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Thanks for the article. It seems that people who have kept the weight off for over a year show improvements in metabolic activity over those who have more recently lost the weight. I wonder if there is any evidence to suggest that this improvement continues the longer the weight remains stable at a lower level…or are those who were obese doomed to forever suffer for their corpulence?
Gary, The improvements seen on the graph are very small and not statistically significant, so the improvements after 1 year appear to be minimal. It’s difficult to say if people are, in essence, “doomed forever.” I don’t think anyone is doomed forever. However, it is very likely that a formerly obese person will always have to work harder to keep the weight off than a person who has never had a weight problem. Like a type 1 diabetic who will always need to be on insulin, someone who used to be obese will need to maintain certain habits to help… Read more »
Another great article! I always tell my overweight friends that they have a “faster metabolism” than their lean counterparts simply because their body weight alone is a burden/ extra weight to be carried around. A good example of this is a 4 cylinder Honda civic vs a Cadillac Escalade. Assuming both cars is traveling at the same speed at same distance, the heavier car with bigger engine will obviously expend more gas(energy/ calories) because if the car’s weight and because of the bigger engine.
Oh yes I also share your opinion
Great post, as always James. Thank you for your work. Everybody has made some great points here regarding the utility of regular exercise in the post-weight loss phase (i.e. the ‘maintenance’ phase). A couple of additional observations: 1) Exercise plays an important psychological role in encouraging dietary compliance; in short, people are less likely to break good eating habits when they’re also on the straight and narrow with their exercise; 2) While changes to NEAT and REE do influence the ‘energy-out’ part of the energy balance equation (and thus may contribute to weight re-gain), it is patently clear IME that… Read more »
Harry,
You make a very good point in regards to the “creep” in energy intake. This is also why physical activity helps so much with prevention of weight regain: it allows room for the “creep” to occur without affecting body weight.
This is depressing. I don’t want to have to fight inertia all my life to stay active and keep my weight down. I don’t want a part-time job to stay thin. This really really really sucks. There has got to be a way to lower the set point so that you don’t have to fight it all the time. I am not disagreeing with your post of Leibel’s findings, only suggesting that perhaps there is a way to lose weight without having a spontaneous, involuntary reduction in NEAT. I suspect that the decrease in RMR and NEAT go hand in… Read more »
TMK,
I understand that the info from Leibel’s work can be depressing. However, there is evidence that endurance exercise will increase spontaneous physical activity in rodents. This has yet to be examined in humans, but this may also be a mechanism behind how exercise helps with long-term weight loss maintenance.
LynMarie, There is tons of scientific evidence on the powerful role that NEAT plays in how resistant people are to weight gain, and it strongly supports your anecdotal observation. It’s actually a topic that I’m going to be writing a book about, and I also do a 90 minute lecture on NEAT alone. Muata, Yes, all the little things add up. By the way, I checked out your website…would love to see you get it going again. I read about your weight loss journey and I want to congratulate you on your immense transformation. CarbSane, Yes, I’ve read about how… Read more »
Totally anecdotal, but I have a soon-to-be 11 year old very lean nephew who seems very resistant to weight gain. During family celebrations, he will stuff himself with food, but afterward, when everyone else is relaxing and basically just digesting their food, he is running around like a maniac! A few weeks ago, my husband and I took him and his little sister to an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. My nephew ate a lot more than he would have eaten at home – we all did actually. Afterward, we wanted to visit a gift shop that was on the first floor… Read more »
Thanks again James for this very informative piece, and thank you for putting the science behind what I have suspected with my own weight loss struggles. Many a time I have successfully lost some weight with diet alone (read as trying every diet out there) and there is always this point where I feel I am struggling against my body. It always felt like this battle of my psyche vs. my physiology. Physiology often won out and I often felt like my body wanted to gain the weight back and return to what I call it’s “comfort zone.” It’s insanely… Read more »
Gosh the results from that study are depressing! I don’t know how much you read around the LC webosphere, but exercise is almost a 4 letter word to some. Many brag how they lost weight w/o exercising. (Full disclosure here: I did no formal exercise during my weight loss, but not by deliberate design). And yet exercise is the best way to counter the reductions on the “out” side of the energy equation. I blogged on a study a while back that was rather interesting: http://carbsanity.blogspot.com/2010/04/effects-of-aerobic-exercise-and-dietary.html This study compared two diets (LC & LF) and exercise (3X 45min @60% max)… Read more »
James, Great post! As someone who has lost a significant amount of weight, I could not agree more with what you’ve said here. Whenever I had issues with plateaus or my weight starting to increase, it was almost always because I was no longer as active, and, as you pointed out, this is not necessarily exercising less. Something as simple as moving to a single level house from a house that had pretty steep stairs affected my over TDEE even though I continued to follow my usual training routine. What’s also funny is that the tips you give to move… Read more »
Something as simple as moving to a single level house from a house that had pretty steep stairs affected my over TDEE even though I continued to follow my usual training routine Even though I don’t have a very active job, I noticed a distinct difference during a period where I worked from home (and now when I’m not formally working). Those little walks to and from the car and just prepping for the public may not amount to much taken separately, but they sure do add up. Lately at home I’ve taken to running up the stairs any time… Read more »
No, it doesn’t sound silly at all. I’m a teacher, and I feel sorry for my students because I pace back and forth as I teach. I take the stairs 99.9% of the time, and I’ve been parking in pretty much the same spot for over five years. So, you’re right about how it all adds up …
Wow, phenomenal entry James, THANKS!