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NYTimes reports that 'Biggest Losers' have decreased metabolism
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Lose a lot of weight very fast in a highly controlled and artificial enviroment bordering on lunacy and then rebound in an uncontrolled environment? Okay. Nothing to see here. See the 3-4 other threads on this topic this morning.1
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I read this article and was about to post it on the MFP community but I am glad someone else already did. I had similar reaction as other comments, I was both fascinated to have this insight and depressed.
I am surprised that an extreme weight loss challenge such as the Biggest Loser is being used as a credible study. I am no fitness or nutrition expert, but I do know that every body is different and losing weight is a lifestyle change that sometimes takes time. The contestants on the show lose a huge amount of weight so rapidly, that even without knowing details of their grueling and unsustainable regimen I'd say it was unhealthy and going to mess with their body's normal functioning.
This is my first time using MFP. I have now been using it for four months upon recommendation by my personal trainer. My goals are to workout more consistently now and into the future, build muscle and loose weight (12-15 lbs) and keep the weight off. I have lost 9 lbs so far and it has taken a lot of work, but one that I have enjoyed. I started going to the gym consistently since May last year and this is the first time in my life that I have stuck to my fitness routine for a whole year and that is a big change for me.
In the past I have lost weight twice after having my children with Weight Watchers, the last time was about 5-6 yrs ago. I believe MFP is a lot more nuanced and allows you details on your nutrition beyond just calories. But with both I never ate my exercise calories yet I do feel that I am losing weight much more slowly now. I am not concerned about the present but what I would be interested in is a study that offers specifics on how a woman's metabolism changes with age and what can be done to compensate to maintain your weight as long as your lifestyle and eating habits remain the same.
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That's exactly what I was thinking when I read the article. I'm losing at an average rate of 1.8 lbs per week. It will take me a good long time to lose 70 pounds at this rate, but along the way I am learning a lot about why I gained so much weight in the first place, how to make better food choices, and that I actually can enjoy exercise. If it turns out that my actual post-weight loss TDEE is lower than someone of similar age, size and activity, I'm OK with that. What I'm not OK with is making excuses and regaining the weight.kmbrooks15 wrote: »I would be interested to see how this information applies to someone losing slowly through proper diet (meaning sufficient calories instead of this extremely low calorie stuff) and reasonable amounts of exercise..... I just wonder if these same effects would be observed in people losing gradually instead of this extreme and rapid loss the Biggest Loser contestants experience.
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Here is the full article of the study.
Persistent metabolic adaptation 6 years after “The Biggest Loser” competition
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.21538/full2 -
That's exactly what I was thinking when I read the article. I'm losing at an average rate of 1.8 lbs per week. It will take me a good long time to lose 70 pounds at this rate, but along the way I am learning a lot about why I gained so much weight in the first place, how to make better food choices, and that I actually can enjoy exercise. If it turns out that my actual post-weight loss TDEE is lower than someone of similar age, size and activity, I'm OK with that. What I'm not OK with is making excuses and regaining the weight.kmbrooks15 wrote: »I would be interested to see how this information applies to someone losing slowly through proper diet (meaning sufficient calories instead of this extremely low calorie stuff) and reasonable amounts of exercise..... I just wonder if these same effects would be observed in people losing gradually instead of this extreme and rapid loss the Biggest Loser contestants experience.
I doesn't apply. The specific study was an analysis of extreme weight loss.
See also the discussion of
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3387402/
"Although metabolic adaptation acts to decrease the rate of weight loss, it was the subjects with the greatest weight loss who had the greatest metabolic adaptation. This suggests that the magnitude of the intervention plays a role in determining both the degree of weight loss as well as the metabolic response acting to counter weight loss."1 -
stevencloser wrote: »What makes it questionable is the evolutionary approach. If your body has the ability to just lower your metabolism by 800 calories and keep you functional despite that, why doesn't it do that all the time? It would help prevent deaths by famine and in turn raise the rate of survival of the species as a whole. It would be a favorable trait that gets passed down as always active.
Because it is a suboptimal adaptation - this down-regulation seems to result in poor physiological function along the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis. There are evidently other evolutionary pressures that make a non-slug life likelier to survive to the next generation - we tend to prefer active healthy looking partners and not sallow, sludgy SleepyMcSleepies.0 -
This is the usual scaremonger tactics to discourage weightloss, or more exact, free/unassisted/unpaid weightloss, because it's always followed up by some drastic measure that we can buy/undergo. But fear not! It should be taken as a cautionary tale, to not go to extremes. MFP teaches the opposite of what TBL stands for. I am so grateful I found this site. Keeping weight off can be done, it takes an effort, but it can be done, you just have to be vigilant and kind to yourself.7
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Vigilant and kind is good. Thank you for thatkommodevaran wrote: »This is the usual scaremonger tactics to discourage weightloss, or more exact, free/unassisted/unpaid weightloss, because it's always followed up by some drastic measure that we can buy/undergo. But fear not! It should be taken as a cautionary tale, to not go to extremes. MFP teaches the opposite of what TBL stands for. I am so grateful I found this site. Keeping weight off can be done, it takes an effort, but it can be done, you just have to be vigilant and kind to yourself.
