After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weight-loss.html

by yanowitz • 10 years ago

305 361 10 years ago

dempseye4• 10 years ago

The difficulty in keeping weight off reflects biology, not a pathological lack of willpower affecting two-thirds of the U.S.A.

Fifty years ago, two-thirds of the USA were not obese. Biology has not changed in that time. What has?

SerLava• 10 years ago

Biology has not changed in that time.

Oh, yeah it has. Changes in food and environment have modified our biologies. The effects of food energy overexposure are semi-permanent.

wmeredith• 10 years ago

Well, not willpower. The human condition is pretty steady. The industrialized food chain, on the other hand, has changed dramatically.

gnur3• 10 years ago

Easy access to cheap calories.

rayiner5• 10 years ago

Impulse control is fundamentally biological, so obviously a "lack of willpower" can't be the explanation.

padobson• 10 years ago

The agriculture, restaurant, and food industry. Quite a bit, actually.

amelius• 10 years ago

Intake of refined sugars. The amount of time spent sitting at a desk.

bb858• 10 years ago

That doesn't explain how someone can just let it happen to the point of suffering of it every day without taking simple measures to reverse it.

Most of the time the difference between steady gaining or losing weight is a few hundred calories a day. That's far from a lifestyle change.

When moving around becomes difficult, when dating becomes harder, when the aches and pain start... there's gotta be more to it than just a lot of sugar in your everyday stuff.

I always wonder (for other drugs too), if they're a way to slowly remove yourself from situations, or whatever it is, that make you uncomfortable. A way to permanently disqualify yourself from the race, because the idea of running (no pun intended) makes you anxious?

VLM3• 10 years ago

If you believe the internet memes, the desk was not invented until 1980. Ditto the car, the burbs, the commute...

Pictures of my great grandpa's accounting firm open office compared to a typical 2016 open office from 1920 (yes I'm old, a sterotypical HN reader's G-Grampa would be in the 50s) are pretty enlightening WRT just how little of an effect the magical post-1980 desk has on obesity.

Now what happened in the 80s ... well, not the magical fat generating desk. HFCS? Hmm. What a coincidence.

Another pictorial example of a consistent social class for decades is the local masonic lodge has an annual pix of the lodge leaders and members going back to the civil war. Yes a hallway lined with over a hundred annual photographs. Even among the semi-wealthy who sat at desks all day, nobody was fat until post 1980s pix. I'm the first in four generations not to be a Mason.

If you're into genealogy its very interesting to pull group family reunion photos from the last century or so. Same people, same genetics, same social class, same lifestyle, same geography, suddenly in the 80s people start getting real fat, across the board, across occupational classes, across lifestyles. Even the jocks got fat (note that jock fat is a staggering doubling of body fat from 4% to 8%, they're both skinny compared to the general population AND twice as fat as they were)

simonbarker874• 10 years ago

Fat cells never go away once you've got them. Fat cells also really don't want to be empty. When you loose weight the fat is broken up in to H2O and CO2 (you literally breath and pee fat away) but the fat cell generally holds onto the water for a while and then, along with a load of other fat cells, will expel that water in one go(which is why you tend to keep a stable weight for a few days and then find you've lost 1 or 2 lbs "overnight"). It's called the Woosh effect I think?

Problem is that the body doesn't want to get rid of that fat cell because "hey, it might be handy one day to store extra energy when we can't eat for a few days because the baboons ate everything" and so it's fairly easy to top that cell back up with fat in the future.

With regards to the slow metabolism refereced in the article (I skimmed it) this is tied to leptin levels which needs to be topped up with "refeed days" every now and then just to kick start you metabolism again. A refeed day is basically a day where you eat a lot of carbs and keep your protein and fat as they usually are on the normal diet days.

Very broadly speaking (and short cutting lots of science and variations), it is easier for a previously fat person to get fat again than it is for a skinny person to get fat in the first place.

garyrob2• 10 years ago

You are supplying potentially very interesting information... could you please point to sources?

49para5• 10 years ago

Why is it that fat cells never go away but your muscles will start catabolizing as soon as you stop drinking protein shakes ?

Are there any studies on this or is it more bro-science ?

jazzyk• 10 years ago

The food has changed a lot - as other commenters have pointed out.

But our lifestyles have changed a lot, too.

Most people in sub/urban areas spend 1-2 mins walking to/from their cars and the rest of their waking hours (12+ hours) sitting/eating.

pjc503• 10 years ago

See HN passim "The Sugar Conspiracy" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11444941

scld• 10 years ago

1) How do you know biology hasn't changed? The human gut microbiome has changed wildly over the past 50 to 100 years due to changes in modern diet.

2) Another point, the article is talking about the biology of people who have already been obese and then lost the weight. Given that people have more disposable income and obesity trends have risen, the inability to lose weight only after you first become obese would help explain why things like childhood obesity have negative impacts for the rest of a person's life.

tamana• 10 years ago

Environment (available food type and quantity) has changed massively. We have the same potential as before, expressed diffeently now.

Zach_the_Lizard• 10 years ago

Fifty years ago, two-thirds of the USA were not obese. Biology has not changed in that time. What has?

Other commentators have mentioned the food aspect, but there are significant lifestyle changes since the 50s. The rise of the suburbs greatly reduced the amount of walking for many Americans to basically just walking to a car in the morning and walking from a car in the evening, with maybe some walking back and forth to a bathroom or water cooler in between. Contrast that to the past where most American cities were laid out with public transit in mind (including LA; it used to boast a larger rail system than NYC). This meant burning more calories just to exist.

I myself moved from the land of sprawl to a walkable urban city and I lost quite a bit of weight since most, but not all, of my trips were on foot, bike, or public transit. Very few trips were undertaken in a car. I then moved to NYC and get even more activity, though that's counterbalanced by the delicious food everywhere.

You'll notice that most walkable urban areas tend to be slimmer than sprawling areas, all else being equal.

neffy• 10 years ago

I think this is it. Cars.

The Fitbit general population statistics - which I would presume is a self-selected group of at least activity interested people, are quite scary in terms of the large number of people in the <5,000 steps bracket, and the relatively few in the > 10,000 bracket.

10,000+ steps is a normal day walking around London for me, to from work etc. but if I'm driving I may not even get up to 3,000.

yabatopia• 10 years ago

Often forgotten is the incredible increase in drug consumption. Popular drugs like painkillers or antidepressants can have a significant effect on body weight. For the pharmaceutical industry it's like having a cake and eating it too: develop new drugs to fight weight gain, weight gain that can be caused by other drugs.

npsimons7• 10 years ago

Fifty years ago, two-thirds of the USA were not obese. Biology has not changed in that time. What has?

I wish more people would ask this question. It's extremely innocent and straightforward, and replies to it are incredibly revealing of the respondents' understanding of biology . . .

dragonwriter6• 10 years ago

Fifty years ago, two-thirds of the USA were not obese.

2/3 are not obese now.

(2/3 are overweight, including about 1/3 that are obese.)

Biology has not changed in that time.

Assumes facts not in evidence, but lets assume that's true.

What has?

Well, the sharp uptick in obesity (which pretty much drives the overweight including obese upward trend, the overweight-but-not-obese proportion has stayed pretty flat) starts in the late 1970s, immediately following the peak in real hourly wages. Given that (ironically, given that richer countries have higher rates of obesity than poor countries) individual obesity in the United States is correlated with poor economic status, its not entirely implausible that there's a significant economic contribution to the obesity epidemic.

blfr• 10 years ago

Boxers and other people doing martial arts competitively have always known this. There has been a "walking around weight" concept since I can remember. Maintaining lower or, even more importantly in that context, higher weight takes concentrated effort.

BTW it's a really weird post-Christian belief that there is some you apart from your body and it can do things against your will.

emodendroket12• 10 years ago

http://biblehub.com/matthew/26-41.htm Is it?

varelse9• 10 years ago

Extending the Christian motif and treating obesity as a sin, one could consider the extra work needed to keep off the weight as penance, no? I'm smelling a new California quack religion(tm) already.

pjc503• 10 years ago

It's called 'weightwatchers', and it allocates sin points to food as a simplified form of calorie counting. Participants go to confessional weigh-ins weekly.

pjc503• 10 years ago

there is some you apart from your body

I wouldn't describe it as 'weird' but a lot of people find it unsettling that it's generally understood that the 'I' that makes conscious plans is a fairly thin layer on top of (poorly understood) consciousness, and that much of what humans do is subconscious conditioned behaviour. Below the brain is a set of autonomous systems and homeostatic mechanisms, like the leptin one mentioned in the article regulating hunger.

tim3333• 10 years ago

weird post-Christian belief that there is some you apart from your body

The body/mind have a lot of different parts doing different things. In the article the folks conscious minds tried to lose weight and the body's mechanisms tried to regain it. Not sure that's that weird?

jukkasarasti• 10 years ago

I totally agree. Lots of parts of the body are in conflict at any given time. For example, visual stimuli "compete" for cognitive processing. There's no unified "you", so it makes sense to say that part of you is trying to lose weight while another part is trying to gain it.

It's certainly not dualism in the Christian sense, but the idea that the mind is made up of many semi-independent agents has been around since at least the 80s, probably earlier.

cheez• 10 years ago

I can give personal, anecdotal experience as to why this happens and a chart from Withings will illustrate perfectly. I know what I have to do now, and I'm fighting like hell to make it happen.

http://i.imgur.com/LR1wbH8.png

bb858• 10 years ago

I wonder why, when we talk about obesity, there is this tendency to use language that removes responsibility from the person, or at least move it from their mind to their "body", as if they were different entities.

I think obese people fit the definition of addicts. Most of the time, other addictions are fought by pushing awareness on the person, forcing them to recognize they have a problem and that they need to change.

I don't hear much "you were born this way" or "that's just what your body wants" for other drugs. Is it because other drugs are always viewed negatively, whereas food is a pillar of life under normal circumstances?

Maybe it has to do with the very high prevalence of obesity, and the echo chamber being big enough that deflection and denial are harder to combat?

gnur3• 10 years ago

It seems like the piece actually takes away some of the responsibility of the person. If your resting metabolism burns 400 calories per day less, you can eat exactly the same as someone else and slowly gain a lot of weight. I really don't think there is anyone to blame in that case.

bb858• 10 years ago

That doesn't explain it though, as how much you weight and how happy you are with it should influence how you eat.

