The Fat Trap

Interesting article in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html?_r=3&

Exercise about an hour or more each day — the average weight-loser puts in the equivalent of a four-mile daily walk, seven days a week.

Get on a scale every day in order to keep your weight within a narrow range.

Eat breakfast regularly.

Watch less than half as much television as the overall population.

Eat the same foods and in the same patterns consistently each day and don’t “cheat” on weekends or holidays.

Eat less than most people, with estimates ranging from 50 to 300 fewer daily calories.

Avoid anything with sugar or white flour, which can be “gateway drugs” for cravings and overeating.

Drink copious amounts of water; carry a 20-ounce water bottle and fill it several times a day.

Write down everything you eat.

Scientists are still learning why a weight-reduced body behaves so differently from a similar-size body that has not dieted. Muscle biopsies taken before, during and after weight loss show that once a person drops weight, their muscle fibers undergo a transformation, making them more like highly efficient “slow twitch” muscle fibers. A result is that after losing weight, your muscles burn 20 to 25 percent fewer calories during everyday activity and moderate aerobic exercise than those of a person who is naturally at the same weight. That means a dieter who thinks she is burning 200 calories during a brisk half-hour walk is probably using closer to 150 to 160 calories.

The body, in order to get back to its pre-diet weight, induces cravings by making the person feel more excited about food and giving him or her less willpower to resist a high-calorie treat.

“After you’ve lost weight, your brain has a greater emotional response to food,” Rosenbaum says. “You want it more, but the areas of the brain involved in restraint are less active.”

How long this state lasts isn’t known, but preliminary research at Columbia suggests that for as many as six years after weight loss, the body continues to defend the old, higher weight by burning off far fewer calories than would be expected. The problem could persist indefinitely.

A number of biological and genetic factors can play a role in determining exactly how much food is too much for any given individual.

Leibel says the pace of weight loss is unlikely to make a difference, because the body’s warning system is based solely on how much fat a person loses, not how quickly he or she loses it.