5%? Where does this come from?

I've heard/seen several people post that only 5% of obese people lose their weight and keep it off for 5 years. Where does this come from? I'm not questioning the reality of it, it makes sense to me I was just wondering where the info came from. 

Also does anyone know the percentage of people that lose their 60-80% EWL after surgery and keep it off? Just curious. 

Thanks!

My nutritionist quoted the 5% figure for people who lose their weight the "old fashioned way" compared with 50% who kept their weight off five years after having the gastric sleeve.  To be honest, I'm not sure where he got the 5% figure from the 50% figure was from post-surgery follow-up data.

I will do a back flip if you get an answer.  I have asked every person who spouts it and I have never gotten an answer.  I have used google and found a study from the 50s or 60s. 

You also have to watch to see what success is defined as (% of weight lost and time successfully maintained).  I personally like the national weightloss registry...they compile a variety of information over time. 

Good luck!

The 5% is for people who are at least 50 lbs overweight and try to lose weight on their own by dieting..... no surgery. Only 5% of the people who do this will lose weight and keep it off. I heard this during my seminar and the docs used it as a way to understand why dieting doesn't work. As for the second question I am not sure. It definitely depends on the type of surgery. Originally I was going to get the band but I found out there was a 50% failure rate because it is so easy to cheat. For me I only get one chance at this new life so I just couldn't take the risk with the band's high failure rate.

I suggest asking what your doctor office's success rate is. Your success depends on you and your doctor's diet plan as well. We are all on such different diets which you may have noticed already.

I so want to back flip...what is the name of the study?  How many participants?  What was "success" defined as??

I have never seen any real studies, nor have I ever known anyone in real life who lost more than 50 pounds without surgery and kept if it off for one year, let alone five.  I believe that people can lose 5, 10, or even 15 pounds and keep it off for five years, but they are rare.

The 50% regain 50% of their surgical weight loss after 5 years was told to me after my RNY.  My observations of people who had RNY when I did, confirms this for me. 

Take a look at this Humorous Article from Cracked

It is humorous but still have some real facts.

Hello I just wanted to give you a link it is for the national weight control registry. They keep track of a lot of these numbers. Check it out.

http://www.nwcr.ws/

Here is some additional info - if you follow the links there are a few studies that answer the questions. 

http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/fat-officially-incurable-according-to-science/

This one was the most informative to me:

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/74/5/579.full

Try this link.  It's full of fascinating info, including the "5%" stat.  http://www.nawls.com/public/102.cfm?sd=2

I almost had the back flip when I went searching for this study...only to find it is a sample of 192 people who left a diet program 3 years earlier.  

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/8651838/

Then I found one that surveyed 60k people and found that the longer they stick with a commercial program (in this case Jenny Craig) the more success they had. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/16755283/p

Do you have any other study that shows the 5%, by chance?