Stop The Fast Track Trial
Will My Child Lose Weight?
The Fast Track researchers know that weight loss dieting in teens is not very effective, for weight loss or health improvements. They have even published a 2013 meta-analysis on dieting interventions which acknowledged that “weight regain, and the subsequent regression in metabolic profiles to baseline levels, is common”.
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The Fast Track Research team’s own track record hasn’t shown anything different: Previous research from the Fast Track team demonstrated that on their ‘calorie controlled diets’, most teens lost only a small amount of weight (Less than 5kg in most cases), and within two years, had put it all back on again.
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Parents and teens are not being told about the low likelihood of weight loss ‘success’, or the high likelihood of weight regain and a return to metabolic baseline. This problem was brought up in one of the complaints, and incredibly, the CEO of the Westmead Hospital, Dr Michael Brydon, defended this lack of informed consent by saying that:
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“At no point does the study claim that participation in the study will result in weight loss.”
We believe that parents and teenagers have the right to know the strength of the scientific evidence regarding the lack of success of weight loss dieting.
The National Health & Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) rate the level of scientific evidence of this at “Level A,” which means that this is the strongest level of evidence we can get.
Other examples of Level “A” evidence are the link between smoking and lung cancer. In other words, we are as certain that weight loss dieting results in weight regain as we are that smoking leads to lung cancer.
No wonder the Fast Track researchers are not ‘claiming’ that the kids will lose weight!
But they are definitely selling the hope that they will, and this is appalling.
The NH&MRC also report Level “A” Evidence that over time, weight loss dieting is a strong predictor of weight gain, not loss, over time. That’s right: the more we diet, the heavier we become over time.
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Please sign the petition to Stop The Fast Track Trial today.