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After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight

nytimes.com

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Re: After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight

#81

Post by VLM »

bb85 wrote: post #8

I wonder why, when we talk about obesity, there is this tendency to use language that removes responsibility from the person, or at least move it from their mind to their "body", as if they were different entities. I think obese people fit the definition of addicts. Most of the time, other addictions are fought by pushing awareness on the person, forcing them to recognize they have a problem and that they need to cha…

I have a coworker with a problem maintaining insulin hormone levels. He needs to work harder, pull himself up by his bootstraps like the rest of us, and stop blaming his body. He needs to recognize the need to change, IV insulin addiction is no joke. I can just wave my hand and say he needs to change his diet or lifestyle or something and it'll all go away and he won't need those nasty needles anymore.

Its pretty much the same isituation with people having leptin level problems, or dopamine and serotonin level problems for that matter. Or epinephrine levels. Or testosterone/estrogen balance level problems. Or cholesterol problems. In fact this is quite a long list...

Re: After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight

#82

Post by belltaco »

vitno wrote: post #65
Kenji wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if it's that simple. My body maintains a low but healthy weight no matter what I do. I can avoid sports for years and eat as much as I want, to the point of feeling uncomfortably full, without increasing weight. It seems likely that in some or even most obese people, a regulation system has been broken.

Study after study has repeatedly shown this to be untrue. People who think they "eat as much as they want" really don't eat as much as people who think they "eat almost nothing" Try actually counting your calories over the course of a week.

Actually, study after study found that overfeeding resulted in an enhanced metabolism, leading to much less weight gain than predicted, and even that weight gain disappears very soon with return to a non-forced diet.

Re: After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight

#83

Post by great_kraken »

gypsy_boots wrote: post #73
DenisM wrote: post #56

I encourage everyone to read the "physiology" chapter at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adipose_tissue TLDR: Blood sugar spikes above certain level are toxic, so the body responds with an emergency action of stashing the sugar wherever possible, including muscle, liver, and fat tissue. The former two are rather limited in their capacity, while the latter is unlimited. Ongoing elevated levels of sugars in the bloodstre…

Which is similarly why a diet high in carbohydrates can lead to your body storing more fat. It's easier for your body to turn the carbohydrates into energy than it is to turn the fat into energy. So when it gets both, it stores the fat for leaner times (less energy abundance) and turns the carbs into glucose for energy. It seems like the more we learn about high fat low carb diets, the more it seems that our body was…

Indeed. A basic understanding of the science is all you need. However, the main narrative is that the body is a simply a black box that obeys solely the laws of thermodynamics.

Re: After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight

#84

Post by emodendroket »

Hockenbrizzle wrote: post #80

Man this is so frustrating because I have a family member who is like this. I would really like to help them, but they just don't seem to get it. I think the problem is that these people want instant results. That's not how the body works. If you want to become a runner, you start running often and because you love it. You don't force yourself to start doing intense, one-and-done sessions in an attempt to get to your…

I don't know how you got that from this article.

Re: After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight

#85

Post by tdb7893 »

IndianAstronaut wrote: post #34
varelse wrote: post #15

Extreme diligence seems to be the only way to fight this. If I stop exercising, the pounds pack on within weeks. If I insure I burn at least 3000 calories a day (usually much more), I can maintain my weight indefinitely. But I walk to work and I exercise for 1-2 hours daily. Most people cannot or will not do this. Add in the extreme carbohydrate and fat-laden diets most readily available to America and it's a perfect…

How do you manage the 1 to 2 hours of daily exercise with a programmer lifestyle(assuming you are a programmer)?

What is the programmer lifestyle? I work 40 hours a week and have time for whatever I want to do in my free time

Re: After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight

#86

Post by simonbarker87 »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #77
49para wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it that fat cells never go away but your muscles will start catabolizing as soon as you stop drinking protein shakes ? Are there any studies on this or is it more bro-science ?

Because, survival. Muscle is expensive - your body wants only enough to survive. Fat is life - your body wants all the stores it can afford.

This, our DNA isn't set up to maximise muscle mass. Big cats however are a good example of animals that are designed to keep muscle mass on - damn things can eat once a week, sleep all the time and look like they work out everyday

Re: After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight

#87

Post by checker »

vitno wrote: post #65
Kenji wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if it's that simple. My body maintains a low but healthy weight no matter what I do. I can avoid sports for years and eat as much as I want, to the point of feeling uncomfortably full, without increasing weight. It seems likely that in some or even most obese people, a regulation system has been broken.

Study after study has repeatedly shown this to be untrue. People who think they "eat as much as they want" really don't eat as much as people who think they "eat almost nothing" Try actually counting your calories over the course of a week.

Valid point, but I think there's more here. Kenji is saying that he is satiated. It doesn't really matter what he eats compared to others if his brain/body is happy eating the correct amount.

The real question is: Why are people like Kenji satiated at an appropriate level of calories while others are not?

And I think the answer is going to be a complex mix of physical, psychological, and societal factors.

Re: After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight

#89

Post by belltaco »

dempseye wrote: post #72
koolba wrote: post #20

From the article (emphasis mine): > Mr. Cahill was one of the worst off. As he regained more than 100 pounds, his metabolism slowed so much that, just to maintain his current weight of 295 pounds, he now has to eat 800 calories a day less than a typical man his size. Anything more turns to fat. Presenting the numbers like this seems intentionally confusing. Casually reading this seems like he's eating 800 calories a…

Using the USDA supertracker here ( https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/bwp/ ) with the following data/assumptions: Weight: 295 lbs Age: 46 Height: 5 feet 10 inches (average height for US male) Work activity: sedentary Leisure activity: sedentary The normal maintenance calories come out at 3117. Less 800 is 2317. That is still enough to eat well and feel full, in my experience.

>That is still enough to eat well and feel full, in my experience.

That's because your hormone levels aren't crazily out of whack like the individual you reference. If your hormone levels were changed to reflect the person that lost weight, I doubt you'd say that.

Re: After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight

#90

Post by sageabilly »

The results of this study, while interesting, seem flawed to me because losing 200+lbs in only 8 months' time is ridiculously fast. I would be more interested in a study following people who lost weight very slowly and steadily over time, and curious about their metabolisms and recidivism rates.

I've lost 100lbs over the last three years and have had zero issue (so far, not saying I won't ever) with keeping at this weight. I maintained the same weight, +/- 3lbs, for most of 2015 without counting calories or following a diet. In December 2015, I decided I was ready to start intentionally losing more weight, so I tracked calories and lost an additional 15lbs over the course of three months. My experience with losing weight and maintaining weight loss are completely different than the results of the study in the OP, and I am curious how much of that difference can be chalked up to how long it took me to lose that weight.

Studies like the one in the OP are fascinating to me because no one seems to go "Hey, your body achieved homeostasis at 450lbs (maintaining that homeostasis for however many years the person was at that weight) and it probably royally screwed with everything dropping half your body weight in 8 month's time." It seems obvious to me that at that point the body is in full blown crisis mode trying to get back to the homeostasis it had developed previously. Eight months is not a long enough time to adapt to a new homeostasis, not to mention whether or not the body is freaking out because it's "starving" and dropping fat stores at such a high rate.

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