100% of people with BMI >30 who lose weight with diet and exercise gain it back and more within 3 years.

The below quote is from here.

"Research shows 95 per cent of people who lose weight gain it back within three years and diet and exercise have virtually a 100 per cent failure rate for people who are clinically obese (a BMI of 30 or higher)."

 

Dr. Arya Sharma, who is the chair of obesity research and management at the University of Alberta and is the medical director of the Weight Wise program at Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital, is not a fan of most diets.

 

"The minute you go on a diet, the minute you start losing weight the first thing that happens is your body says, 'OK we're going to shut down the furnace, there's not enough fuel coming in, we're not going to be shifting to fourth gear anymore,' and it happens automatically," he said.

 

Once the body gets used to a diet it adjusts and weight loss stops, leading to frustration on the part of the dieter. Inevitably most people will go back to their old eating habits, but with the body's metabolism slowed down, they gain even more weight than before. "And that's your yoyo effect," he said.

Welp. That's depressing. And very accurate for me.

My timeline (that I can remember)

2003 - 200 lbs, graduated high school tried Jenny Craig, Weight Watcher's, Herbal Magic, physician-supervised weight loss

2004 - 230 lbs, freshman "15"

2006 - 200 lbs with diet/exercise concurrent with first serious relationship

2006 - 230 lbs, 3 months after end of first serious relationship

2007 - 250 lbs

2008 - 220 lbs with diet and exercise, then started a grueling intensive 3 year program

2009 - 250 lbs

2011 - 275 lbs, graduated from said program, then couldn't find a job for 4 months, did food and retail therapy

2012 - 235 lbs, with personal trainer costing $4000 with diet/exercise

2013 - 285 lbs, highest weight ever at pre-op for vertical gastric sleeve surgery, found out 2 weeks before surgery I am hypothyroid.

Time to put an end to this horrific yo-yo dieting.

It reinforces in my mind that I'm doing the right thing by having this surgery. No turning back now.