Obviously a kid and an adult, a sedentary female and an international athletes have different needs.

When you have tooth problems, you go through a lot to have it fixed. When your hair looks bad you get a haircut.

Some obese people change their lifestyle and lose that weight. So what about those who can't? Is it too hard because of whatever predisposition (or, as other comments point out, having a huge industry putting tasty things in front of them), or do they just feel better being big?

emodendroket12• 10 years ago

This attitude is tiresome for precisely the reasons outlined in the article. That one guy in the article has to consume 800 calories a day fewer than a normal person his size to maintain his weight which likely means dealing with constant hunger. It's not exactly surprising that few people manage to succeed under those circumstances.

I also, frankly, think the opposite is true -- most material about obesity spends a lot of time vilifying fat people.

bb858• 10 years ago

I don't think that's how hunger works. Do you think hunger is triggered by an absolute number?

Isn't hunger the sensation you feel when your body starts dipping into your fat reserves because the content of your stomach / blood is not sufficient?

atom-morgan• 10 years ago

That one guy in the article has to consume 800 calories a day fewer than a normal person his size to maintain his weight which likely means dealing with constant hunger.

And the recovering alcoholic has to consume more alcohol than the average person, at first, to make it through their days. Same effects, different substance.

rayiner5• 10 years ago

I wonder why, when we talk about obesity, there is this tendency to use language that removes responsibility from the person, or at least move it from their mind to their "body", as if they were different entities.

I wonder why, when we talk about obesity, "responsibility" even enters the discussion. Obesity is a nationwide phenomenon, which means for "responsibility" to be the root cause, we have to posit that people as a whole are "just less responsible" than previous generations. It's ridiculous to posit that a basic biological process such as the ability to regulate food intake has changed so dramatically in just one generation.

"Personal responsibility" as the root cause of obesity also leads to questionable conclusions. 20% of black children are obese versus 14% of white children. Are black people just "less responsible" than white people? I think that conclusion requires a special level of justification for obvious reasons.

bb858• 10 years ago

I'm just wondering why there seems to be more empathy towards people with eating habits problems, than when it comes to other addicts.

Maybe because they cause less damage to other people?

I don't think humans are less responsible, on a society scale obviously the problem is deeper. I'm just wondering why for other problems we blame people, but not for that one.

Maybe it has to do with addictions moving away from some common substances (alcohol, tobacco) and the food industry picking up the slack? And maybe in an evolving world, the number of addicts is bound to increase, as we adapt to the rise of new forms of pressure. Like the ever increasing lemon-squeeze dept system, or in-app purchases??

robbiemitchell2• 10 years ago

I wonder why...

My guess is -- correct me if I'm wrong -- it's because you're not a doctor or researcher who works in any of these areas (nutrition, obesity, addiction), and haven't read much research on the intersection of these topics.

I think obese people fit the definition of addicts.

I'm curious how you have arrived at this conclusion.

bb858• 10 years ago

You'd probably be surprised how much time I've spent learning about those subjects, from many different sources.

I'm an engineer. I want to understand stuff. Obesity is a perspective that I thin can give a ton of insight about human nature, society, evolution, progress, globalization, advertisement, medias, etc.

As for the definition, feel free to pull the definition from anywhere and see if there are any contradictions when applied to obese people.

http://www.asam.org/quality-practice/definition-of-addiction

VLM3• 10 years ago

I have a coworker with a problem maintaining insulin hormone levels. He needs to work harder, pull himself up by his bootstraps like the rest of us, and stop blaming his body. He needs to recognize the need to change, IV insulin addiction is no joke. I can just wave my hand and say he needs to change his diet or lifestyle or something and it'll all go away and he won't need those nasty needles anymore.

Its pretty much the same isituation with people having leptin level problems, or dopamine and serotonin level problems for that matter. Or epinephrine levels. Or testosterone/estrogen balance level problems. Or cholesterol problems. In fact this is quite a long list...

alva3• 10 years ago

I wonder why, when we talk about obesity, there is this tendency to use language that removes responsibility from the person

Whether they are right or wrong, there is a significant community dedicated to promoting the view that personal responsibility has nothing to do with weight gain/loss.

dragonwriter6• 10 years ago

I think obese people fit the definition of addicts.

Most, in fact, do not.

Most of the time, other addictions are fought by pushing awareness on the person, forcing them to recognize they have a problem and that they need to change.

That's not particularly true. Some addictions are managed through medical interventions, and those that are addressed through counseling usually start with the addict coming to the realization and seeking treatment, not "pushing awareness" on the addict.

I don't hear much "you were born this way" or "that's just what your body wants" for other drugs.

Actually, recognition that problems with substance use (whether or not they end up in actual addiction) often originate in clumsy attempts at self-medicating real conditions and that finding alternate means of addressing those underlying conditions is important in enabling people to manage substance use problems is, as I understand it, quite important in modern substance use disorder treatment.

Is it because other drugs are always viewed negatively, whereas food is a pillar of life under normal circumstances?

Plenty of drugs to which one can be addicted are not "always viewed negatively". That's really only true (and only loosely in that case) of illegal drugs, which overlap with potentially addictive drugs.

kenjackson4• 10 years ago

I think a big difference with obesity is that the obese may not exhibit any external behavioral difference. That is an obese person may eat the same amount of food (and same foods) as a non-obese person.

Being obese is probably more like not being good at math, than a heroine addiction. People who aren't good at math could probably use more work at math. Yet, just because they read the same books as Terrence Tao -- don't expect the same result.

Kenji2• 10 years ago

Does that mean that formerly fat people who lost weight and eat little to keep a low weight with their slower metabolism live longer because their body has less energy throughput?

gnur3• 10 years ago

This is a truly horrifying piece of information. It basically amounts to that going on a diet will make it harder to stay at the weight you had before your diet.

tim3333• 10 years ago

Severe dieting has long been know to do that. Mild dieting combined with exercise seems to work better. We're a bit lacking in quantification on that though. It was interesting to get some numbers from the article.

TillE• 10 years ago

Yeah, this is what I'm curious about. All the weight loss diets described in the article seem quite extreme, some even dangerously so.

Maintaining something like a 200-400 calorie deficit will lose you weight slowly but surely, and maybe hopefully not cause extreme changes in metabolism?

varelse9• 10 years ago

Extreme diligence seems to be the only way to fight this. If I stop exercising, the pounds pack on within weeks. If I insure I burn at least 3000 calories a day (usually much more), I can maintain my weight indefinitely. But I walk to work and I exercise for 1-2 hours daily. Most people cannot or will not do this.

Add in the extreme carbohydrate and fat-laden diets most readily available to America and it's a perfect storm for our Wall-E future, no?

When I cook at home, I can avoid this by eating a little bit of meat/tofu/tempeh/etc with a pile of greens, but restaurant fare is a little bit of vegetables, a small slab of meat, and a super-size portion of some fancy grain of the week if not just white rice. Sigh...

IndianAstronaut2• 10 years ago

How do you manage the 1 to 2 hours of daily exercise with a programmer lifestyle(assuming you are a programmer)?

SeanBoocock• 10 years ago

Not the OP but the way I achieve that is by getting up at 5:30AM and running for 60+ minutes. I wasn't always such a morning person but routine exercise was important for me and so I adjusted my lifestyle to match.

varelse9• 10 years ago

I get up from my desk and go to the gym mid-day or I do so at the end of the work day depending on my flow. Also, I've cut most meetings out of my life, especially pointless time-eaters like daily scrum.

Also:

1. No kids

2. I only watch 4-6 hours of TV per week

3. I walk to work, there's an extra hour right there at the expense of a higher rent (totally worth it). Previously, I worked from home

4. Most of my social life revolves around exercise rather than tech

5. Don't work for self-destructive managers

TLDR: Find your way to a results-oriented rather than a process-oriented position.

mankyd• 10 years ago

As a software engineer who does this - you make time for it.

These days, I work out during lunch usually. I used to hit the gym on the way home in the evening. I take public transit and it was right at my stop.

It's not different than any other industry, honestly.

piva00• 10 years ago

Can you explain what is a "programmer lifestyle"? I'm a programmer, I work out 1:30 every day after work and that's it, there's nothing special in my schedule: wake up, take a shower, go to work, get off work, go to the gym, go home and do whatever I please.

robodale• 10 years ago

Well, if you can find a job where you're working ~40 hours per week, this can be achieved. I know this is not the case for many people.

tdb7893• 10 years ago

What is the programmer lifestyle? I work 40 hours a week and have time for whatever I want to do in my free time

kazinator2• 10 years ago

I cycle 7 miles to work, and back. That's some 25 minutes both ways. During the day, I go for a 4 or 8 mile run. That's another half an hour or hour.

intrasight• 10 years ago

I'm at the gym every day from 5-7. I'll allow almost nothing to interfere with that. Others I know get up at 5:30 and run 10 miles. Some I know do both!

Raphmedia• 10 years ago

When I am done working at the office, I drive home and then walk to the nearest gym. That's about 30 minutes of walking. I then spend 30 minutes doing cardio and 1h00 doing weight lifting. I then walk back home. If it's a nice day out, I skip the initial 30 minutes of cardio and run to the gym instead. Listen to tech podcast while doing your workout.

Buy a crock-pot and precook your meals. They will be ready when you get back home.

collyw• 10 years ago

Cycling to work can be a great hassle free way to get exercise if you are able.

ThrustVectoring4• 10 years ago

The right hobbies help out a ton. Like, I've been doing social dancing twice a week, and that usually takes up 3-4 hours. Plus, there's fun movements to do while bored waiting for transit to show up.

smelterdemon• 10 years ago

"Programmer lifestyle?" I'm at the gym 6:30-7:30. At work by 9 and home by 6:30. I have enough time to cook my own meals too, which I find to be as important as the exercise. Granted I don't have kids.

Kenji2• 10 years ago

I'm not sure if it's that simple. My body maintains a low but healthy weight no matter what I do. I can avoid sports for years and eat as much as I want, to the point of feeling uncomfortably full, without increasing weight. It seems likely that in some or even most obese people, a regulation system has been broken.

vitno• 10 years ago

Study after study has repeatedly shown this to be untrue. People who think they "eat as much as they want" really don't eat as much as people who think they "eat almost nothing"

Try actually counting your calories over the course of a week.

sickbeard• 10 years ago

since you are atypical, maybe yours is the one thats malfunctioning

washadjeffmad2• 10 years ago

There are also differences between gaining weight, getting fat, and being fat.

