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How many people who start Weight Watchers maintain their goal weight after five years?

by Julia Belluz
Media for Medical/UIG via Getty Images

Carl Heneghan, an evidence-based medicine doctor at Oxford University in the UK, looked at the long-term evidence for Weight Watchers. He found that only eight percent of participants reach their goal and keep their weight off after five years.

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(Graphic courtesy of Carl Heneghan, Center for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford University)

These results square with what we know about maintaining weight loss: that it’s incredibly difficult and only tiny minority are able to stay slim.

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that one percent of people maintained their weight loss after five years.

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