In defense of fat people--again

Hah! I have long maintained that fat people can’t help being fat—that their (our) bodies want to be a certain weight. I wrote an earlier post on that subject.  Now I have new ammunition to support my argument, as reported in the journal Obesity and The New York Times. 

For six years, researchers followed contestants on The Biggest Loser TV show to see how they fared following their weight loss.  Here is a nutshell summary. 

• Thirteen of the 14 contestant regained most if not all their lost weight; four are heavier now than before the competition; only one, with great effort, has managed to maintain her weight.
• Their metabolisms became dramatically lower—as much as 800 calories a day—and stayed that way. In other words, after losing weight, their bodies were not burning enough calories to maintain their thinner weight. They had to eat even less to maintain their weight.
• The hormones that regulate weight either rose or fell. For example, their levels of leptin, which controls hunger, went from normal at the start of the weight loss to nearly zero. The levels of the hormones that made them want to eat rose. The only way they could maintain their weight loss is to be hungry all the time.

What all this means, as one of the researchers said, “You can’t get away from a basic biological reality. The body puts multiple mechanisms in place to get you back to your weight.” As I’m sure you’ve noticed, there’s a weight you can maintain without any effort, and that is the weight that your body is going to fight to defend.

For a detailed account of the study, see this article from The New York Times.

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