Quote:
Originally Posted by nik-
a permanent 800 calorie reduction in metabolism ... how is that possible?
that would be like 40% reduction in my BMR. What's a safe rate to lose weight and not mess up the body like that?
|
That is a pretty extreme case, and like Yoni Friedhoff the Canadian obesity doc who blasts this show said, this is one study but the damage to metabolism is happening because of a few factors:
1. Diet restriction, eating less calories than you need, body treats this as you are going through biologically speaking a "drought" and will slow the metabolism down in order to preserve during lean times. This is especially dramatic for obese people who go say from eating 3000 cal a day down to 800, this is dramatic to the body and it goes into conservation mode.
2. The rate of weight loss, in order to do less to your metabolism, slow and steady is the key to having as little effect on metabolism, however there is always some because your body if you have been at a certain weight for many years has its "set point" which after the weight loss will want to return to.
There is a lot of research being done of course, but we have learned that the reason 95% or more diets fail is for this reason, the rate of failure for obese people is a staggering 99%.
I am going for Gastric Bypass in September, which has had some outstanding results and about 10-15 years worth of scientific scrutiny, the surprise benefit that came from this surgery is that by bypassing the stomach the brain-gut connection that is messed up with obese people is reset and gives people a real chance to turn things around.
There has also been some genes identified that have a direct affect on metabolic rate in rats which is likely to be the case in humans, might be ideal candidate for the gene splicing technology called CRISPR, which has a great deal of promise as a partial help in a treatment that would increase metabolism in people with low metabolism. However that is likely 10 years or more away from every making FDA approval, it is very early on in this research.
But the big focus has been on the gut mind connection, the biome side of things, which seems to be a major factor in obesity, outside of course the horrible food supply we have, the crazy amount of sugar in our food supply, the processed foods, etc...
This is why obesity is such a tough nut to crack, and why I think we are still 10-20 years away from any significant breakthrough in treating it medically.
Of course lots can be done, we know that eating the calories you need daily with healthy, energy rich foods and lots of veggies is vastly superior to restrictive diets where you cut caloric intake for weight loss. A lifestyle change if you will.
But the biggest problem is how hard the body works against you when you are obese and try to lose weight, in a number of ways.