Why weight doesn’t go away even with a strict diet

It is generally believed that if a person does not lose weight, it means that he is cheating somewhere: skipping classes or eating sausage at night. However, the analysis of rigorous experiments, where participants were locked in laboratories or closely monitored, destroys this stereotype. We used to think that everyone’s bodies work the same way, but this is a profound misconception.

The experience with the twins was significant. The siblings were placed in conditions of a strict calorie deficit and the same workload for 100 days. It would seem that the result should be the same. But no: the range of kilograms lost ranged from one to eight. Genetics dictated its own terms, ignoring the mathematics of caloric intake. Even with an absolutely identical diet, some people lose weight quickly, while others lose weight with great difficulty.

The HERITAGE project has brought even more disturbing data. People trained there under the supervision of specialists for 20 weeks. The final was shocking: about ten percent of the participants not only did not lose weight, but also worsened their performance — their blood pressure, insulin and cholesterol went bad. Their bodies reacted to the sport with stress, not wellness.

The most striking example of how the body resists change was shown by the participants of the famous TV show The Biggest Loser. They lost weight at an extreme rate, but they paid a heavy price for it. Their metabolism slowed down so much that even after six years they were burning 700 calories a day less than normal.

This phenomenon is called adaptive thermogenesis. The body perceives the diet as a threat to life and includes a regime of austerity of energy. As a result, a person eats little, but still does not lose weight, because his internal engine is running at minimum rpm.

External factors also play a role. When fat is broken down, accumulated toxins and pollutants can enter the bloodstream, which hit the thyroid gland and muscles, further slowing down the process. In addition, the feeling of satiety works differently for such people.: they don’t physically feel full where the other person has already had enough.

The standard advice of “eat less and move more” is not suitable for everyone. It’s time for trainers and nutritionists to recognize that there is no universal recipe. If the scales are in place, it is necessary not to increase the pressure and blame the ward, but to look for individual reasons for the malfunction, because for a fifth of the world’s population, conventional methods are simply useless.