving our bodies helps us be healthy without bad side effects whether or not people lose weight.

And we keep adding 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 and coming up with the answer:

We just need to keep doing that stuff that doesn’t work even harder with more people.  It takes a COMMITMENT people!

I think I need to recommend a little “Weight Loss Headline Bypass Surgery” so I can just look at the actual research.  Because these conclusions are making me feel a little bit crazy.

Yup, that’s my prescription.  And I think the prognosis is pretty good.

Love,

Jeanette DePatie, AKA The Fat Chick

P.S. Want me to  come speak at your  organization?  Click HERE to learn more.