The perception of the general public is that no one ever succeeds at long-term weight loss. This belief stems from Stunkard and McLaren-Hume's 1959 study of 100 obese individuals, which indicated that, 2 y after treatment, only 2% maintained a weight loss of 9.1 kg (20 lb) or more (1). More recently, a New England Journal of Medicine editorial titled Losing Weight: An Ill-Fated New Year's Resolution (2) echoed the same pessimistic message.
The purpose of this paper is to review the data on the prevalence of successful weight loss maintenance and then present some of the major findings from the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR), a database of more than 4000 individuals who have indeed been successful at long-term weight loss maintenance.