Follow-Up of Patients Starved for Obesity

Abstract

A follow-up of 1-50 months is presented in 25 superobese subjects who were starved for an average of 38 days. None of the subjects sustained their weight loss but four have had partial success. The patients had marked difficulty dieting after hospital discharge in the face of routine family and work stresses. The maintenance of weight loss was complicated by the psychological problems which were more apparent in these subjects when they were thin, and by the great amount of energy which they had to devote to dieting particularly when they faced the stresses of daily life outside the hospital. For most patients a return to obesity was more comfortable and tolerable than trying to fight with their problem in the presence of environmental demands.

Does dieting make you fat? A twin study

“…It is typical that people in postdieting situations eat automatically ('for no reason') but also for pleasure or control of tension. 28 The problem of repetitive contact with food and recurrent need to resist the temptation is a significant burden to many obese persons. Therefore, some patients choose to starve occasionally rather than follow an energy-deficient diet regularlyFa fact that maintains the weight loss-regain cycle.…”

Current approaches to the etiology and treatment of anorexia nervosa.

“…P. Warren & VandeWiele, 1973). Findings such as bizarre eating habits, preoccupation with and dreams of food, enjoyment of cooking, periodic gorging, irritability, emotional lability, depression, withdrawal, sexual disinterest, and amenorrhea have been reported in both experimental and naturalistic studies of semistarvation (Helwig-Larsen et al, 1952;Keys et al, 1950;Swanson & Dinello, 1970;Sydenham, 1946). The comparison demonstrates rather forcefully that most of the symptoms manifested in anorexia nervosa are not specific to the disorder.…”

Medicare's search for effective obesity treatments: Diets are not the answer.

“…Among patients who were followed for under two years, 23% gained back more weight than they had lost. Among patients who were followed for two or more years, 83% gained back more weight than they lost (Swanson & Dinello, 1970). Even in the studies with the longest follow-up times (of four or five years postdiet), the weight regain trajectories did not typically appear to level off (e.g., Hensrud, Weinsier, Darnell, & Hunter, 1994; Kramer, Jeffery, Forster, & Snell, 1989), suggesting that if participants were followed for even longer, their weight would continue to increase.…”