“Self-Control” – the answer to Obesity?

In 1958 Stunkard and McLaren-Hume concluded that “Most obese persons will not remain in treatment, of those that remain in treatment, most will not lose weight, of those that do lose weight, most will regain it.” Since then great advances have been claimed for behavioural, specifically self-control, treatments of obesity, (i.e. Stunkard, 1972). This had been witnessed in a great proliferation of research papers on group studies purporting to demonstrate the superiority of this approach and to verify its theoretical basis.