Exercise for Maintenance

wabmester

Everybody knows that 90% of successful long-term weight-loss maintainers are exercise maniacs, right?

http://www.nwcr.ws/Research/default.htm
90% exercise, on average, about 1 hour per day.

It seemed logical to me, but I sometimes wondered if successful long-term weight-loss maintainers might just be the obsessive types, and exercise was just a side-effect of being obsessive.

Today I was thinking about leptin, which everybody knows is the hormone secreted by fat cells that suppresses hunger. The theory goes that leptin levels drop as we lose weight, and that's the reason 95% of us regain all the weight we lose. Except for those exercise-maniacs, the successful long-term weight-loss maintainers.

I was reading some blog comments, and somebody mentioned BAIBA. Everybody's heard of BAIBA, right? Yeah, me neither. So I googled it:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19735301

BAIBA could enhance leptin secretion by WAT and present some anti-inflammatory effects in the liver.

So exercise apparently causes BAIBA to be secreted by your muscles. And BAIBA increases leptin levels, which may keep you from regaining the weight you lost.

So, yeah, maybe exercise for maintenance works.

petunia773

That's great information! Can't wait to get to maintenance.

LowCarbInScotland

The first time I gained and lost a lot of weight it was absolutely exercise that kept it off, between contributing to my own health commitment (I wasn't going to eat a Snickers after working so hard in the gym) it also improved my muscle to fat ratio, which allowed me to burn through more fuel. I was eating like a horse and didn't gain a pound... Until I stopped exercising and gained all the weight back x2.

Looking forward to rediscovering my inner gym rat, I know she's still in there somewhere!

macchiatto

Interesting! Thanks!! As I'm close to maintenance now and so tired of yoyoing, I'm definitely looking for all the successful maintenance tips I can find!

zyxy55

Great info thanks for posting!

Sunny_Bunny_

Well I guess it's a good thing I just started back on a regular routine then. I'm terrible about sticking with exercise for very long. But I hate cardio type stuff. Trying the machines at the gym this time. So far, I like it pretty well.

wabmester

The leptin effect may just be in rodents. I couldn't find much compelling evidence (yet) that it applies to humans, too. But here's another recent study on rats:
http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/64/7/2361.long

Exercise training results in profound changes to WAT, including increased expression of genes involved in mitochondrial biogenesis, increased mitochondrial activity, increased beiging of scWAT, and an altered adipokine profile of WAT.

So one of the effects of exercise is a dramatic change in fat itself. They were even able to transfer some of the health benefits to other rats by giving them a fat transplant from exercised rats!

And I hear you about motivation, @Sunny_Bunny_. I'm living in fear now. Either low leptin is going to make me regain my weight or I'm going to lose my exercise habit and regain my weight.

nvmomketo

I have noticed that I am slightly hungrier now that I have lost 40lbs and am very close to goal weight. I am eating more because of it but the more is maintenance calories. I am eating around 2000kcal per day but not gaining at all. I am hopeful that the leptin related increase in hunger will just get me to eat enough to maintain. Hopefully.

I do wish the increased hunger had kicked in ten pounds from now though. LOL

ETA I am thankful that increased hunger did not bring back my old cravings for sweets!

LINIA

Just searched for "BAIBA" and found this thread, wondering if anyone here at LcHf has tried using the amino acid baiba and if yes, how is it taken?

Right now it's sold on Amazon and some consider it a worthwhile supplement.

( yes, aware I'm asking one year later)

kpk54

No. I've not tried it. After reading Always Hungry and The Hungry Brain though, I'm quite convinced low leptin after weight loss was probably the reason I felt like I was starving all the time and my brain was bound and determined to make me gain my weight back. Fortunately I found keto and either the very low carb or very high fat gave some relief.

Leptin was just discovered in 1994. Most everything related to the hunger hormones seems new. Not even the tip of the iceberg.

Gallowmere1984

kpk54 wrote: »

No. I've not tried it. After reading Always Hungry and The Hungry Brain though, I'm quite convinced low leptin after weight loss was probably the reason I felt like I was starving all the time and my brain was bound and determined to make me gain my weight back. Fortunately I found keto and either the very low carb or very high fat gave some relief.

Leptin was just discovered in 1994. Most everything related to the hunger hormones seems new. Not even the tip of the iceberg.

One thing that we do know for certain, is that exogenous leptin does precisely dick for humans, even though it does amazing things for rodents. We apparently just have way too many redundancies and failsafes built into our hormone signals for brute force tactics to accomplish much.