>The unbelievably low success rate of diet and exercise programs for long-term weight reduction is widely documented and quite consistent with the earlier poster's experience.

where is your data from? what protocol did they follow?

Please suggest some studies that show high success rates in curing obesity long term (say, at least 5 years). If you seem to be so incredulous that this is a real problem, I assume you are basing this on some studies that did find it's doable, and we're just being ignorant.

The problem is the difficulty in following any protocol.