People gain weight when they gain muscle, and heavier people by the mechanics of supporting their weight seem to gain and hold muscle more easily than lighter people. More muscle mass has been associated with better health outcomes despite other factors.

I've also read that it's not being fat that's bad for you, but getting fat. Some people are unable to shed subcutaneous fat they gained at one point in their lives and carry a stigma of being fat despite being otherwise very healthy, even in their diet and lifestyle. It's a common idea that not shedding that kind of fat is a problem, but it probably isn't as much as people believe.

Being apparently not-fat could also be an indicator of worse health if you generated corporeal fat more easily than subcutaneous. That's what's being referred to when they say "belly fat" and apple bodies being associated with health problems, not the love handles and soft flab. Many people who look healthy because they're not fat could be skinny-fat, have higher corporeal fat, and not take care to exercise or watch what they eat, thinking that their weight and apparent size are indications that they're doing everything right.

But in cases of obesity, I do see people cheating their diets, focusing on easier but less important factors like steps per day, celebrating their daily water fluctuations as weight loss, and otherwise coming up with endless tricks and reasons to justify not not-eating.

There are many people I've never seen eating, but their trashcans and purses always fill up with food wrappers. They don't count that 900 Calorie Starbucks because it's just a coffee, and Weight Watchers says that's 0 points. Or they didn't use all their points last Tuesday, so they can have a treat today, and probably tomorrow since that doghnut just made up for last week and doesn't count.

That's certainly a broken regulation system, but it's one within their capacity to change.

pkaye• 10 years ago

Could I ask you how old you are? I know at a younger age, it was much easier for me to maintain a healthy weight like you but now it is a much more challenge. Some of it is due to my level of activity (work, driving, exercise) but I think some of it just comes with age.

ThrustVectoring4• 10 years ago

Have you tried deliberate weight-gaining diets? GOMAD (take your normal diet, and throw in a gallon of whole milk a day on top of it) apparently works particularly well.

hourislate4• 10 years ago

Exercise has nothing to do with weight loss. Caloric restriction also doesn't work without consuming the correct fats to satiate your appetite. As you age there is no amount of exercise that will allow you to maintain the amount you weigh in you 20's or 30's. It will all depend on your diet of the correct foods.

I would suggest probably the best book ever written about why people get fat.

Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It -Gary Taubes

Fantastic book that looks at the science of Obesity and weight loss among other things like Insulin resistance and genetics.

varelse9• 10 years ago

"As you age there is no amount of exercise that will allow you to maintain the amount you weigh in you 20's or 30's."

This seems overly general and anecdotally total BS. I still eat what I like just like I did in my 20s/30s. It's just that what I like is generally lots of vegetables and sufficient protein, with occasional vices slipped in because YOLO(tm).

That said, without the exercise, I gain about a pound per week. That means I am atoning for an extra 400-500 calories daily, no? Or what would you suggest is really going on here?

CuriouslyC• 10 years ago

This is just wrong. Weight loss on the short scale is literally a function of the difference between calories in vs calories out. You can increase that difference by eating less, or exercising more. You can easily maintain your weight as you age by increasing the amount you exercise, it might involve more exercise than expected, but it is perfectly doable.

Fat is not satiating to everyone. If it works for you, good, but stop making sweeping generalizations.

Eating the correct foods will influence the amount of metabolic slowdown in response to calorie restriction, and also the percentage of weight lost from fat versus lean body mass. What exactly the correct foods are depends on your genetics, your activity level, and your gut microbiota, and are different for everyone. Pretty much the only constant is that a high fiber diet is better than a low fiber diet.

ghshephard3• 10 years ago

For another perspective on this, see: http://anthonycolpo.com/stephan-guyenet-debunks-gary-taubes/

MustardTiger6• 10 years ago

Gary Taubes is a fraud. He deliberately misrepresents research the scientists he quotes out of context in his books have come out repeatedly saying this. Everything Taubes says is nonsense, and he is doing this deliberately to sell books on the back of a fad diet craze. There are no magic satiety fats. Fat is not higher satiety than carbs. Protein is.

taneq3• 10 years ago

Exercise has nothing to do with weight loss. Caloric restriction also doesn't work without consuming the correct fats to satiate your appetite. As you age there is no amount of exercise that will allow you to maintain the amount you weigh in you 20's or 30's. It will all depend on your diet of the correct foods.

What? Every one of those points are wrong.

* Exercise has a modest effect on your energy balance (assuming we're talking less than an hour a day - if you're running marathons then the effect is much bigger). You can out-eat any reasonable amount of exercise but it still has a significant effect.

* Caloric restriction works regardless of your macronutrient balance, if you eat fewer calories than you burn then you will lose weight, that's not just biology, it's the law of conservation of energy.

* Aging doesn't allow you to mysteriously break the law of conservation of energy either. You will find it harder to keep the weight off but by controlling your energy balance and engaging in regular exercise you can absolutely maintain the same weight you maintained in your 20s. (As a single data point, I weigh the same now as I weighed a decade ago, and 20kg less than I weighed 8 years ago.)

It's true that sticking to a reduced calorie diet is more difficult if you eat some diets than others, maybe that's what you meant?

Retric• 10 years ago

Each pound of fat ~= 3,500 calories up front, but also another 3,500 calories every ~4.8 years if you never moved. Keep active and it's significantly higher as your effectively walking around carrying weights 24/7.

Thus, you really need to eat far less to maintain a healthy weigh long term, and or become significantly more active.

zyxley2• 10 years ago

If I insure I burn at least 3000 calories a day (usually much more), I can maintain my weight indefinitely.

If you're having to burn 3000 calories a day, you're eating too much. That energy has to come from somewhere. Have you tried calorie tracking?

ghshephard3• 10 years ago

All of my serious (recreational) bike rider friends eat a lot more than 3000 calories/day prepping for their weekend bike rides.

sawthat2• 10 years ago

You are asking a person who clearly has spent a ton of time figuring out how to manage their weight if they've tried calorie tracking?

Karunamon• 10 years ago

As a decently sized guy (6'3 ~300), my BMR is around 2700.. so it wouldn't be that hard to add 300 calories worth of energy expenditure, at which point I'd be eating below maintenance level.

Would depend on your height and weight I think.

koolba• 10 years ago

From the article (emphasis mine):

Mr. Cahill was one of the worst off. As he regained more than 100 pounds, his metabolism slowed so much that, just to maintain his current weight of 295 pounds, he now has to eat 800 calories a day less than a typical man his size. Anything more turns to fat.

Presenting the numbers like this seems intentionally confusing. Casually reading this seems like he's eating 800 calories a day and still gaining weight.

What they're really saying is that he's eat $AVG_295_LB_MAN_CALORIES - 800 per day. That's probably around 4000 calories a day.

dempseye4• 10 years ago

Using the USDA supertracker here (https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/bwp/) with the following data/assumptions:

Weight: 295 lbs Age: 46 Height: 5 feet 10 inches (average height for US male) Work activity: sedentary Leisure activity: sedentary

The normal maintenance calories come out at 3117. Less 800 is 2317.

That is still enough to eat well and feel full, in my experience.

belltaco2• 10 years ago

That is still enough to eat well and feel full, in my experience.

That's because your hormone levels aren't crazily out of whack like the individual you reference. If your hormone levels were changed to reflect the person that lost weight, I doubt you'd say that.

garyrob2• 10 years ago

I just checked what you're saying here: https://news.ycombinator.com. The amount of calories you need to maintain weight does go up enormously as you weight more. And I didn't know that while reading the article, so I thought the guy who needed 800 fewer calories was needing 800 less than a non-overweight person. Not true. A moderately-active 6'0" male needs 3386 to maintain weight as a baseline. Subtracting 800 gives 2586. Which is about what a person of the same build and activity level who weights 175 needs to maintain his weight. So it doesn't seem like it should be so hard to maintain 295.

But the problem would seem to be that if he does get down to 175, then does he need to take in no more than about 1800 calories to keep from gaining, because the 800-calorie difference remains constant? That seems very difficult but also seems unlikely. Or is the 800 calorie difference reduced proportionally or according to some more complicated formula? In any case, it sounds like it would be hard to maintain a weight of 175 once you've had Mr. Cahill's history.

pfarnsworth• 10 years ago

I had no such confusion. It's strange you would blame others and not your own reading comprehension when it was written pretty clearly.

lexhaynes3• 10 years ago

Let's keep it civil.

URSpider942• 10 years ago

Nowhere near that.

EventHorizon• 10 years ago

I am curious if this same effect is also seen in those who lost weight via a calorie restricted diet without exercise. It could be plausible that the extreme exercise regimen alone causes the body to become more efficient.

bmh_ca• 10 years ago

There are at least three equilibriums that are apparently of relevance, based on what I have read. These are:

1. the hunger cycle - the hormones emitted during hunger

2. the metabolic cycle - the neuropeptide y's and other such unmemorable names, near the decision making part of the brain

3. the hydrocarbon cycle – the hormones emitted as a result of fat cells that are not flush with hydrocarbons

Diets address number 1. Number 2 and 3 are the more relevant for long-term success, but not enough is understood about them.

Here's a TED talk with some illumination:

https://www.ted.com/talks/sandra_aamodt_why_dieting_doesn_t_...

Research about weight control and loss is further conflated by profit-oriented companies that derive their primary income from "diet cycles".

That said, the failure of dieting is not new information: http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/Dieting-Does-Not-Work-UCLA...

The only known sure way to achieve substantial long-term weight loss is hyper-diligence in portion control and metabolic stimulation. Few can do it.

One of the unknowns is whether fasting survives long-term trends, such as the "5-2 fast" https://thefastdiet.co.uk/

All to say, the long-term results of the biggest loser accord with the latest research in weight control and loss.

nicolas_t3• 10 years ago

And I'm in the second week of the Fast 5/2 diet. Not very encouraging to read this.

Problem though is that I have to diet, my triglycerides are off the chart, my LDL cholesterol too and my fasting blood sugar are at the limit.... Hope I can keep my weight off somehow later.

yoodenvranx2• 10 years ago

Just start to write down every single calorie (and perhaps the macros) you consume during the day. This way it is pretty easy to see if you are on the right track.

Most people re-gain weight after a diet because they fall back into their old habits.

