Levitsky's studies with former undergraduate students Lisa Jias and Amy Lanou have shown that when people are not allowed snacks, they still eat about as much at mealtime as when they do snack. And people who skip a meal or don't snack do not compensate at the next meal by eating more. That means that the less often you eat, the fewer calories you consume, he explains. They work temporarily because they are comprised of fewer calories, but the weight comes right back because the diets are nearly impossible to stay on indefinitely. In other words, what's much more important to health are indicators such as blood pressure and cholesterol and healthful lifestyle habits such as a low-fat diet and plenty of exercise.
Recent studies show that shorter mortality is more related to inactivity than to body weight.
What you weigh matters to your life, though. Studies show that obese people experience discrimination in jobs, housing, education, dating, and marriage. Americans are getting fatter because they are consuming about 1,000 calories more each year than the previous year. That is less than 10 calories a day. Eat only when you have to, which means at meals, and finally, accept your body size.