As someone who was focused on losing weight, lost 60 pounds and gained them all back in the span of 3 years later.
I've decided to look more into how to sustain a new weight rather than how to lose weight.
Most people tend to focus on their weight loss, not realizing that is just a small battle in a never ending bigger war- which is keeping the weight off.
Most of you hear about success stories of people who just freshly reached their goal weight.
But how many of you hear of success stories of people keeping there new weight several years later? I think not that many.
studies show that 95% of people who lost a significant amount of weight gain it all back several years later + extra new weight.
Why is that happening? I suspect the culprit is metabolic adaptation.
I've researched about metabolic adaptation when dieting on the internet, and so far found mixed opinions, some say it's a real thing that happens and some say it isn't, including studies that support both sides.
but then I checked out one of the most accurate caloric calculators out there (mifflin st jeor calculator), but pretty much you can use any, and just by looking at the results of one's current stats and their goal stats, it 100% confirms there is always metabolic adaptation
let me explain: if I fill in my current stats which are male, age 27, weight is 125 kg ( 275 lbs) and height is 187 cm (about 6'2), the results are BMR 2288 calories to maintain the weight and TDEE 2500 calories to maintain with like no activity level (set to even below sedentary.)
now if I change my current weight to my goal weight, which is about 85kg (187 lbs), then the BMR goes down to 1800 to maintain, and 2077 to maintain with less than sedentary activity.
So what do we see here? we see a mere 500 calories difference to maintain 125 kg and 85kg. that's about 90 lbs.
So on paper, according to all those calculators, all I should be is in -500 caloric deficit and I'm gonna lose a total of 90 lbs all the way down to 85kg.
that obviously never happens to anyone, when people are dieting the minimum they cut is 500 calories, usually up to 1000 calories less, and they lose several tens of pounds and then ALWAYS hit several plateaus and are forced to cut even more.
It is true that if you weight less than you need less energy, but what metabolic adaptation does is that it makes you need EVEN less energy for your current weight compared to the average person with the same weight as yours who never dieted before.
to simply put, if you take person A who weights 176 lbs and person B who also weights 176 lbs, but person B weights 176 lbs after losing 100 lbs, and then you feed them the same diet, same foods, same quantity based on how their BMR should be, person A will maintain their weight at 176bs, while person B will start gaining weight.
Person B will be forced to eat even less just to maintain those 176 lbs.
the more weight you lose the more plateaus (which is the metabolic adaptation) you'll have to go through, which ultimately - once you reach your goal weight- force you to eat much less than majority of people at the same weight as yours.
a person who was obese and wants to be lean or very lean, will most likely have to eat so little that it's really just unsustainable for long, and will eventually break- not because they have weak will, but because it's physically and mentally unsustainable in the long run.
This also supports the studies that show that the people who gain their weight back also gains extra- if people really just quit their diets and go back to their old eating habits, theoretically they should go back to their original weight before the diet, but they gain even new extra weight, that's because their slowed metabolism does not heal even if they gain their weight back, so they reach their original weight, but with a slower metabolism, which makes them even surpass that weight.
What do you guys think of this? have you experienced it first hand after reaching your goal weight?