For this reason I don't like the idea of "making a diet". It kind of implies that you suffer for 8 weeks to lose some weight and then you can start eating unhealthy again because your diet is over. Forget your idea of "diet" and do a permanent change in your eating habits. If you do it slow you will not suffer that much and the effect will be permanent.

nicolas_t3• 10 years ago

Oh you're absolutely right. A big part of the problem I've identified is that often enough I eat not because I'm hungry but because I'm stressed. And in that case, I tend to eat chocolates. It's not a coincidence that I started to become overweight (by roughly 40 pounds) when my startup failed.

ck26• 10 years ago

Not sure what "Fast 5/2" is but if you are losing more than a pound a week (maybe two) it's going to be impossible maintain it because it won't feel natural and your calorie craving is going to rush right back.

Those poor people were manipulated into losing a pound PER DAY which is insane. I cannot even fathom that.

Take your time, schedule a year, and see what you can do. Be patient and persistent. Change your lifestyle/habits, try to keep busy instead of eating. Worked for me. Not easy but doable.

nicolas_t3• 10 years ago

Thanks for the encouragement! Very much appreciated!

Fast 5/2 is basically intermittent fasting with two days/week below 600 calories (which I find surprisingly easy to do) and the rest eating normally (but I'm also refraining from eating chocolates/biscuits/cakes and anything overly sweet).

So far, I've lost 3 pounds in a week and an half which I think is an healthy rate.

yoodenvranx2• 10 years ago

There was an article on /r/science 1 or 2 weeks ago which stated that the body needs about a year after the weight-loss to accept the new weight as normal. Before that normalization is done it is very easy to regain the initial weight, after the normalization it gets easier.

emodendroket12• 10 years ago

This article says this is six years later.

bluedino• 10 years ago

While these people are on the show, they are living in house with other contestants. You can't just order a pizza and sit on the couch with TV cameras and your co-stars watching you.

They're forced to exercise for hours. If you're at home you're not going to wake up at the crack of dawn and do a 5 mile run and then do weights.

They're forced to eat right. Food selection is limited. There's no cheese and donuts and fast-food.

It's no wonder that it's impossible for them to keep this up. They just go back to normal which is 'being lazy'.

mfoy_• 10 years ago

Did you even read the article or are you just jumping on the /r/fatpeoplehate bandwagon?

The takeaway is that we need to focus on prevention, don't get obese in the first place. Once you're obese, the deck is really stacked against you.

DenisM• 10 years ago

I encourage everyone to read the "physiology" chapter at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adipose_tissue

TLDR: Blood sugar spikes above certain level are toxic, so the body responds with an emergency action of stashing the sugar wherever possible, including muscle, liver, and fat tissue. The former two are rather limited in their capacity, while the latter is unlimited. Ongoing elevated levels of sugars in the bloodstream is an ongoing cleanup job for the fat cells, and they never get aground to release the accumulated energy back into circulation.

At the "hardware" level, that's all there is to obesity - overabundance of quick carbs (sugars, flour, starch).

gypsy_boots• 10 years ago

Which is similarly why a diet high in carbohydrates can lead to your body storing more fat. It's easier for your body to turn the carbohydrates into energy than it is to turn the fat into energy. So when it gets both, it stores the fat for leaner times (less energy abundance) and turns the carbs into glucose for energy. It seems like the more we learn about high fat low carb diets, the more it seems that our body was built to use fat as its main energy source.

great_kraken• 10 years ago

Indeed. A basic understanding of the science is all you need. However, the main narrative is that the body is a simply a black box that obeys solely the laws of thermodynamics.

sp332• 10 years ago

Practicing weight maintenance before going on a diet helps to keep the weight off after a diet. Many people who struggle with their weight "yo-yo" as they go on various short-term diets, losing and regaining weight and never learning how to maintain a specific level.

solarengineer• 10 years ago

I have followed "The Perfect Ten Diet" and began swimming. Within a year, I went from a size 40 jeans to a size 33. I think I'm now a size 32. I haven't weighed myself yet. I'm a lacto vegetarian (butter, cheese and curd, no milk).

I think that barring health reasons (e.g. Thyroid issues), it should be possible for an individual to eat healthier and shed excess weight. But it also comes down to "How badly do you want it?"

vinceguidry3• 10 years ago

I managed to lose 40 pounds last year, using intermittent fasting. That impressed people, but what's impressed me is how easy it was to keep it off. I expected to have to do a lot more work than I have, I really seemed to have found a new 'set point', where I can simply let my body self-regulate eating and I won't gain weight. Sometimes it even goes down.

I think a person's state of mind plays a huge role. I used IF because it seemed the easiest way to incorporate a sustained caloric deficit into my lifestyle. The knob of "how many times a day I'm eating" was far easier to tweak than "what I'm eating" or "how much I eat when I'm eating." I'm just really fucking lazy and found that over time, skipping meals works with my laziness.

With IF, I can eat what I want, as much as I want, just only once a day. I used to be really strict about once a day, now I'll have a snack here and there, sometimes I'll even have what amounts to a light meal outside of my main one. Getting adjusted was a pain, but I'd alleviate it by eating small amounts outside of the 'window' and trust that I'd cheat less over time. Which I more or less did.

Ultimately I feel it's not really worth it to try to fight your body too hard. If your system perceives a shock, it will defend itself. But humans seem hard-wired for big, dramatic gestures, and so they'll do grievous damage to their metabolic systems like crash dieting simply because they can't trust themselves to maintain a safer, more sustainable course of action like simply "eating less and exercising more." I think a lot of people think of the idea of "sustained lifestyle change" and balk. Like they can never eat ice cream again or something.

rickdale• 10 years ago

I'll concur with this. I have been practicing one meal/day for almost 3 years now. I think it took my body over a year to really adjust to all the benefits. Now I realize I have some big eating days, some small eating days, I mostly crave healthy stuff and I let the rest take care of itself.

richmt3• 10 years ago

What about feeling tired/lethargic during the time in which you fast?

Also, can your body really efficiently utilize all of the micro/macro nutrients it needs in a day when it's handed them all at once?

I agree that IF can be a good little mental trick for a quick cut, but I'm skeptical on one meal a day for a life time and if there's any negative effects that could come up.

humbleMouse• 10 years ago

I think the message here is to listen to your body. Too often one finds themselves eating just because they were invited to lunch, or even because they are bored. If you listen to your body and just eat when you are hungry, magical things will happen.

vinceguidry3• 10 years ago

Unfortunately that doesn't really work as a guiding principle. The body is entirely too easy to ignore, and social concerns ultimately are more important and urgent than personal ones. How exactly are you going to handle getting invited out to eat if you're not particularly hungry but could eat anyway? I had to answer this and way more in the year-long or so path to really getting serious about losing it and keeping it off.

And boredom is a real problem.

I liken trying to lose weight to trying to quit smoking. If all you had to fight were the nicotine cravings, nobody would be smoking today. It's the habits you have to fight, those things we build our life out of, and to fight habit you have to fix a lot of other parts of your life. Just finding ways to take five minute breaks that don't involve smoking. We want to treat these things in isolation, but they're not isolated, they all interact with each other. To do something like this forces you to deal with your entire life up to the present and be confronted with your own inadequacies. So there's that too.

Somebody who manages to quit smoking or lose weight and keep it off hasn't just managed to do that one thing, they've also managed to effect a complicated and difficult lifestyle change, and should by all rights be considered a completely different person. I don't feel particularly different from the me that was 210 pounds, but when I look at the big picture, I can understand why women aren't just being shallow when they wouldn't even look at me before, and now all seem to beg for attention.

That's why I focus at the level of lifestyle rather than on more mechanistic concerns like whether the keto diet is better than slow-carb and whatnot.

CaptSpify• 10 years ago

Although this may work for some people, it definitely won't work for me, and many others. I constantly get "cravings" which, AFAICT, are indistinguishable from hunger. I have to consciously add up my calories to know if I've been eating too much. If I was to "listen to my body", I would overeat constantly.

CJefferson• 10 years ago

In my experience, that's great advice for already thin people. I could only lose 10 stone and reach normal weight by ignoring my body demanding it was starving for a year or so.

emodendroket12• 10 years ago

A year is awfully short to be chiming in with advice for long-term weight loss.

npsimons7• 10 years ago

A year is awfully short to be chiming in with advice for long-term weight loss.

How about nine years? 2007-03-28: 192lb; 2016-04-30: 153lb. I hit 160lb in late September of 2007 and haven't been above it since, typically fluctuating these days between 150-155lb. I did it by simply eating less and paying more attention to hunger signals. If you want to be sure you're not overeating, track calories in and your weight using something like MyFitnessPal. Weight loss is possible; CICO overrides everything.

dennisgorelik• 10 years ago

I've never been overweight, but eating ~once per day works for me too.

Good point that laziness helps. Being busy helps. Eating only after exercising (I run ~3 miles daily) also helps.

Eating only once per day also helps to learn what food is good and bad for me. If hours after the meal I feel bad taste in my mouth - the food probably had a component that I should eat less. Sugar in big quantities is definitely once such bad component.

ThrustVectoring4• 10 years ago

Yeah, the actual mechanics of losing weight is pretty basic calories-in calories-out. The difficult part is engaging in behavior that consistently gives a caloric deficit without making unsustainable trade-offs against willpower or other things. Intermittent fasting is a very good way to remove "how much willpower do I spend while holding a fork and looking at food" out of the weight-loss equation. I lost about 60 pounds using keto, which basically moves all decision making over what to eat (and gives compelling reasons to stay on the wagon - restarting the ketogenic biochemistry is not a particularly fun process).

ceratopisan2• 10 years ago

I'm finding that most of the weight loss strategies people talk about are really calorie-reduction mechanisms. Intermittent fasting, keto, carb-free, paleo, all generally boil down to "eat less and maybe exercise".

The "eat less" part is caloric, really, not by volume, so vegetables are better than most for eating. I'm not saying those plans are bad - a scheme that works is a good scheme. It's interesting to see how they all come together.

parsnipsumthing• 10 years ago

It's worth noting that the amounts by which their metabolism was lowered are not as shocking as they seem at first.

The 300 calories a day difference in calories burned is very limiting if your BMR is 1800. But for some of these contestants their BMR, even at the lower weights, might be 2000 calories per day. And if they do moderate exercise, they can burn up to 1000 calories more than this. If you are expending 3000 calories per day then a 300 calorie difference is minimal.

