Fact Sheet

(or the truth about diets!)

1. 95% of Diets Fail: sources show that 66% of dieters regain all the weight lost within a year, and 97% gained it all back within 5 years.

Source: Statistics on Weight Discrimination: A Waste of Talent, The Council on Size and Weight Discrimination

2. 91% of women surveyed on a college campus had attempted to control their weight through dieting. 22% dieted “often” or “always” on a diet.

Source: Information obtained from the National Association of Eating Disorders

3. About 600,000 people die of heart attacks per year in the United States; that is 1 out of every 4 deaths. Heart attacks are the number one killer in the U.S. due to high stress levels and poor dietary habits.

2011 The American Heart Association

4. A survey of 17,000 failed dieters (almost 90% of whom were women) found that most had relapsed because of emotional issues.

5. The typical American dieter makes 4 weight loss attempts per year. 38% of the respondents had set weight loss resolutions year after year (5 resolutions in 5 years).

Source: 2011 Thomson Reuter’s NPR Health Poll

6. Americans on diets are sticking with them for a shorter amount of time and giving up more quickly.

7. 48% of people surveyed reported overeating or eating unhealthy foods to manage stress, while 1 in 4 skipped a meal in the last month because of stress

APA Poll June 2008