Facinating article about weight loss and your body's desire ...

[JohnRi]

Facinating article about weight loss and your body's desire to get any weight you lose back. 

I will admit my BMR has dropped big time since I lost 58 lbs.  My current BMR is down to 2036.  I'm resting a strained calf and only burned 2200 calories yesterday.  My BMR used to be 2400! 

So I see some truth to this article.  We've all heard that if you keep it off for a couple of years you won't gain it back.  I see truth in that too with this article... 

But I also see that most people fail to keep it off and gain it all back and then some.

I myself am going to work my **ahem** off to not gain it back.  I've donated all of my larger clothes, I AM NOT GOING BACK!!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weight-loss.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

Give this a read, and remember this when you get to your goal.  Weight loss is not over at the goal!

[tootiehas3]

I think what bothers me is that "dieting" ruins your metabolism. I understand why people shouldn't cut calories drastically if they want to lose weight. I only want to lose about 10 pounds. I'm 48 and only 5'1''. If I go with what Fitbit says, I can only eat about 1250 calories if I want to lose 1/2 pound per week. 1250 calories isn't alot of food...

I joined WW online thinking maybe if I tracked my food and stayed within certain points amount, I'd be able to lose. At least you get Fitpoints and Smartpoints so if you go out to eat, you don't feel like you're ruining your whole week....

BUT....I question even that...I think the best way to lose weight is a GRADUAL and SMALL calorie deficit. Or, just eating a clean diet and watching portions coupled with movement. I know it's frustrating to watch it come off so slow, but I think in the long run you have a better chance of keeping it off...

Just my 2 cents..

[OCDOC]

This has been 'known' for ages; a solid piece of scientific proof was published in the New England Journal in 1995     http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7632212

Kevin Hall didn't discover something new; he re-proved what's been known (and ignored) for decades:

Calories in--Calories out as an obesity strategy is pointless (although it is simplistic enough for anybody to 'get'). There are myriad metabolic and hormonal reactions at play..and these hormones don't care about the calorie-in-calorie-out arithmetic. Hormonal changes, BMR adaptations and messed up adipose homeostasis ruin all the best laid plans of the arithmetic crowd.

From the article: "But Dr. Ludwig said that simply cutting calories was not the answer. “There are no doubt exceptional individuals who can ignore primal biological signals and maintain weight loss for the long term by restricting calories,” he said, but he added that “for most people, the combination of incessant hunger and slowing metabolism is a recipe for weight regain — explaining why so few individuals can maintain weight loss for more than a few months.” "

Here's to hoping that science continues to improve re obesity...it's killing more people than tobacco.

[emili]

I think the problem is that people put themselves on a diet which is designed to have a beginning and an end. when folks get to the end, they don't know what to do. they cant stay on the diet so they go back to whatever they did before. changing your relationship with food and the choices you make about what you use to fuel your engine is the only way to maintain success. easier said then done, I know. but if this is a priority for you, then its easy said - easy done. losing weight is hard, but its much harder to keep it off. my opinion of course.

[Smythie]

Losing weight is a change of lifestyle.  Keeping it off is not falling back into old habits!!!

[OCDOC]

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@emili wrote:

I think the problem is that people put themselves on a diet which is designed to have a beginning and an end. when folks get to the end, they don't know what to do. they cant stay on the diet so they go back to whatever they did before. changing your relationship with food and the choices you make about what you use to fuel your engine is the only way to maintain success. easier said then done, I know. but if this is a priority for you, then its easy said - easy done. losing weight is hard, but its much harder to keep it off. my opinion of course.

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Absolutely agree @emili

In the last 20 yearsI've lost 25+ and regained 30+ probably 6 times ..maddening!

Losing fat by cutting intake and exercising is relatively 'easy' for about 3-4 months..the Cal In-Cal Out works great at first. The issue is what you said..getting your body to stay there! I've always bounced back within a year...and not by 'falling off the wagon'...it just happened. Stalling it (desperately) required starvation or insane exercise..I couldn't do it.

This time I'm down 45 since Xmas, and am ready to try anything to stay here (or lose the last ten)...there must be a better way than the last failures. What did Einstein say about insanity? 🙂

Best! Rob

PS Some British guy said if you can keep a 'new' weight for a year you are probably 're-set'....I hope to find out.

[FitBeforeFifty]

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@emili wrote:

I think the problem is that people put themselves on a diet which is designed to have a beginning and an end. when folks get to the end, they don't know what to do. they cant stay on the diet so they go back to whatever they did before.

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While I agree with you in general, you are ignoring the unique circumstances and the results of this study.

There are 2 things working against these people:

1. Their resting metabolism is on average 500 calories below predicted (some as high as 800)
2. Their leptin levels (signals for hunger) are still 1/2 of what they should be 6 years later.

In the beginning, these people were obese but had normal resting metabolism and normal leptin levels. 

So, before we suggest that these people just weren't trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle, I think we should consider how hard it would be to maintain your weight if you had to eat 800 calories less and were hungry all of the time.

To me, the less learned is avoid rapid extreme weight loss.

[OCDOC]

LCHF-IF expert's deconstruction of the NYT article...Jason Fung again:

https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/biggest-loser-diet-explained/ 

He now has a year-long wait list thanks to plugs like this..  http://nypost.com/2016/03/23/forget-calorie-counting-this-is-the-real-secret-to-weight-loss/

I will know in a year if LC-IF is any better than 'Eat Less Move More'.