Hockenbrizzle2• 10 years ago

Man this is so frustrating because I have a family member who is like this. I would really like to help them, but they just don't seem to get it.

I think the problem is that these people want instant results. That's not how the body works. If you want to become a runner, you start running often and because you love it. You don't force yourself to start doing intense, one-and-done sessions in an attempt to get to your goal and then go back to your old lifestyle once you achieve it. You have to learn to play the long game and be patient.

I really believe that if these folks worked on a farm for several years, it would do much more to help them with their weight problems than these TV shows do.

emodendroket12• 10 years ago

I don't know how you got that from this article.

eclipxe• 10 years ago

Did you even read the article before commenting?

URSpider942• 10 years ago

Did you even read the article? One of the winners is literally a farmer.

Hockenbrizzle2• 10 years ago

Yes, sorry my comment was extremely useless. I did read the article but did not see the image showing Rudy Pauls the farmer, my mistake.

My comment was very off topic, so I won't try and clarify it here.

KKKKkkkk1• 10 years ago

Extreme weight loss indicates that your weight has high variance. A history of being overweight shows that its mean is high.

sageabilly6• 10 years ago

The results of this study, while interesting, seem flawed to me because losing 200+lbs in only 8 months' time is ridiculously fast. I would be more interested in a study following people who lost weight very slowly and steadily over time, and curious about their metabolisms and recidivism rates.

I've lost 100lbs over the last three years and have had zero issue (so far, not saying I won't ever) with keeping at this weight. I maintained the same weight, +/- 3lbs, for most of 2015 without counting calories or following a diet. In December 2015, I decided I was ready to start intentionally losing more weight, so I tracked calories and lost an additional 15lbs over the course of three months. My experience with losing weight and maintaining weight loss are completely different than the results of the study in the OP, and I am curious how much of that difference can be chalked up to how long it took me to lose that weight.

Studies like the one in the OP are fascinating to me because no one seems to go "Hey, your body achieved homeostasis at 450lbs (maintaining that homeostasis for however many years the person was at that weight) and it probably royally screwed with everything dropping half your body weight in 8 month's time." It seems obvious to me that at that point the body is in full blown crisis mode trying to get back to the homeostasis it had developed previously. Eight months is not a long enough time to adapt to a new homeostasis, not to mention whether or not the body is freaking out because it's "starving" and dropping fat stores at such a high rate.

wobbleblob• 10 years ago

Maybe there's something different about the metabolism of people who manage to reach a weight of 450lbs in the first place. Without exercise and watching what you eat, almost everyone will gain weight, but most people never get anywhere close to the 300lbs+ range.

sageabilly6• 10 years ago

Maybe! I was 305 at my heaviest, but I was also a serious powerlifter and was at the gym 10-15 hours a week lifting, plus training for competitions. I often wonder if having that strength base made it easier, in some ways, to drop the weight than if I had been totally sedentary and had to start from zero with regards to exercising.

Aelinsaar• 10 years ago

In my experience, this is the case. Or at least, it's the case after they reach that weight and maintain it for a significant period of time. I don't think there is any clear indication of which comes first though.

stupidcar• 10 years ago

Well, clearly the contestants were at the far end of the weight spectrum to begin with, but regaining weight after an intensive, successful weight loss programme isn't rare, even for people who were only mildly to moderately overweight. That suggests that their problems aren't unique to their particular metabolisms, just more extreme.

Also, their pre-competition metabolic rate was normal for their size, and after their weight loss it cratered, and never properly recovered. Even if they had pre-existing physical or psychological abnormalities that contributed to their heaviness, this is a clear, objective measurement that started normal and has become different, simply through losing weight.

emodendroket12• 10 years ago

True enough, but those are just more extreme cases of a trend we see pretty widely.

jschwartzi2• 10 years ago

It's pretty well-known that if you drop more than 2 lbs/week you're very likely to gain it all back later.

emodendroket12• 10 years ago

Do you have any source for the claim that if you lose it slower you're more likely to keep it off? While intuitively appealing, I keep seeing it without any evidence.

ck26• 10 years ago

Not sure why the downvotes except maybe not sourcing it.

What you are saying is 100% right in my experience and watching others.

Cut 500 calories per day and you lose a pound per week and that can be maintained.

Those poor people were losing a pound per DAY which there is no way you can maintain that lifestyle. You aren't teaching habits for life with that kind of diet, you are teaching how to crash and burn.

gmarx2• 10 years ago

How many times have you lost and regained? I ask because I am a little older and have done that cycle multiple times. This last time I am going on a decade without periods of large weight gain. The first time you lose a lot of weight you feel like you have it mastered and that is one of the ways your brain gets you. Eventually you figure you have it handled, relax and then two years goes by and you are heaver than when you started. I've done that at least 3 times

sageabilly6• 10 years ago

First time ever. I had an eating disorder my whole life, which is how and why I gained up to 300lbs in the first place.

I no longer have the mental issues that caused me to turn to food for comfort, which is what I credit my successful weight loss to. And again, I lost the first 75lbs or so just through recovering from my eating disorder and not through dieting or changing anything about what I ate other than no longer turning to food for comfort and not listening to the binge urges my brain was sending out.

Eventually you figure you have it handled, relax and then two years goes by and you are heavier than when you started.

Having maintained within +/- 3 lbs for the entirety of 2015 I'm not worried about this in the slightest. Even though at that time I was not actively trying to lose weight, I still weighed myself every week and took measurements every month, as well as continued to exercise regularly (and even learned how to ride a bike!) I also maintained vigilance for ED-type thoughts and identified them quickly if I began relapsing. I absolutely adjusted my eating if I gained more than 2 pounds in a week or when I knew I'd been letting my vigilance slip. Still didn't count calories or anything, just mindfully ate smaller portions and stayed away from desserts for a while. It helped a lot that I have learned that if I eat sugary stuff more than two days in a row I start craving it badly and will eat it every single day unless I stop eating it entirely for at least two weeks.

I view my weight loss as the side effect of recovering from my unhealthy relationship with food. For me, that was bad enough that it was a full-blown eating disorder, but I absolutely believe that many people have an unhealthy relationship with food which causes weight gain that is impossible to reverse without first addressing the mental issues that got them to that weight in the first place. Take that and add in this new potential issue of the body wanting desperately to get back to the homeostasis it was at when the person was at their heaviest, and the rebounding of everyone who was on The Biggest Loser is no surprise.

tzs3• 10 years ago

I seem similar. I've lost 92 lbs over 8 months, and I don't seem to be having problems. In particular, I'm not having any feelings of hunger. I've pretty consistently been averaging a tad under 2000 calories/day, 35% carbs, 21% proteins, 44% fats.

One interesting thing is that if I go significantly over 2000 calories in a day, which happens maybe once every couple of weeks, I find myself automatically eating less the next day. For example, last Thursday I went over (2390), and then Friday I went way under (1150). I went over Saturday (2240), and under Sunday (1740).

I'm hoping the fact that I'm not feeling hungry eating this way, and the fact that if I go over my goal I automatically go under afterwards means that my body is adapting well to the way I'm eating and so I won't have trouble continuing to lose weight and keeping it off.

I've done similar twice before. Those ultimately failed, but I believe I know why. Both times I changed my eating habits, lost weight, and it was staying off. Then both times I had major career changes that threw my schedule into disarray. I didn't have time usually for home prepared meals or sit down restaurant meals. For instance in the first case I was working at a small consulting firm that specialized in taking contracts to step in on failing firmware projects for new hardware and redesign/rewrite the firmware--and these were fixed price contracts with hard deadlines and penalties for missing the deadlines. I'd often be in the office very late, and by the time I realized I needed food the only places open were fast food drive throughs, or the Dominos half a block down the street.

Next time I have a job change, I'm going to make sure that the new job won't mess up my eating habits even if it means taking lower pay.

marpstar• 10 years ago

As someone who (over the last 6 years has) lost 65 lbs (245>180), regained 45 (225), lost 40 (185), and am now up 25 and back at 210 I can tell you that this will creep up on you if you don't remain diligent about sticking to your new eating habits. Sugar addiction has continually crept back in my life despite sticking to low carb diets for almost a year on more than one occasion.

kilroy1232• 10 years ago

Similar to me. I've lost ~60 pounds over the last 5 years. I always maintain and slowly lose more. I don't crave anything or fight hunger, etc.

cowardlydragon2• 10 years ago

I contend you should then force it to adapt to a completely different athletic / exercise reality.

Of course the problem is that people drop back into their same lifestyles, and American lifestyles are pathetically nonactive.

Hint: 20 minutes 3 times a week is not "active". It's just better than pathetic.

kenjackson4• 10 years ago

The article did also talk about people who lost 360 calories per day by urinating it out. They also unwittingly at 200 more calories per day. This amounts to losing something like 1.5 pounds per month. But they also note that this increase in calories eaten is what causes weight gain later -- so even slow approaches hit the same problem.

And while 3 years is good -- you really should watch for over 5-10 years. I previously lost about 40 pounds, and kept it off for about 6 years. Over the course of four years after that I gained most of it back. About 8 pounds per year like clockwork. I didn't even realize it was happening until I was 18 months or so into gaining the weight back. I did nothing different the first six years versus the last four. But something happened...

js22• 10 years ago

In the other direction, see the documentary "Why Are Thin People Not Fat" where a group of thin volunteers are overfed by about double their normal calories for 4 weeks:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7838668.stm

http://youtu.be/U1hbPXooB1U

They all easily return to their starting weight, and at least one volunteer gains muscle but not fat. The body is amazing at maintaining homeostasis. Here's an nytimes article from 2011 that discusses much the same thing as the article submitted:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-...

kilroy1232• 10 years ago

There's a lot of research being done right now, that suggests your gut microbiome has a lot to do with it. Very interesting stuff.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-gut-bacteria-h...

js22• 10 years ago

Yup, also see this recent research that bariatric surgery causes changes to the gut microbiome which account for some of the weight loss:

http://www.livescience.com/51739-bariatric-surgery-gut-bacte...

pessimizer3• 10 years ago

Thanks for this; it was completely new to me.

49para5• 10 years ago

4 weeks may also not be enough time to wreck your insulin/grehlin/etc sensitivity

mrfusion• 10 years ago

It's weird I was allowed to submit this if it was already submitted. Maybe a bug?

