Kevin Hall: Quantifying how strongly appetite resists weight loss.

AlabasterVerve
AlabasterVerve Posts: 3,171 Member
edited December 4 in Health and Weight Loss
Early coverage of his unpublished study. Here's a snippet of the WebMD article:

(Oct. 14, 2016) -- New research is shedding light on a question that has long confounded dieters and obesity researchers alike: Why do so many people regain weight after they’ve worked so hard to lose it?

The answer, according to a new study, is appetite. People who successfully lose weight get really hungry -- more than anyone had ever expected that they might. The body prompts us to eat about 100 calories more than usual for every 2 pounds or so of weight lost, researchers found.

“That’s the very first time that number has been quantified. We never knew how big that number was before the study,” says researcher Kevin Hall, PhD, who studies how the body responds to weight loss at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD.

It’s this surge in appetite, even more than the drop in metabolism people have after weight loss, that drives weight regain, he says.

The effect of appetite is three times stronger than the slowing metabolism. The two together virtually assure that lost pounds will creep back on, Hall says.

How Your Appetite Can Sabotage Weight Loss

Replies

  • NancyYale
    NancyYale Posts: 171 Member
    It makes sense. Sadly it might make some folks think it's impossible to keep it off in the long term. Thank goodness that with MFP we see people succeeding every day.
  • afatpersonwholikesfood
    afatpersonwholikesfood Posts: 577 Member
    Well, that's lame. :(
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    Any info on how long that "effect" is thought to last?
  • Whitezombiegirl
    Whitezombiegirl Posts: 1,042 Member
    Ive experienced this. I lost a lot of weight in april and my appetite sjy rocketed. I gained 7lbs and my appetite has retuned to normal.

    I also cut out artificial sweeteners around the same time, as i was suspecting that they were increasing my appetite for sweet foods. I especially cut out stevia because of its possible hormonal effect.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    My experience is that I could eat and eat and eat when I was fat, thus gaining weight, and one of the reasons for that was that I mostly ate junk and diet foods. Now, I eat so much better, and my appetite is good and healthy and strong, but I can and will only eat what I need to maintain my weight, and hardly that; I'm closing in on a BMI of 20 these days.
  • AlabasterVerve
    AlabasterVerve Posts: 3,171 Member
    For those interested here's the pre-print:

    PDF | Abstract
  • laur357
    laur357 Posts: 896 Member
    Sued0nim wrote: »
    Any info on how long that "effect" is thought to last?

    "Unfortunately, there is no evidence that the energy intake feedback control system resets or relaxes with
    prolonged maintenance of lost weight – an effect similar to the long-term persistent suppression of energy expenditure in weight-reduced humans" (56)
    The trial lasted for 52 weeks.

    I've lost about 29 KG (65 lbs) over 3 years. The average loss in the study was 7 pounds for the non-placebo group. The appetite increased above baseline by ~100kcals per kg lost. So my 'appetite' should be driving me to eat around 2900 more calories per day until I get back to my highest weight? I'm not sure I'm experiencing that . . . but I've been doing this for so long that maybe it just feels normal?

    It's also important to note that all the subjects in the study had type 2 diabetes. Hormonal response is different in an individual with type 2 diabetes than it is in a person without - I don't know if you can really extrapolate the results broadly without more testing.
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,333 Member
    I wonder if the time it takes to lose weight impacts the severity of appetite driving pounds back? If you lost very gradual.. would your system adjust without as much notice?
  • CasperNaegle
    CasperNaegle Posts: 936 Member
    This just seems strange to me. One, how do you measure appetite? I have lost over 40 pounds and I don't feel any more "hungry" than I ever did, at least that I can tell. I have also added lean mass and that seems to improve metabolism not make it worse. So I don't know if they are just talking about someone going from 300 to 180 and the difference in metabolism that would cause. Anyway it only seems to give people excuses to me.. I know why I ballooned up, I ate too much. When I measure everything and watch what I eat I lose. My two cents worth.
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