I agree with all the above! A lot of people "diet" for all the wrong reasons and they try to take it off too quickly, never changing their eating plans.

I've kept the weight off for 8 months now. I didn't go on a "diet" this time, i changed the way I ate. i exercised because my body needs it for health. I try to eat healthy food that helps my body run effeciently.

Like Jay say, i'm never going to be model thin. It's not going to make me happy, successful, beautiful. it's going to make me healthy and thinner.

stats can be misleading (god how I love them!). For example, if i got to my goal weight and then for the rest of my life watched my weight, and if i put on 2 kg i would exercise and diet, and get back down where i want to be, am i part of the 2%? Or have i gained too much weight back and qualify as a yoyo-er? I'd like to know how they got that stat ^_^

Funny--- I had always heard/read that it was 5% that managed to keep the weight off long term.

There are a lot more stats at the National Weight Control registry http://www.nwcr.ws/

Anyways, don't let that stupid percentage intimidate you!! It almost makes one want to give up from the start because it illicits a defeatist attitude like "the odds are not in my favor so why try?" But the fact of the matter is that even if that 2-5% is a hard and fast number, that still means that some people manage to do it and you can too!!! I am one example and there are many others on this site as well. It is possible. I am so so so happy I was blissfully unware of that statistic when I started or I might have just given up early on but instead I just stuck with what was working and before you know it (alright, well, 3 years later anyways) I was at my goal weight and have been maintaining for over a year. For me a big part of the weight loss was believing that it was possible--- that I could do it, that my body could do it. And so can most everybody else. It is possible.