Among the more radical weight loss methods that have been employed,

therapeutic starvation.

How can you get people to stop eating?

Why are their jaws shut?

Ugh, yes, that used to be a thing.

Terrible.

I can't even imagine the psychological tool.

Surgical fixes like jaw-wearing aside, what is the most effective long-term obesity program ever published in the medical literature? The Trevos Behavior Modification Program.

Named after a town in Pennsylvania, the program ran all volunteer self-help support groups beginning in 1970,

offering lifetime treatment at no cost.

Wait.

The most successful weight loss program in history was free?

Why haven't more people heard about it? Probably because of that, it was free.

Multimillion-dollar corporations, like Weight Watchers, spend hundreds of millions of dollars

on advertising each year. How do the two programs compare? After two years in Weight Watchers,

the average weight loss is about six pounds. After two years in Weight Watchers, the average weight loss is about six pounds.

After two years in the Trevos program, the average weight loss was 39 pounds. And after five years,

Trevos participants were still down 35 pounds. Now, that's only for about the 20% who stayed in the

program that long. What about the 20% who stayed in the program that long.

What about Weight Watchers participants?

After five years sticking with the most rigorous 52-week Weight Watchers program, participants

did maintain a lower weight, but only about five and a half pounds.

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