A new study was released on weight loss and maintenance that has been covered on many sites. Researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) evaluated contestants from Season 8 of the TV show the Biggest Loser. They found that 13 of the 14 contestants studied regained some or all of their weight that was lost during the show. All the contestants studied also had slower metabolic rates than expected; it took less food than it should to maintain their weight. They also had lower levels of the hormone, leptin, than expected. Low levels of leptin make people feel hungrier.
Basically the body is always trying to get back to its heaviest weight. This is likely an evolutionary advantage. Extra adipose tissue means more storage for a potential famine and if food does become scarce using food more conservatively means a greater odds of survival. Survivors are the ones who pass along their genes. Even though modern life has eliminated famine for many of use, to the brain weight loss doesn’t mean trying to reclaim a healthier weight it still portends death. For such a level of complexity, our brains don’t have the greatest user interface where weight loss is concerned. Maybe in a few thousands of years, that programming will be reversed, but that doesn’t exactly help anyone struggling to lose weight now.
I am not surprised the Biggest Loser contestants regained their weight. Nothing about what they did was sustainable, and there was an excessive focus on exercise, which science tells us is not an effective weight loss tool. People have jobs, no one can go to the gym for four hours a day. Some people wonder if maybe they had less weight to lose or did it more gradually maybe their metabolic rate would have rebounded over time, but I’m not so sure.
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