In case you’re not a New York Times reader, I wanted to share today’s fascinating – and seriously troubling – front page story on the biological obstacles people face in maintaining weight loss.
The story reports on a team of obesity researchers who monitored contestants from The Biggest Loser over a six year period following their appearance on the show. It turns out that all but one of the contestants have gained back significant amounts of weight, with some now weighing even more than they did at the start.
That’s depressing enough, but even more alarming is how very hard the body apparently fights back against weight loss. The researchers found that the contestants’ metabolism rates dropped as they lost weight, which is expected, but those rates of metabolism did not increase as they gained the weight back. As a result, contestants who are once again overweight can now eat far less than they could before the show without putting on yet more weight – a finding which one obesity expert quoted in Times called “frightening and amazing.” Here’s the story of one such individual featured in the piece:
Sean Algaier, 36, a pastor from Charlotte, N.C., feels cheated. He went from 444 pounds to 289 as a contestant on the show. Now his weight is up to 450 again, and he is burning 458 fewer calories a day than would be expected for a man his size.
“It’s kind of like hearing you have a life sentence,” he said.
The researchers’ findings are to be published today in the journal Obesity.
Putting aside the implications of this research for adults, this study indicates to me that we must redouble our efforts as a society to prevent childhood obesity before it can take root. Because once children are already significantly overweight or obese, getting them to lose excess weight and keep that weight off for a lifetime – all while fighting against their own potentially slowed metabolism – is a very tall order indeed.
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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Bettina Elias Siegel
Karen says
I agree, it was a stunning finding.
SJ Reidhead says
Now you know why those of us who were forced to diet as a child now are doomed to live a life being large. I’ve lived with this my entire life.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
I have such sympathy. It almost makes you feel like weight loss programs of any type need to come with a warning label – do not attempt unless you think you can maintain any weight loss indefinitely.