GFischer2• 10 years ago

If you submit it and it was already submitted recently, it counts as an upvote (probably the case here).

detaro2• 10 years ago

No, since it created a submission for them, which it doesn't if it recognizes the dupe.

detaro2• 10 years ago

You submitted a different URL, the HN dupe check does exact URL matches and doesn't ignore query parameters (since some pages rely on them). Even if it did, shortened URLs etc would still trick it, so you have to check manually.

kefka2• 10 years ago

Well, I'd say that the endocrine reason sounds like a valid one. I can at least be counted in that group.

Last December, I was diagnosed with T2 diabetes. After talking with a researcher about this (have worked with diabetes research school locally due to job), I came across a few things:

1. Damage is done to the pancreas at 140mg/dL 2. Too long at 140mg/dL or above can cause permanent damage to the pancreas. 3. Early estimates indicate that 110mg/dL is a lower limit of beginning damage to the pancreas

Ok. There's a lot of moving parts in food. Nutritionists will tell you all sorts of bunkum, other than mineral assays and tests have discovered. But there's a simple way here: keep blood sugar under 140mg/dL, no matter what.

Is that possible? To keep your blood sugar under 140mg/dL? Yes. The answer is "Don't eat foods that raise your blood sugar above 140mg/dL". That's interestingly easy. What it amounts to, is cutting out sugars and carbohydrates out of your diet, and extensively testing when you come across foods you're unsure of.

My research shows that all the standard sugars are bad for me (Sucrose, glucose, fructose, lactose). I spike, and then fall. It also depends on what I'm eating with them. In those cases the rise and fall are longer.

Some complex carbohydrates I can handle. Potatoes are a nope, as are bread products. But spaghetti squash works with me well. I can handle it nicely, with a very low rise and fall.

I also end up eating a lot of fats, protein, and veggies. But I don't crave sugar at all. I've always liked meats, and this gives me the ability to continue that.

atria• 10 years ago

^ This times 1000000. There is so much chicanery and malfeasance in the nutrition and fitness industry.

I was diagnosed with T2 diabetes a few years ago. I went to dietitian who prescribed a diet with 60% carbs (I believe its roughly the same as the ADA dietary guidelines). The standard treatment is medication, followed by more medication, then insulin shots.

Frustrated, I read everything I could get my hands on, and found two books that I'd highly recommend: 1) Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution, and 2) Think Like a Pancreas by Gary Scheiner. Dr. Bernstein is notable because he was diagnosed with T1 when it was a fatal condition. He survived, became an electrical engineer and ultimately went on to become an MD. He lobbied the AMA to allow patients to have blood glucose meters, when the AMA wanted them to be restricted to doctors offices.

I stopped listening to medical practitioners and starting experimenting with the foods I ate, using pairs testing with a glucose monitor. There is no question that a low carb diet is the way to go.

AnthonyMouse2• 10 years ago

I stopped listening to medical practitioners and starting experimenting with the foods I ate, using pairs testing with a glucose monitor.

I sometimes wonder if the state of medical ethics is killing us. We've made it so expensive to do a medical study that nobody is going to do it unless the end result is something they can sell, so the only "solutions" we get are drugs because there is no money to be made in prescribing diabetics a diet of fish and vegetables.

It's a sad state if an individual can learn more by experimenting on themselves than their doctor knows because the doctor isn't allowed to participate in or publish the result of the same experiment without a multi-million dollar budget.

scythe• 10 years ago

This paper is nice:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0899900714...

xlm17173• 10 years ago

Buying a blood glucose meter is not an expensive investment (provided you don't really need it, ie. don't have diabetes) and it will pay dividends in terms of health. With a meter and about 200 strips and lancets, you can determine a big list of foods that raise your blood glucose and foods that don't.

I've been customizing my meals based on what my glucose meter tells me raises my blood glucose the least and I am losing weight. The weight loss is gradual, but the most important thing is I am doing it eating foods I will eat, setting up a diet I can stick to long term, and I know that this will be good for me because the numbers back it up. Like you, I've always liked meats and testing myself with the glucose meter shows that eating more meats and less carbs is good for me personally. I should note I am not diagnosed with diabetes, I just bought the glucose meter to guide me in what I eat.

alva3• 10 years ago

This is the first time I have heard glucose meters being used specifically for weight loss, very interesting. If this is a safe and effective way to encourage weight loss, this could be a huge business opportunity.

zzleeper• 10 years ago

Do you have a particular suggestion? prices seem to vary a lot in amazon and other sites..

criddell2• 10 years ago

The answer is "Don't eat foods that raise your blood sugar above 140mg/dL".

Is that related to glycemic index?

jerf• 10 years ago

Yes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index:

"The GI represents the total rise in a person's blood sugar level following consumption of the food; it may or may not represent the rapidity of the rise in blood sugar. The steepness of the rise can be influenced by a number of other factors, such as the quantity of fat eaten with the food."

But only "related to". GI is complicated. The whole blood sugar thing is complicated. I don't just mean in principle, I mean in practice, too. Measuring your own body's own reactions to foods may be the most practical route to go; reading that page leads one to the conclusion that any concrete numbers for GI you ever see are at best weak approximations even under the best of circumstances.

Which is a pity, seeing as how it seems like it would be very useful.

MustardTiger6• 10 years ago

Sort of. The glycemic index is not really useful because it is based on arbitrary quantities of food. Glycemic load was created to be useful to people, as it is based on reasonable quantities people would eat. Like GI says watermelon is bad because its calories come from sugar. But it is based on eating 100g of carbs from watermelon. That's a huge amount of watermelon, which is mostly water. GL shows watermelon is fine, because you only eat 10g of carbs from it in a normal serving.

pitchka• 10 years ago

I was diagnosed with T2 diabetes. Changed my diet to lots of veggies, fruits, beans and legumes. Symptoms disappeared.

At first I was heavy on meat when I removed the carbs but it didn't help at all.

wnevets• 10 years ago

if you eat too much meat it just gets converted to sugar anyway

utternerd• 10 years ago

I came here to say very similar to what you're saying. I'm down 50 pounds in a little over a year after being obese my entire life, with very minimal exercise (I walk to and from work, about 3 miles a day, but only walking) but weight-loss and slimming has accelerated greatly after cutting out carbs and sugars, which wasn't as painful as it seemed - replacing carb-rich noodles with Zucchini or Spaghetti Squash is amazing.

Lots of fats, proteins, and veggies, staying away from carbs and sugar, and I feel better than any other time in my entire life (at 34). I'm no longer eating simply to eat, and at this point I'm not craving the crap I used to. The sickness that now ensues after ingesting processed sugars or carbs, does make it easy to skip. While this story is anecdotal, it seemed worth a try because I kept stumbling on research supporting it.

ck26• 10 years ago

you did it right - pound per week - it's a lifestyle change you'll be able to maintain

just shave 400-500 calories per day and sure enough, each week on average you'll lose a pound

hmm spaghetti squash, I'll have to try that

itchyouch2• 10 years ago

I think the problem with most sugars is that most people don't understand that the bulk of it is stored as glycogen in the muscular system.

Sugars really only have several places to go once they are ingested: Held in the fiber of undigested food, blood stream, liver and muscles.

We do really well with vegetables even though they are carbs since veggies are mostly fiber and very low carb. The high glycemic foods are okay provided that muscle glycogen is going-to-be/has-been depleted in the form of physical exertion.

Building muscle would also increases ones capacity for storing said glucose, but it's not easy or popular since the rate of muscle growth at best is about 1-2lbs/month under ideal conditions of physical exertion, nutrition and rest.

However, exercise and low-glycemic diets do explain the efficacy of reveesing t2 diabetes.

revelation4• 10 years ago

CHO storage in muscles and mostly kidney only amounts to about 2000kcal worth of energy. So there is a very high turnover and already over a week it's averaged out to the point where it doesn't really matter if what you eat is carbs or fat.

So for healthy, non-diabetic people it really doesn't matter.

(With the obligatory addendum that going all "low-carbs" or "keto" is a very, very bad idea if you expect to do any exercise at all)

proglodyte• 10 years ago

It seems like exposing your body to colder temperatures is a sure-fire way to increase your metabolism: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/01/does-glo...

May be a little uncomfortable, but way better than screwing up your metabolism via extreme dieting. I'm consistently perplexed as to why the ice-vest-under-the-clothes weight loss method hasn't taken off yet.

HardDaysKnight2• 10 years ago

Interesting. I read in Body By Science (McGuff) that drinking two liters of ice water a day will force your body to burn an additional 125 calories to maintain core temperature.

I know that since I've been following the weight-lifting protocol advocated by McGuff that my ability (and desire!) to sleep without covers, and skip wearing a coat in cooler weather, has increased.

ck26• 10 years ago

cold, heavy breathing, all silliness because you won't be able to maintain the lifestyle

find changes you can live with to shave 400-500 calories per day and each week you'll lose one pound which is a reasonable method that can be maintained

cableshaft• 10 years ago

I really need to lose weight, my heaviness has started to lead to other health problems, but I find that whenever I try to eat significantly less, I have difficulty concentrating on heavy mental tasks (i.e. programming, my job).

The constant feeling of hunger distracts me, or my mind just drifts, until I get some food in me again.

I never see any of these articles even acknowledge this as an issue, either as if no one else has this problem, or no one else who is dieting has a job that requires so much brain power.

Since there's other programmers here, I was curious if other people have noticed something similar, and how they addressed it.

My current plan is not so much to limit my eating (beyond some mild calorie restriction) and instead force myself to exercise more often, but I'd like to be a bit more aggressive with my diet if possible.

falcolas• 10 years ago

Yes, I've noticed it as well. Operating at a caloric deficiency caused me mood and concentration issues - which makes sense: stored fat takes time to convert back into usable calories, so you'll be operating with less raw fuel most of the time.

It's not fun.

nkassis• 10 years ago

I found that exercise helped me with energy and concentration level. Even while eating less. When I sometimes slip and reduce my exercise time for periods of weeks (say I don't feel like riding my bike indoor in the middle of winter) I start to get tired again and lack focus.

antisthenes2• 10 years ago

You should try eating smaller portions.

You will usually find that eating slower will satiate you with less food and over time you'll start eating less.

That being said, I have not experienced the same symptoms as a result of hunger - I find the feeling a minor annoyance at best, certainly much lower than other environmental factors that usually impede concentration (temperature, noise, lighting).