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Here is the full article of the study.
Persistent metabolic adaptation 6 years after “The Biggest Loser” competition
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.21538/full
Something I posted on different thread on the same subject:
Taking the numbers from table1 and running them through the McArdle equation shows that there is indeed a large metabolic adaptation.
In blue, the numbers from the article.
In green, my calculations for RMR based on Katch-McArdle Formula (x 1.25 activity level for RMR from BMR). This tends to agree with the idea that there is a 400-600 calorie difference from expected to measured.
Given that these individuals showed 1900 ± 460 RMR it actually might mean that those individuals will need to have an unhealthy restriction or very high exercise levels to lose weight (since their average BMI 6 years after was 43.8!!)
This tends to support the idea that metabolic or adaptive thermogenesis does occur during rapid weight loss and should be avoided. For these individuals, "the degree of metabolic adaptation at the end of the competition was not associated with weight regain, but those with greater long-term weight loss also had greater ongoing metabolic slowing," where other studies have shown little to no long term effect with more reasonable weight loss.2 -
EvgeniZyntx wrote: »Given that these individuals showed 1900 ± 460 RMR it actually might mean that those individuals will need to have an unhealthy restriction or very high exercise levels to lose weight (since their average BMI 6 years after was 43.8!!)
Bloody hell.
I wouldn't want those odds...
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Open Letter to the Producers Following The Biggest Loser Study
http://www.strongcoffey.com/open-letter-biggest-loser-study/0 -
Wetcoaster wrote: »Open Letter to the Producers Following The Biggest Loser Study
http://www.strongcoffey.com/open-letter-biggest-loser-study/
I see nothing in that letter about people taking ownership over their own lives. I don't like the show at all because it does focus so much on rapid and unsustainable weight loss, but that letter seemed to run to the opposite corner of "it's all your fault."0 -
If some rich people ruined my metabolism, I'd sue!0
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sunnybeaches105 wrote: »Wetcoaster wrote: »Open Letter to the Producers Following The Biggest Loser Study
http://www.strongcoffey.com/open-letter-biggest-loser-study/
I see nothing in that letter about people taking ownership over their own lives. I don't like the show at all because it does focus so much on rapid and unsustainable weight loss, but that letter seemed to run to the opposite corner of "it's all your fault."
Agreed.0 -
Wetcoaster wrote: »Open Letter to the Producers Following The Biggest Loser Study
http://www.strongcoffey.com/open-letter-biggest-loser-study/
That seemed to be really loud but without saying anything?
"it's all your fault, this proves that it's not just CICO, blah blah blah, teach them that it's NOT just a calorie deficit but that every day......you should strive to be in a calorie deficit."1 -
What frustrates me about these sort of studies is that they always seem to use extremely fast weight loss. For example the winner's goal while in the at home segment was to lose 1 pound a day, that's right, a 3500 calorie deficit each and every day. That is crazy even for someone with as much weight as he had to lose. All the studies mentioned here tell us is that if a person loses their weight through an extreme deficit it will cause long term negative effects on metabolism. The exceptions to this are apparently gastric bypass patients. However, extrapolating this to people losing in a radically different way using a moderate deficit does not follow. It may be true for them (that the the general user here on MFP), but this study will not tell you that. Nor will the others cited in the article.2
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rileysowner wrote: »What frustrates me about these sort of studies is that they always seem to use extremely fast weight loss. For example the winner's goal while in the at home segment was to lose 1 pound a day, that's right, a 3500 calorie deficit each and every day. That is crazy even for someone with as much weight as he had to lose. All the studies mentioned here tell us is that if a person loses their weight through an extreme deficit it will cause long term negative effects on metabolism. The exceptions to this are apparently gastric bypass patients. However, extrapolating this to people losing in a radically different way using a moderate deficit does not follow. It may be true for them (that the the general user here on MFP), but this study will not tell you that. Nor will the others cited in the article.
Actually, the body of research covers a lot of different conditions - you'll find some summaries here: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1077746/starvation-mode-adaptive-thermogenesis-and-weight-loss
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I'd hire a lawyer and use this science to say by the BL tactics Obesity is no longer my fault, its BL's fault. What else?
I'm not serious... lol
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It was interesting to me that weight loss surgery seemed to be seen as the one option that didn't mean a forever low rmr.
But maybe 6 years isn't enough time for the body to heal from the BL experience and given time the rmr returns to normal?0
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