@NJSue Although I recommend Weight Watchers to my patients to begin a supervised weight loss regimen, I don’t think they are a successful organization. Their long term success rate hovers at less than 1%; WW only report their short term success rate not their long term rates. However, insiders report it is about 1 in 2000 participants. But once my patients become regular participants in Weight Watchers, I immediately get them to follow the actual successful behaviors from The National Weight Control Registry. Behaviors that have worked long term in these particularly successful people.
http://www.nwcr.ws/Research/default.htm
Now, 75% reported weighing themselves at lease once per week, 44% weighed themselves daily and 31% at least once per week. “This frequent monitoring of weight would allow these individuals to catch small weight gains and hopefully initiate corrective behavior changes.” So, it may be obsessive, but we are in a calorie rich environment and we may have to be obsessive about our behaviors. I made it natural for my family so it seems like normal behavior. Everyone understands that even a 5-6 pound fluctuation is normal.
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/82/1/222S.long
But here is the most disappointing news I’ve read in a LONG time. The ability of severely obese patients to reach normal weight is nearly impossible. So, more effort needs to be placed on preventing the obesity.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150716180913.htm
@JustOneDad I do not agree with the caloric recommendations for children. First, the food lobby has manipulated our guidelines over the past 40 years and made it almost irrelevant.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8375951
Secondly, we have no idea how many calories kids need and it may be significantly more or less than 1800 calories per day depending on height, weight, puberty, activity, etc. My children’s pediatrician is very aggressive against overfeeding children. Her attitude is to not feed kids who aren’t hungry and only worry about their calories if they are running into weight issues or nutritional deficiencies. I had a child who had a bmi of 14. I was on her trying to make her eat more. I even tried adding shakes with oil in it. The pediatrician put a stop to it and we worked up her other concerns. Turned out she had narcolepsy which led to the weight issues. With treatment, her bmi increased to 17 in 3 years and I just leave her eating alone. How many calories do kids need? Enough to keep their weight within normal.