Study: Former ‘Biggest Loser’ contestants’ metabolisms fight to stay fat.
Almost everyone knows that the true challenge of ABC’s Biggest Loser isn’t the frequently astonishing weight they lose during the show; it’s what comes next. The show follows a team of contestants who struggle with obesity as they work with exercise coaches and dietitians to transform their bodies and lose a lot of weight—sometimes hundreds of pounds. The gains they make are impressive, but the true challenge is what comes after the show. When the cameras are off and the exercise coaches stay in Los Angeles while the teams head back to their hometowns, will they be able to keep that weight off?
The answer, according to a new study in Obesity, is often “no”—and not because the contestants are lazy or uncommitted. On the contrary, many of them make significant life changes and continue to push themselves in the gym and at the dinner table. No, the reason they and many of those who struggle with obesity are often frustrated in their attempts to lose weight is that their own bodies are working against them.
Dr. Kevin Hall and his team of researchers from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases followed contestants from season 8 of The Biggest Loser, and found that their bodies continued to fight to regain their former weight even six years after their sudden and dramatic weight loss.
Danny Cahill, who won season 8 with a record drop from 430 pounds to 191 pounds now weighs 295 pounds. But he burns around 800 fewer calories a day than is normal for a man of his size. Dina Mercado started the show at 248 pounds and dropped to 173 pounds. Today, she weighs about 206 pounds and burns around 438 calories fewer than most people her size do. Perhaps most frustrating is Sean Algaier, who started out at 444 pounds, ended at 289 pounds, and today weighs 450 pounds — burning 458 fewer calories than he should.
“It’s frightening and amazing,” Hall told The New York Times. “I am just blown away.”
The culprit is metabolism. When contestants start their intensive weight loss training on The Biggest Loser, they are overweight, but their resting metabolism is normal. But following the drastic changes to their diet that The Biggest Loser recommends, their metabolisms drop in an effort to maintain the weight they’ve grown accustomed to. And the fact that the weight decrease is so drastic means it’s nearly impossible for contestants to eat so little that their metabolism will burn it all. To put it simply: their bodies want to regain their former size.
The New York Times reached out to Dr. David Ludwig, director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital, who put the study’s findings (drawn from a very small sample size) into perspective. “This is a subset of the most successful [dieters,]” he said. “If they don’t show a return to normal in metabolism, what hope is there for the rest of us? That shouldn’t be interpreted to mean we are doomed to battle our biology… It means we need to explore other approaches.”
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