Yes, lots of people go on a severe, calorie restrictive diet and lose a load of weight, reach their goal, stop the diet and put it all back on again. How many times have you heard this?
Well there is a "kind of explanation", that gives a lot of insight into why this happens but doesn't actually give a solution to the problem. Take the Biggest Loser as an example. Reality show from USA, and probably exported to several other countries along with Keeping Up With The Kardashians (America, you could have kept that one to yourselves). I, personally, have never seen a single episode of The Biggest Loser (or Keeping Up With The Kardashians for that matter), I'm not a reality show type of person. The Biggest Loser is a good example of failed weight loss and has been used by Dr. Kevin Hall for his study of failed weight loss over a 6 year period.
All 14 contestants from season 8 of the show, were monitored by Dr. Kevin Hall, a metabolism expert at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
In the six years since season 8 of the show aired, almost all of the contestants including the winner, Danny Cahill who managed to lose an incredible 108,4kg on the show, have put the weight they lost back on, and in some cases even more than they had started out with.What Dr. Hall found is that the human body will fight to get back every gram of weight lost in restrictive diets, even over the course of long periods of time, as much as years. He says this is due to long-lasting changes to how the body processes calories.
Each and every one of us has a "resting metabolic rate" which shows how many calories we burn while at rest. Prior to participating in the show, the contestants had normal metabolic rates for their size - albeit dangerously overweight. What he discovered was that after the 13 weeks of intense exercise the participants were subjected to during the program, their metabolisms had SLOWED dramatically. This means that even though they were all considerably thinner, they were burning hundreds of calories LESS than someone of that size would be expected to burn.
The doctors who were looking after the participants had anticipated that this would happen, however what they hadn't expected was that their metabolisms would still be slower six years later, and were getting progressively slower with time.
This slowed metabolism makes it a lot easier to put the weight back on. After the show, the contestants also had near zero levels of Leptin - the satiety hormone which signals the brain that we are full and can stop eating.
Also, The New York Times reported (although I would prefer a scientific quote on this), that the human body appears to have an "ideal weight" pre-programmed in - one it is easy to maintain - and will fight to restore that weight, even when the person diets like crazy.
This is in part true. I do not believe that the body has an "ideal weight" pre-programed into it and that some people's pre-programed weight is to be obese.
What I DO believe is that the human body was made to resist famine. Our ancestors lived in tough times where food was scarce. If our hunter-gatherer ancestors were "lucky" enough to kill some form of protein they would have to eat all of it as quickly as possible as there was no way of storing it. Also the human body 10,000 years ago didn't have an abundance of food available, so it held on to everything it could get "just in case" it had to go without for a while.
This is like animals fattening themselves for winter when food is more difficult to find.
However, our human bodies have not evolved in 10,000 years, they are still programmed for famine when we live in times of abundance - at least in the Western World. But our bodies still hold on to everything "just in case" we have to go without.
Therefore, people who overtime become overweight or obese and then go on a massive crash diet with high calorie restriction and intense exercise programs, throw their bodies into a crisis of believing the famine is here and they need to hold on to everything they can get and if possible those bodies will do everything in their power to return to the pre-diet weight to avoid the famine.
This could be the reason why the contestants' metabolisms were still affected 6 years later and they were gradually piling the weight back on. It is a very frustrating scenario for anyone who has made the huge effort to lose vast amounts of weight.
This is why I am all for the marathon and not the sprint. Losing weight gradually, over a longer period of time which gives the body AND THE BRAIN time to change too. Please understand that any weight loss program also involves a change in mental attitude. It should also be a lifestyle change and not just a temporary change.
If you try and make too many drastic changes too quickly your body will probably think it is being attacked and go into panic mode. This will stop effective weight loss and will also produce stress and inflammation in the body - neither of which you will want to happen.
So, take it slow, love yourself and start by treating yourself well, eating healthy nutritious foods and taking regular exercise that you can gradually build up and turn into a habit. Your body will love you right back and will respond in kind.
I can help you improve your health. If you would like to make an appointment with me either in person or via Skype, just send me an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com
No comments:
Post a Comment