Dropping a bundle

There seems to be a hefty price for losing weight. Americans spend more than $60 billion to shed unwanted pounds, according to research conducted by Marketdata Enterprises. That money goes toward paying for gym memberships, joining medical weight-loss programs, purchasing meal replacements (shakes, nutrition bars) and even buying prescription obesity drugs. In addition, 228,000 bariatric surgeries were performed in 2017 in the United States.

Unfortunately, there’s a slim chance that many people will succeed. Only 1 in 6 obese Americans who lose a significant amount of weight maintain the loss, according to researchers at Penn State College of Medicine.