Interesting NY Times Mag. article - "The Fat Trap"...

I reached my goal weight about 4 weeks ago. Now, I'm up about 3 lbs since then. There's a lot of variables, really. What I call "springback" effect, holiday eating, etc. Nevertheless, when I average my intake and exercise calories over that period, I "should" have lost about a pound. I think I'm going to have to stay 300 or so calories under my maintenance calorie level to truly stay at my current weight.

When I started this journey, I knew it was going to mean a major life change. This article just reinforces that idea. I am determined to get to my goal weight and stay there even if it take me 3yrs to do it. Just a little bit at a time. However, the article was very interesting & goes to show that doctors, nutritionists, & other professionals in the field still don't know everything. It also shows that what works for 1 person may not work for another.

Thanks for sharing this.

Good luck everyone on achieving your goals!

For me the super fast thing doesn't work and long ago I was Will-Power-Woman to do them, but it's was a nasty set-up for the rebound. Even with the current slow-go routine, it's easy to get creep-up.

...if you feel like reading. It's a bit long, just to warn you.

I had posted this in Chit Chat, Fun, & Games but realized that probably wasn't the right place, lol.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.xml

HUGE issue I had is EVERY single scientific study that was conducted on weight loss and maintaining had the subjects losing the weight on diets of NO MORE than 1000 calories a day. One of the studies was 500-550 calories a day! To me it says, well of course those people are going to have a major struggle maintaining!

Thoughts? Reactions? Issues? A lot of food for thought here (pun intended).

Read it the other day, was very helpful. It taught me my metabolism and my body's ability to burn calories may not be at all like the next person's. It made me think about adjusting my workout calories burned down, to be more in line with what could be happening for my weight loss. Thanks for reposting this, here!

-Terri

It took a long time to put it on and keep it there. I'm good with removing it slowly so it stays off. I think there is some good information, but again those are extreme calorie restrictions and I am happy with my slow loss at 2100 calories. I think I can maintain this for life, so if it takes a few years to come off, cool. I like it here in MFP land anyways and I'm staying.

It took a long time to put it on and keep it there. I'm good with removing it slowly so it stays off. I think there is some good information, but again those are extreme calorie restrictions and I am happy with my slow loss at 2100 calories. I think I can maintain this for life, so if it takes a few years to come off, cool. I like it here in MFP land anyways and I'm staying.

I wish MFP had a like button.. I've never had a lot to lose so I went slow with myself, and maybe I don't really know how it feels to be obese but I think determination and educating yourself is important. I see people lose and maintain all the time and I think its a testament to how do-able it is. People publishing articles that blame everything around them for them not being able to get rid of the weight, even going a step ahead and using a small study that may on some level reinforce your hypothesis, are people that just really want to settle and aren't really ready to tackle their problem with themselves just yet. Just my 2 cents.

I'm wondering if the more efficient muscles that are burning fewer calories compared to folks always at your current size, is because they have been working out to get to that point.

May also have something to do with those extreme calorie deficits causing body to slow down.

Now I wonder if that means the muscle can't do as much work, compared to a person always at your current size after weight loss?

The most interesting thing to me was the 8 month window the mice or rats I can't remember had to lose the weight without biological changes. It kind of goes to show that the sooner you tackle a weight-gain, the better chances you have. I guess you really should say something to your friends/family if you notice they've gained 10 pounds!

Thanks for posting this - a very interesting article. I'd already come to the conclusion that logging food and exercising a lot are my long-term future, but good to get reinforcement of that need.

This is kinda lengthy but after reading that article this idea made me feel better about what they didnt exactly cover much in the studies from what I read.

I went to sleep thinking about this article and then it dawned on me that it might not be all that bad.. First off I want to say that the first study was found inconclusive so I took that in with a grain of salt. BUT the study with the lady that was 330lbs and now is 190 is retired so she is very old and her body metabolism would be very slow and thats when it popped into my head. I wonder if it would be easier to maintain or to "reset" your bodys idea of weight as they said by working out more strength training. I would like to see a study taking those people that have lost and have them do a strength training for 6 month or 1 year and then see how hard it would be to maintain. More lean muscle mass=better metabolism even at rest comparied to those who have less, I would think this would offset most if not all of that delema. It would possibly make losing even more weight easier and again to maintain. I say this because most people are all about cardio, cardio, and more cardio. How about using that cardio to lose the weight then cutting back on cardio and adding in more strength training gearing your diet twards creating new lean muscle mass while doing only some cardio just to keep your body burning. You can lose lean muscle tissue from doing to much cardio and also cardio does not create new lean tissue like strength training does. So then why would you not incorporate strength training after you have lost weight? I could see where a never ending battle would begin this way with keeping off the weight from alway just doing cardio training from a lack of lean muscle tissue. So said in another way, I would think after weight loss or during weight loss it would make it so much easier to work on creating a high metabolism rather than to have to fight a low metabolism or people with low lean muscle tissue on a weight loss diet. If you have more muscle tissue then this would negate that problem they said with your body burning less cals in the muscles and in fact you would burn more I would speculate to say even "reseting your body metabolism". You have to fight for every thing in weight loss but maybe adding lean muscle mass would make this journey easier in the end.