Being at a healthy weight helps reduce your risk of chronic illness, helps you maintain an active lifestyle and seems to be recommended by all health experts. Right? So, why is it that dieting is so often linked to yo-yo successes? Sometimes quickly gaining weight and then gaining some more? Research is coming out now saying that the standard recommendation to lose weight by eating less and exercising more, could actually be damaging to our ability to maintain a healthy weight long term.
Starving Yourself is Not the Answer
It sounds great to quickly achieve the healthy weight you dreamed of, and the drastic weight loss attained by the contestants on controversial reality tv show, The Biggest Loser, is an example of the results that can be achieved through this type of eat less, exercise more diet and exercise regime. However, research published in The New York Times, suggests that the US contestants who lose weight in this way are up against some major metabolic hurdles to maintain their ideal weight. In fact, the question could be posed, does this type of weight loss regime result in permanent injury to your ability to maintain weight?
It has to do with resting metabolism, which determines how many calories a person burns when at rest. When the show began, the contestants, though hugely overweight, had normal metabolisms for their size, meaning they were burning a normal number of calories for people of their weight. When it ended, their metabolisms had slowed radically and their bodies were not burning enough calories to maintain their thinner sizes.
Read more about the experience of The Biggest Loser contestants here: After ‘The Biggest Loser’, Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight – The New York Times
Healing the Metabolic Thermostat for Weight Loss
No doubt you've heard experts talk about the metabolism as being like a thermostat? It strives to become more efficient in the face of scarcity, which in an eat less, exercise more environment, is exactly what your thermostat is sensing. The trouble seems to be that your thermostat resets to maintain your body functions on less food. Approaching weight loss with an eat less, exercise more approach, which is the most common regime followed, resulted in their contestants finishing The Biggest Loser program with a resting metabolism of between 250-800 calories (1,050-3,350 kilojoules) less, than a person of the same size who has not dieted in this way. It's not all about willpower keeping weight off, there are powerful metabolic compensations making regaining weight almost certain to occur.
The answer? The old approach isn't working, let's try something new.
Health at Every Size
Adopting behaviours that support health, regardless of size is in the best interests of everyone. The truth is, people of size are stigmatised for being ‘unhealthy', when weight alone has little to do with health. Health has more to do with:
- Regular movement and exercise.
- Getting 5 serves of vegies and 2 serves of fruit each day.
- Quitting smoking if you smoke.
- Drinking alcohol in moderation.
Science doesn't support the commonly held idea that normal weight is the only healthy size to be either. A 2013 Systematic Review and Meta-analysis found
Relative to normal weight [BMI of >18.5-25]… Grade 1 obesity [BMI of >30-35] overall was not associated with higher mortality, and overweight [BMI of >25-30] was associated with significantly lower all-cause mortality.
Curated from Association of All-Cause Mortality With Overweight and Obesity Using Standard Body Mass Index Categories
So let's shake the status quo. Stigma about weight harms everyone. People in larger bodies experience discrimination and shame, while people of normal and underweight are afraid of gaining weight, which contributes to the prevalence and harm of eating disorders in people of all sizes. Being comfortable with your weight, regardless of size is important for our overall health.
Greater satisfaction with one’s weight was associated with positive health behaviors and health outcomes in both men and women and across weight status groups.
Seeking good medical care, being active, eating nutritious food, avoiding weight cycling and shielding yourself from weight stigma we now know is what contributes to ideal health. Much more than size.
