How Does Exercise Affect Metabolism and Weight Loss?


Surprised Dr. Hall has recently begun to revisit his “Biggest Loser” work in light of an emerging concept of how human metabolism fundamentally works. This idea is a influential 2012 research showing extremely active hunter-gatherers In Tanzania, they burn about the same amount of calories each day as the rest of us, even though they move a lot more.

The scientists involved in this research speculated that the bodies of the tribal people must automatically compensate for some of the calories they burn when searching for food by reducing other physiological activities such as growth. (Tribal folk tended to be short.) In this way, the researchers felt that no matter how many miles they ran in search of tubers and prey, the hunters could keep the total number of calories their bodies burned each day in check. Scientists think that constrained total energy expenditure theory.

Being aware of this research, Dr. Hall began to see potential parallels in the “Biggest Loser” results. So for the new analysis, he looked to his group’s data for clues as to whether the metabolisms of the competitors actually behaved like the metabolisms of hunter-gatherers. And he found clues in resting metabolic rates. That number noted early on in the “Biggest Loser” shots when they cut back on what they ate and their bodies, understandably, reduced the calories they burned to avoid starvation.

But in later years, when contestants often returned to eating the way they used to, their metabolisms remained depressed because many decided they were still exercising—and that was key. In the new analysis, he wrote, intuitively, frequent physical activity causes their bodies to keep their resting metabolic rates low, thereby limiting their total daily energy expenditure.

Dr. “This is still just a hypothesis,” Hall said, “but what we observe” is “an example of the constrained energy pattern” in the “Biggest Loser” data.

So what might rethinking the “Biggest Loser” story mean for the rest of us if we’re hoping to keep our weight under control? First and foremost, Dr. Hall said he suggests that sudden and massive weight loss will often backfire, because this strategy appears to lower resting metabolic rates more than would be expected given people’s smaller body sizes. He noted that when people lose weight gradually in weight loss experiments, their metabolic changes tend to be less drastic.

Second, and more surprisingly, if you’ve lost a significant amount of weight, “Biggest Loser” style exercise will likely be both an ally and a debilitator in your efforts to keep those pounds off. Dr. In Hall’s new interpretation of contestants’ long-term weight control, frequent exercise kept contestants’ resting metabolic rates low while also helping them inhibit fat recovery. In essence, they’re the competitors who gain the most injuries, despite having the slowest resting metabolisms.



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