Less than 10% on a diet actually lose weight!

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDJul 26 2011

According to the latest research losing weight by dieting is all in the mind and most would go on to regain the weight lost. Fewer than ten per cent of the 12 million Britons who go on a diet each year succeed in losing significant amounts of weight, and most of those who do put it all back on within a year.

The 55-year study in Britain has found out that once people gain weight, they can never return to their original size. The national survey by the Medical Research Council followed 5,362 men and women since their birth in 1946, and 20,000 people born in 1958. The study measured weight and blood pressure and assessed the lifestyles of the people

Rebecca Hardy of the council said, “Both groups began increasing in weight in the 1980s and since then people have been increasing in mass all through life… For men it goes up steadily through life. For women it starts slowly and accelerates in the mid-30s. Once people become overweight they continue relentlessly upwards — hardly ever going down.”

The study, however, adds that dieting has its own benefits. People who try to lose weight tend to eat better and exercise more, leading to increased fitness and lower blood pressure. About six in 10 adult Britons are either overweight or obese, a figure which is steadily rising.