If we're going to make progress in helping millions of people lose weight, isn't it about time that the news media, providers of weight loss programs, and others (yes, that might be a pharmaceutical company) influence the public to adopt more realistic expectations about what makes weight loss meaningful?
Number of pounds lost should not be the only yardstick of success
Medical science has proven that even a modest amount of weight loss is beneficial if you're overweight. Losing more, like 5% of your weight, leads to significant improvements in your health. That's why the government requires new weight loss drugs to meet or beat this standard.
If even modest weight loss is beneficial, why do we expect so much when we begin a diet?
When we've asked people "how much would you like to lose", they give answers that reflect their aspirations versus what they think is realistic. I've sat through dozens of focus groups and have seen this first hand. And I suspect that when dieters fall short of unrealistic goals, they have even higher expectations the next time - creating a vicious cycle.
In fact, the vicious cycle does exist. A study [links to PDF] that we conducted with the University of Connecticut found that people distinguish between "ideal" and "realistic" weight loss.