Gaining it back; NYT article

Nausicca55 wrote: »

No one is taught lifestyle changes on The Biggest Loser. No one continues eating a bowl of grass and exercising 21 hours a day when they go back to their normal lives.

This.

From everything that I have read from people who have lost a lot of weight and kept it off, they changed their lifestyle. They continued to do in maintenance what they did to lose the weight. For example, portion control/counting calories, mostly nutritious food, daily activity for a healthier lifestyle. So I agree with you. If the contestants ate grass and exercised 21 hours per day to lose the weight and then continued to do that and still gained the weight back, then I would say it is hopeless and none of us should even try. But if after they lost the weight they were wished "Farewell" and sent home on their own to go back to their regular lives and weren't taught how to eat real food and use portion control and the other tools they need, they were extremely likely to regain the weight.

This is why plans like Nutrisystem and even Weight Watchers failed for me in the past... I could lose the weight by eating their prepackaged foods, but when I had to try to make choices and cook for myself the only skills or knowledge I had was how to do so to gain weight (which I was very good at!). Until I found MFP and learned how to control my weight through controlling/measuring my portions while making my own food choices, I didn't have a chance of succeeding. I've learned that I feel less hungry if I don't have 80% of my calories in carbs. I've learned I like to walk, preferably outside. I've learned that no more than a 500 calorie deficit works for me, otherwise I'm starving and miserable. I've found what works for me and after more than a year I've lost 68 pounds. I am finally getting rid of my medium/large/extra large/jumbo clothes (which I needed when I kept going back up in weight after losing). I'm buying clothes that fit my new, small size because I know I don't ever have to go back to fat. I have the knowledge and skills I need to be successful at maintenance for the first time in my life.

Another point the article makes is that these people's metabolisms are now slower than would be expected for someone else their size. Okay, but I am not that other person. I am me. A certain number of calories is more than what I burn and will cause me to gain weight, a certain amount is what I need to maintain, and a certain number is less than what I burn and will cause me to lose. So saying my body is "fighting to make me fat again so I should just give up" is horse pucky to me. If I burn 450 less calories per day than someone who has never been overweight and is my size now, so be it. I choose to eat 450 calories less per day than that person and stay this weight. Or I choose to eat the same amount as they do, but I gain. It is still up to me to determine what my body needs and then make choices accordingly.

The article also talks about insatiable hunger, starving themselves and then binging, not having support in place, and on and on, all of which are issues which need to be dealt with to lose and maintain a loss. If you are in this category, you may need to work harder and really learn what works for you. For example, some counseling may help. Doing research to learn about foods and paying attention to how they affect you may help. Choosing high-bulk, low calorie foods (like vegetables) can help with fullness. Eating a higher proportion of protein and dietary fat and less carbohydrates can help with hunger/satiety. I firmly believe that with sufficient desire, we can learn what works for us as individuals and we can succeed.

The Biggest Losers is not the best reference, to be honest, as they pretty much starve themselves to lose the weight and just don't learn anything.

I think that yes, your metabolism might be 10% slower or something when you've been obese and lost weight. It's not the end of the world.

But yeah, in my experience, the body fights back. I don't care how many people say it's not true... I'm way hungrier than I was when losing, and I'm eating the same diet, just with more calories. It's hard.

I would say that this study represents a really good baseline. As soon as I read it, I wandered what would happen if they used this group as the control and followed a matched group who lost weight much more slowly. How would their BMR and leptin (and other hormones) change?

Nausicca55 wrote: »

I don't know, but reading this article just depressed me. Weight loss already seems like an uphill battle, and reading this makes it seem just hopeless.

It is not hopeless, you just have to resign yourself to the fact that you can not eat more calories than you burn as a new way of eating. Simple, but never easy.

gee losing 240lbs in 7 months *kitten* up your metabolism? Whodathunkit?

Jennifer10723 wrote: »

I know from my own experience and losing the same 60 pounds over and over again that this is true. I do not know how to stop the cycle .. If I am not actively losing weight, I am gaining it. I have always been a little bit heavier than my friends and family, it is just how my body is. I build muscle fast. I am really focusing "this time" on my eating habits. Trying just to make better choices and realize that it is what it is. I am 43 and I can't eat like my 16 year old son. Does it suck .. yep. But, this is a better fight than some of the others out there.

If you can lose weight, and you can gain weight, you can maintain weight. Do the exact same as when you lose weight, but eat slightly more calories. If you gain a pound then you are eating too much, cut back 100calories and watch the scale again for 2-3 weeks. This is not your metabolism, this is simple calorie counting.

I found the article very interesting, especially the information about the effect of weight loss on hormones like leptin that affect hunger. Unfortunately, the only definite conclusion I can draw from it is that rapid weight loss by means of extreme calorie restriction combined with extreme exercise is a bad idea. I already knew that. I sure would like to see a study of people like me, instead. I've taken over 3 years to lose 80 pounds - about 1/2 pound per week on average and the loss has been relatively steady. I've done it mainly through exercise (but nothing extreme) and I avoid being hungry. I determined pretty early on that if I eat an average of 2000 calories a day, I feel pretty comfortable. So, I exercise enough to be able to eat that much and still lose 1/2 pound a week. I have had to increase the intensity of my exercise in order to do that, however. Exercise that at one time would have me at the point of collapse, or even been beyond my ability, now barely raises my heart rate. Still, I suspect that my metabolic rate is lower than it should be. I don't know if that is because of my current program or because of past weight loss efforts (which didn't incorporate exercise).

NancyN795 wrote: »

I found the article very interesting, especially the information about the effect of weight loss on hormones like leptin that affect hunger. Unfortunately, the only definite conclusion I can draw from it is that rapid weight loss by means of extreme calorie restriction combined with extreme exercise is a bad idea. I already knew that. I sure would like to see a study of people like me, instead. I've taken over 3 years to lose 80 pounds - about 1/2 pound per week on average and the loss has been relatively steady. I've done it mainly through exercise (but nothing extreme) and I avoid being hungry. I determined pretty early on that if I eat an average of 2000 calories a day, I feel pretty comfortable. So, I exercise enough to be able to eat that much and still lose 1/2 pound a week. I have had to increase the intensity of my exercise in order to do that, however. Exercise that at one time would have me at the point of collapse, or even been beyond my ability, now barely raises my heart rate. Still, I suspect that my metabolic rate is lower than it should be. I don't know if that is because of my current program or because of past weight loss efforts (which didn't incorporate exercise).

I just wanted to say hooray for you. There will never be a reality television show about people who lose weight sensibly and slowly while implementing lifestyle changes, because it's just not as exciting to watch, and that's a shame, because you are a better role model.

Wanted to add now that I've read the article that I've seen bits and pieces of the show but never watched a whole episode, and it sounds horrible! I can hardly believe it's legal, though I'm sure contestants sign some kind of iron-clad contract. This is what someone did post-show to weigh-in in order to win:

"Mr. Cahill set a goal of a 3,500-caloric deficit per day. The idea was to lose a pound a day. He quit his job as a land surveyor to do it.

"His routine went like this: Wake up at 5 a.m. and run on a treadmill for 45 minutes. Have breakfast — typically one egg and two egg whites, half a grapefruit and a piece of sprouted grain toast. Run on the treadmill for another 45 minutes. Rest for 40 minutes; bike ride nine miles to a gym. Work out for two and a half hours. Shower, ride home, eat lunch — typically a grilled skinless chicken breast, a cup of broccoli and 10 spears of asparagus. Rest for an hour. Drive to the gym for another round of exercise."

That made me unbelievably sad.