Certainly the individual responses to feeling of hunger vary from person to person.

pessimizer3• 10 years ago

This may sound counter-intuitive, but intermittent fasting might help. I've always done a 4/3 (four days eating normally, three days eating at 20-25% of a normal intake) when I wanted to lose weight, and I've come to believe that the benefits come solely from

1) that even with the slight overeating that comes on days when you eat (probably 20%) it ends up being equivalent to an overall 20% calorie reduction and

2) it teaches you how to operate better and feel better when you're hungry, simply because it ceases to be an uncommon experience. You're hungry at least a couple of times a week, and you get used to not doing anything about it, and you know it will be over soon.

I have to admit that personally, being hungry has always made me perform better - it adds a desperation element that works for me. It does make me testy and impatient, though, and that testiness starts to fade once I'm in my 2nd or 3rd week of 4/3. The everyday irritation of calorie restriction just doesn't work for me; I can't last more than a week or two at my best. My average period of doing 4/3 is about 3 months. It's a fairly easy way to drop about 25 lbs.

wccrawford• 10 years ago

I lost weight through prescription diet pills first. These helped maintain my energy and I didn't experience the effects you describe during this phase. (Lost about 60 lbs, gained 10 back.)

After that, I went on Weight Watchers and lost some more. (Lost about 20 lbs, gained 10 back so far.) This time, I did experience what you seem to be. I ended up reading a lot and deciding that carbs were the culprit. A combination of caffeine (which I previously avoided) and a lower-carb diet have help even out my blood sugar and keep me able to focus at work, and even sometimes get some programming done in the evening.

By "low carb", my wife and I look at the carb-to-fiber ratio and look for something 10-to-1 or lower, heavily favoring things that are 5-to-1. It cuts out a lot of things like white bread and a lot of snack foods, but I've found plenty that I enjoy on the 'ok' list and I feel better and more satisfied.

My 10 lb gain since stopping WW has been very slow, but it's still happening and I'm reconsidering Weight Watchers again. It seems to be the easiest, most accurate way I've found so far to track what you're eating and know when you're going wrong. Their new plan seems to shun sugars and reward protein, which is great for me, so I'm expecting to like it... And actually not change my diet much, but just how much I eat of it.

In short, I addressed it by watching my carbs.

excepttheweasel• 10 years ago

I have had the most success with a keto based diet. There is a good outline here: http://josepharcita.blogspot.com/2011/03/guide-to-ketosis.ht...

Importantly for me, this diet drastically reduces cravings and reduces the impact of hunger, making it far easier to keep to vs other diets. But it can be quite restrictive, you'll likely find that eating out severely limits your options and it is tricky to keep to if you're traveling.

ajosh• 10 years ago

I've definitely seen this. The trick for me was keeping my calorie restrictions reasonable.

At first, I was able to compute what my body needed to live in a day and then would cut from there. A lot of the time, I was hungry, distracted, etc. When I got a fitbit, I connected it to MyFitnessPal. I used the same baseline and used my exercise (walking) to add calories. This would give me a daily goal which is basically base_calories - weight_loss_calories + walking_calories.

I found that by targeting the computed goal, I didn't suffer the same problems. Sometimes that meant that I had to eat a bit more to get up to the target. It also made me think about how to spend the calories that I had.

Part of what made it work for me is that I didn't go crazy trying to lose weight. I targeted one pound per week which is a significant amount of weight over the course of a few months. I didn't always go down by exactly one pound but I was happy with the results.

Of course, that was my experience and yours may be different. One thing that I think is key for anyone is to find foods that you like which are high in nutrition and low in calories. Get some set meals that you know you can order and stay on track. That could be some fruit and a sandwich, a particular bowl at chipotle or whatever. Use memoization - compute the amount of calories in something you're going to eat and keep using that information. It lowers the cognitive load a lot and you know you'll be getting something you like.

anthony_romeo• 10 years ago

Well, you've gotten a lot of advice, already, so I'll keep it to broader points and perspective. For context, I lost 100 pounds about ten years ago (I'm only 5'7", so that's a very significant amount) and successfully kept it off. (I think many people commenting in this thread lost their weight very recently or within the last couple years, but it's hard to judge "successful" weight loss after only a couple years).

Honestly, my typical hunger state still ranges from "I could eat" to "I'm very hungry," even after sizable meals. I've basically accepted there's nothing I can do to adjust this beyond trying to pick more satiating food and keeping a diet of routine rather than excitement. I find if I start changing-things-up too much it results in overeating.

I still feel fat. I mean, I run consistently and for fairly long distances (I ran 20 miles on Saturday) and lift weights 2-3 times a week, but mentally I'm still fat, even though I'm likely far more fit than the average American. It doesn't help that I have the dreaded loose-skin issue, which really wreaks my mental image of myself.

I occasionally do still get food binges, where I eat 3000-4000+ calories of junk food in a day. I kinda balance it out with controlling most of the other days of the month and keeping a good exercise regimen. But I still find that I can gain weight rather quickly if I don't control myself over a week or so. However, I should say that I've never gained very significant weight in an uncontrolled manner, and I've had no relapse of significant weight gain.

Sorry if some of what I wrote was discouraging. Honestly, despite the struggles and mental baggage I still have, I still feel exponentially better. Not just in terms of how I feel about myself, but that I can tell my body is just naturally functioning in a more efficient manner. And trying to improve efficiency, I guess that's something programmers like to achieve.

Regarding my actual process of weight loss, my two main takeaways with my experience are as follows:

1. Don't do things you hate. If you like both grilled and fried chicken, then choose the grilled. If you like soda and tea, just choose the tea. Don't switch to eating boiled broccoli every day if you hate broccoli, because it's not sustainable.

2. Often, the joy of things is acquired. I pretty much never exercised before I lost weight and found it an absolute chore. After I 'forced myself' to trying a few different things, I found one type of exercise I could tolerate (weightlifting). Gradually it developed into a routine, which developed into a passion for it. Now I have to force myself to not exercise. Similarly, I used to hate salads. However, routine, research, and experimentation resulted in me a) adjusting my palate to accept/like the taste of salads and b) making better-tasting salads (most people have no clue how to make a salad actually appetizing; iceberg lettuce, tomato, and italian dressing is really terrible), and ultimately I can say that, while it's hardly a "comfort food", I look forward to my nearly-daily salads as my favorite meal.

These may seem contradictory, but they're really not. It's about experimentation and gradual change. Eat and do healthier things that you enjoy now, do these things for a while, make it routine, and then make another change. There may be some degree of 'forcing,' but it's part of the process to find something you can tolerate and eventually enjoy, rather than suffer through the pain of something you despise.

serg_chernata• 10 years ago

Just wanted to chime in with intermittent fasting experience. When you begin fasting the transition of 2-4 days can be really rough. I know you're not fasting per se but a considerable decrease in caloric intake may do similar things to your body. I would speak with a doctor but then find a weekend where you can just relax, maybe with an additional day off and focus on yourself. Do the diet, feel miserable for a bit in order to train your body and adapt to something new.

kazinator2• 10 years ago

A study of Season 8’s contestants has yielded surprising new discoveries about the physiology of obesity

No it didn't. Just another example of junk science.

Now burns 800 fewer calories a day than would be expected for a man his size.

"Expected for a man of his size" is a fiction. What they are insinuating here is that the rapid weight loss did long term damage to his metabolism. But to confirm that, you have to have data on what is burn rate was when he was previously at his current 295 weight. (Which he must have reached at some point in his life long before the participation of Biggest Loser, on his way to becoming 400-something). Comparing to what can be "expected" based on plugging 295 into some model is not adequate.

Maybe he previously also burned hundreds of calories less than what can be expected of someone of his weight. Maybe it's been like that most of his life!

kenjackson4• 10 years ago

And that may well be why he was heavy to begin with.

andthat• 10 years ago

I wonder if it would be possible to ramp down like 10% in calories one year at a time instead of binge dieting like this. We are always looking for quick fixes.

citeguised• 10 years ago

You could of course. It's just easier to cut 50% for a couple of months than 10% for years because the results come faster, and so does the motivation to keep it up.

Also, counting calories is not really an exact science, so you want to make sure you stay way below your daily goal, just in case the lunch had 300 calories more than you calculated. This is much easier with lower calorie-goals.

For me a good pace was 1 kg a week, which I could do by sticking to 2000 calories. Most weeks it lost only 0.5 kg but there's still some progress. Luckily, maintaining my weight works just fine with a daily intake of ~3000 cal.

Regarding quick-fixes: You still have to keep tracking your intake long after you reached your goal of course, otherwise the old eating habits will come back slowly but surely. I think this is where most "diets" fail: They hold your hand for a few months, when you need them to do so for the rest of your life.

jlos• 10 years ago

Isolating a few of the variables would help clarify some of the questions this study raises:

1) Amount of excess weight / median weight. E.g. Does the effect of the bodies homeostasis change as a person gets more severely overweight?

2) Speed of weight loss. Does loosing 1lb/day/week/month affect the bodies homeostasis differently?

3) Types of foods affect on homeostasis. Do substances like sugar have a worse effect than others? Does a diet high in something like vegetables tend towards a healthier homeostasis?

4) Amount of time for homeostatic change. Does being 100lbs overweight for a year or 5 years make a difference?

> And with his report from Dr. Hall’s group showing just how much his metabolism had slowed, he stopped blaming himself for his weight gain.

Its critical to help people struggling with weight loss to deal not only with the nutritional challenges, but also psychological issues behind weight loss (guilt, depression, helplessness). However, presenting the problem as a binary (purely biological vs purely will) may actually not be the best approach. The individuals still played a part in their initial weight gain. The repeated dietary decisions leading to obesity are obviously complicated by family history, misinformation, failure to realize the full consequences, and other factors both within and outside the control of the person. And neither does the person's complicity, to whatever extent, in gaining weight mean they should receive any less sympathy or help. I say this because of the persistence of the myth that weight gain can be easily undone with just a few weeks/months of discipline, a myth perpetuated by shows like The Big Loser. Weight gain is an insidious danger that can have long lasting implications and be very difficult to extricate oneself from. That point seems quite clear from the research but never addressed in the article.

rnovak3• 10 years ago

Now, here's my opinion, and I know it might be wrong. Anyone, please feel free to correct me, but:

Everything I've read suggests that 1lb muscle requires about 50 calories a day to maintain.

