If my future telling software is accurate then the on-line community is going to be BUZZING about one particular new study coming out.
After all, the subjects in the study are practically celebrities.
This particular study is on a group of people in “A nationally televised weight loss reality TV show where participants are voted off weekly”
Gee – I have no idea what show that could be 😉
Anyways, here is what I want you to look for in the coming months as a result of this study’s publication:
Really distorted scaremongering.
Here’s why:
In this study, after 30 weeks of dieting and exercise, the average Basal Metabolic Rate of the subjects decreased. And, it decreased to significant degree.
Bad study design? No, this was a well designed study, with excellent methods.
So…metabolic slow down? Probably not.
I took the data of all the participants and then used predictive equations to figure what we think their metabolic rates SHOULD be based on their Lean Body Mass.
Here’s what I found –
In the beginning of the study, when the average weight was 328 pounds (162 pound of body fat!), the average BMR was almost 2,700 – a full 700 calories ABOVE what the equations suggested. Even when you account for the 2 Calories per pound per day metabolic rate of body fat, they were still 200 Calories above what we predict (Yes fat burns calories).
At the end of the study when the average body weight was around 200 pounds, (they lost more than 120 pounds) the average BMR was 1,900 – Still a full 100 calories ABOVE what the equations predicted it should be given their lean body mass. Heck, it was still higher than my BMR!
In fact, if you use the equations from the study (based on the metabolic rates of the subjects when they were obese) and plug my current numbers in (based on my latest DEXA) my Basal Metabolic Rate should be 2,620! You guessed it, a full 700 higher than it is based on my last measurements.
So here’s my confusion, and my guess:
My bet is that everyone focuses on the almost 700 calorie ‘drop’, and not the fact that in the end their metabolic rates ended up being right where they should be given their height, weight and lean body mass. And I doubt ANYONE will be concerned with how HIGH their metabolic rate was in the beginning of the study when they were morbidly obese.
This is the part I find confusing – their metabolic rates are MASSIVELY elevated when they are overweight – to the point where it reminds me of people in disease states like fever or sepsis! So, is this evidence of a metabolic ‘slow down’ with dieting or a ‘hyper metabolism’ from being morbidly obese and having body that is in really, really rough shape??
To me, the ultra high metabolic rate just shows the damage of being more than 100 pounds over-fat, and how much work the body has to do at this level of fatness, and it adds strength to argument that obesity of this degree truly is a disease state.
And the sad part is, were are probably all going to argue over ‘starvation mode’ and the like, and we are TOTALLY going to miss the point – At the end of the study, these people lost over 100 pound of body fat, reclaimed their lives and their health, massively improved their self-esteem, lowered their risk of life ending diseases AND still have a metabolic rate that is precisely where it should be! To me, this is an amazing accomplishment, but somehow it will be turned into more metabolism scaremongering.
People will say things like “Their new ‘lower’ metabolism predisposes them to weight gain”…which is odd, since my BMR is around 1700…so…does that mean I’m a ticking time bomb?
The average healthy, active 5’6” women has a basal metabolic rate even slower than mine – So what would this mean to her???
The bottom line is that this study is full of things to be positive about, yet the suggested negative sells better.
Fear sells.
So my advice is to keep on keeping on with your weight loss efforts, and remember, the story is usually much more complex than the headlines suggest.
BP
