Biggest Losers Go Home and Regain All Their Weight!

Watching the finale of Biggest Loser last night was inspiring. No need to recap, just find it on TiVO and you’ll be amazed at the transformations. But one thing that the audience should not gloss over is the end goal. As in, there is no end goal:

It’s a lifestyle!

[Congrats to Jerry Hayes for winning the at home portion of Biggest Loser. At 64, he was the show’s oldest contestant ever. He was eliminated early in the competition but continued to lose weight after the show going from 369 to 192 pounds, a loss of 177 pounds, or 47.97 percent weight loss. Look at the intensity in Jerry's face!]

If you want to burn off fat and keep it off permanently, there are a few things you absolutely must do (ie. build muscle), and a recent study from Wake Forest University has just uncovered another one.

Previous research has concluded without a shred of doubt that high levels of exercise are one of the keys to keeping fat off and maintaining your ideal weight. In this study published in the October 2008 issue of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, researchers found for the first time, proof that the drop in physical activity that happens automatically during calorie restriction is directly correlated to weight regain.

Your physical activity energy expenditure (PAEE) also tends to drop when you restrict calories.

Basically, when you cut calories, you get sluggish, you move your body less, you don’t feel like exercising and if you do exercise, you do it with with less intensity.

This means that unless you intentionally counter this tendency by pushing yourself to keep active and keep up the intensity, despite your low calorie intake, your weight loss will slow down automatically as you continue with caloric restriction. Not good!

The new twist to this story is that in this latest study the researchers followed up on the subjects through the maintenance period – with 6 month and 12 month checkups.

This is significant, because most fat loss success stories are reported immediately after the weight loss phase, but you never know what happened to them afterwards.

Well guess what? It wasn’t much of a maintenance period. Almost everyone regained most of the weight.

The surprise was WHY they regained back the weight and WHO regained the most…

The drop in physical activity during the diet was directly related to the weight regain after the diet!

The researchers wrote,“The greater the decrease in physical activity energy expenditure (PAEE) during the energy deficit, the greater the weight gain during the follow up.”

“That won’t happen to me,” you say? Think again. That drop in activity usually happens unconsciously. It’s part of the “starvation response” (or “weight-regulating mechanism” if you prefer). Your body tricks you in countless ways, in order to restore energy balance and stabilize your weight.

If you believe that diet alone is the answer or that you can dial down your training, then enjoy the short-term results count the days backwards towards your old fat self!

Our readers know that we promote the two headed attack of diet and exercise for healthy fat loss. Specifically higher levels of exercise (ie. strength, interval and cardio training) with a higher intake of clean food. If you want long lasting fat loss, it is imperative not only to keep up a high level of energy expenditure (BURN calories not just cut them), but also to make a conscious effort to make sure your activity level does not drop as you continue to lose weight.

For more information about staying active like the contestants of Biggest Loser, check out our review of Jon Benson’s and Tom Venuto’s Fit Over 40. Benson describes his personal struggles with weight loss and the setbacks he endured during his quest for optimal fat loss. Sound familiar?

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