The workout programs these contestants are using are focused solely on cardio, or very heavily focused on cardio.

If as part of the 239lb weight loss, Mr Cahill lost 8lbs-10lbs of muscle (and never regained it), there's your entire 400-500 calorie difference right there.

Like I said, I could totally be wrong, but over the last year I lost 93lbs (as of today), but my measured BMR is actually higher than it should be (and higher than it was when I started). I attribute that difference to my focus on lifting weights more than cardio.

rayiner5• 10 years ago

Muscle burning 50 calories a day is a myth. Gaining 20 pounds of muscle adds 80-100 calories to your RMR for a typical person: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/16/health/la-he-fitness....

itchyouch2• 10 years ago

Yep. It's muscle recovery that is very calorically expensive. Those who have lifted or lift can probably attest to that crazy post workout appetite.

rnovak3• 10 years ago

Thanks for the correction. I will point out that the article does indicate that there is some type of difference, so I would still think that such a loss would have some sort of impact (though obviously not ~400-500 calories worth).

TearsInTheRain2• 10 years ago

They mentioned that they have a lower metabolic rate than someone of the same size. I doubt they have less muscle than the average person at their weight

rnovak3• 10 years ago

From his picture from the biggest loser, he looks a lot different at 191lbs and 5'11" than I do at 195lbs and 5'11".

With as much cardio as they did, with as little as they ate, I can easily see them having a different body composition than someone else of their height/weight.

chris_wot4• 10 years ago

Whilst all of the contestants needed to lose weight, I am concerned with the premise of this show. It has many good qualities: exercise and a balanced diet is very important. However, I note the following:

"Mr. Cahill knew he could not maintain his finale weight of 191 pounds. He was so mentally and physically exhausted he barely moved for two weeks after his publicity tour ended."

This cannot be healthy. My concern is that the weight gain has occurred over the person's lifetime, yet they can lose up to 30 pounds in a week. The New York Post, which I realise is not a terribly reliable source, reports that the show has frequent injuries and many contestants have had serious side effects. One contestant started losing her hair. Another showed possible signs of kidney failure. Yet another has president issues with short-term memory loss.

When I first saw this show advertised for the Australian version I thought it looked amazing, even inspirational. Then I saw the weigh-ins and the show's mechanism used to judge contestants. It was for week-to-week weight loss. If you gained even a small amount of weight, there was a real danger of being evicted from the show.

It's already known that yo-yo diets are incredibly dangerous. So I would like to know what the doctors on the show were doing - they must be aware that what they are doing is not medically recommended. They have a moral and ethical duty to ensure their charged live a healthy lifestyle, not an extreme one that the contestant goes through. I also wonder if the contestants are give enough information to consent to the regime the show puts them under. I think it's telling (and frankly, I don't think it should protect a doctor!) that the contestants must sign the following waiver:

"No warranty, representation or guarantee has been made as to the qualifications or credentials of the medical professionals who examine me or perform any procedures on me in connection with my participation in the series, or their ability to diagnose medical conditions that may affect my fitness to participate in the series".

Are these really doctors? If they are, then this should in way reduce their liability for poor medical advice, nor the show's.

My final concern is a bit more out of left field. This show is a data driven show. They record their calorific intake, blood pressure, time and means excercised, weight loss, psychological studies are taken... You name it, they do it. And it's done under a very controlled environment.

The show is basically a medical study, albeit not one with a control group or published in a scientific journal, or ine that publishes their full results. Yet a study it is: whilst the methodology and transparency are flawed, their are plenty of studies that exhibit the same characteristics. The difference is that in a normal medical study at a university the study would need to be approved by an ethics committee and follow certain parameters. The Biggest Loser* does not. Which means that I seriously wonder what level of liability - both personal and corporate - the producers of this show are letting themselves in for. They may have legal disclaimers, but if even one contestant can prove corrosion or a lack of informed consent as to what they were agreeing to, then those waivers would be worthless.

This show, frankly, is a huge concern.

russtrotter• 10 years ago

I get it: low-carb, hi-fat works for people and high-carb, low-fat works for people. Let's just get that off the table, but can we, for the love of the sustainable planet, have a hi-fat person give their testimony on how they did it with plant foods instead of just feeding the "mmmmmm more bacon, burgers, chicken and cheese!" mentality?

dclowd99013• 10 years ago

This jibes pretty well with my experience. Used to weigh about 220 at my peak, and I was eating a lot those days. Cut back, drank less, exercised more (running). Lost about 45 pounds.

However, at that point, I was running about 1000 calories a day, sometimes less (a big reason I think The Martian is bullshit). I was not starving. My body wasn't starving. You can (and many people should) subsist on far less than the recommended daily allowance of calories.

If I eat a typical 2000 calorie diet, I will not just gain weight, but I will gain weight at a rate of about a pound or two a month.

I've currently gained back about 10 pounds of what I lost, so I'm going to have to turn on the afterburners again, but we really need to change the dialogue of what a standard of consumption and health is.

It's very simple: if your body has a slow metabolism, you have to eat a lot less than most people.

MustardTiger6• 10 years ago

You are either a very small person, or you are not accurately counting your calories. The reason some people can subsist on less than the recommended caloric intake is that the recommendation is an average. If you are below average in size and/or activity level, then you need a below average amount of calories.

dclowd99013• 10 years ago

5'11" and 185. It's possible I'm miscounting calories (given how much of a crapshoot the task is), but not by so much that it would matter greatly.

HardDaysKnight2• 10 years ago

Very little was said about the type of exercise they were doing. I'd guess that most of it was "cardio." Would they have different results if they were involved in more specifically muscle building exercises, i.e, weight lifting (and with adequate rest)?

I've been following McGuff's Body By Science protocol for the past 6 months and I believe that with increased muscle my overall health is improving much more than would have resulted from typical long and slow cardio.

Has anybody else tried this?

SovietDissident• 10 years ago

"Soon the scale hit 265. Mr. Cahill started weighing and measuring his food again and stepped up his exercise. He got back down to 235 to 240 pounds. But his weight edged up again, to 275, then 295.

His slow metabolism is part of the problem, and so are his food cravings. He opens a bag of chips, thinking he will have just a few. “I’d eat five bites. Then I’d black out and eat the whole bag of chips and say, ‘What did I do?’”"

The article is light on the details post-TBL, but it sounds like recidivism in terms of diet is probably a major root cause of weight gain. Also, maybe it's hard to tell whether they're doing steady-state cardio or high-intensity interval training (steady-state cardio has been shown to paradoxically cause weight gain in people). In any case, it sounds like they need more guidance and check-ins post-show.

49para5• 10 years ago

"He opens a bag of chips, thinking he will have just a few."

Thats the problem right there. Don't have things like that in your house.

Want a snack, try raw carrots or broccoli, by the time you finish binging you would have consumed about 50 calories :)

ck26• 10 years ago

Well of course they did.

That show had them losing a POUND PER DAY - that's insane.

You'll never be able to maintain that kind of metabolism and calorie burn, it would be a full time job and then some.

I spent the last year losing a pound per week and that was challenging enough.

I still can't touch more than 2000 calories per day or I will gain weight and I run every morning.

cowardlydragon2• 10 years ago

What raises metabolic rate? High intensity interval exercise? Long slow distance?

I'm wondering if 2-3 hours of exercise training would be necessary to readjust the metabolism. It's my gut as an athlete... Especially the very high intensity interval training.

This comes from sprinters having almost magically low fat in many cases, despite not doing nearly as much aerobic execise as, say, even a recreational marathoner.

beloch• 10 years ago

I'm curious about how the metabolic rate of these former contestants is determined. Are they confined to a lab where their dietary intake and physical activity can be accurately measured for an extended period of time? Probably not. My best guess is that the subjects being studied are asked to keep food and activity journals and then these, plus their weight, is used to calculate their metabolic rate.

I've experimented with keeping a food journal in the past, and it's exceptionally difficult to keep track of everything you eat without this extra work impacting your food choices. e.g. The chore of writing stuff down might prevent me from casually snagging a handful of nuts on my way through the kitchen, and consciousness about how it will look in the journal might make me pass on those chips. Even ignoring these problems, it takes a lot of effort to produce even remotely useful data. e.g. "I ate a pear." is actually pretty vague. Breed, size, and ripeness all have a pretty big impact on the nutrients you'll get from that pear. You need to weigh everything as a bare minimum. Also, you need to keep the journal all of the time, because if you keep it for just a week or two that sample likely won't be very representative of your normal habits.

Likewise, activities are hard to keep track of. With a fairly standard ergometer (such as a Concept2 rower) you can get a reasonable measure of activity level in a workout. Lifting weights, running, walking, etc. are all much, much vaguer. 30 minutes of "moderate jogging" means different things to different people. Most people are likely to overestimate or habitually pad their activities.

So, you have a really vague, spitballed idea of what these people are eating and doing, combined with weight gain. Are their metabolisms really slower than expected, or is there a systematic error common to these people in that, after a period of extreme privation (i.e. the competition) in which some of them lost more than a pound a day, they are now underestimating their food intake and overestimating their activity levels?

How much can basal human metabolism really vary anyways? If humans can get by on substantially fewer calories, why don't we all typically do this? Where does all the extra energy normal people inefficiently burn off go?

jimrandomh• 10 years ago

No, energy expenditure is normally measured by the doubly-labelled water technique. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubly_labeled_water

npsimons7• 10 years ago

How much can basal human metabolism really vary anyways?

The range is within 200-300 kCal for people of the same height and mass: http://examine.com/faq/does-metabolism-vary-between-two-peop...

Also, you are correct to ask how data was collected: people routinely fudge reports of intake and activity, to the point that self-reported data is considered completely unreliable.

Jweb_Guru2• 10 years ago

You might try reading the linked study, which answers the question of how RMR data were collected (hint: it's accurate). Actually, this entire site would benefit from actually reading the paper.

npsimons7• 10 years ago

So, on a show where they have people lose weight in the most unsustainable (read: dramatic) way possible, they are then surprised they don't keep it off? I am shocked. Shocked, I say!

tzs3• 10 years ago

Here's a link to the paper: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.21538/full

npsimons7• 10 years ago

I think the biggest thing we should take away from this study is that losing weight "The Biggest Loser" style is bad for your long term health, not that everyone who loses weight will gain it all back or that weight loss is impossible. In other words, don't follow a "Biggest Loser" style program to lose weight.

After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight

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