Weight loss lies in the workings and secrets of metabolism: Research

Gaining and shedding pounds is straightforward in the short term but regaining lost weight is definitely a headache and putting it at bay is grueling. Scientists believe that the answer lies in the workings of our metabolism.

Metabolism the complex set of chemical reactions in our cells, which convert the calories we eat into the energy our body requires for breathing, maintaining organ functions and generally keeping us alive. When adopting a new diet, the metabolism initially drops because the body is suddenly consuming fewer calories – the body responds by burning them at a slower pace. This may be an evolutionary response to prevent starvation, but what happens after that is less clear.

Susan Roberts, director of the Energy Metabolism Laboratory, Tufts University, Massachusetts, describes metabolism as a controversial topic – does metabolism continue to go down, more than it should, or does it initially go down, and then bounce back. Roberts, as per The Guardian, is leading a new study, funded by the National Institutes of Health in the US. It will follow 100 individuals over the course of many months as they first lose and then regain weight, measuring everything from energy expenditure to changes in the blood, brain and muscle physiology, to try to see what happens.

If metabolism drops and continues to stay low during weight loss, it could imply that dieting triggers innate biological changes that eventually compel us to eat more. If it rebounds to normal levels, this suggests that weight regain is due to the recurrence of past bad habits, with social and cultural factors tempting us to go back to overeating.

Roborts points out that if someone’s metabolism really drops during weight loss and doesn’t recover, it shows we have to put all of our money on preventing weight gain in the first place. “Because once it’s happened, you’re doomed. If metabolism rebounds, it means that the lessons about eating less because you’ve now got a smaller body haven’t been learned effectively. So we might need to encourage people who have lost weight to see psychologists to work on habit information. These are such different conclusions that we really need to get it right.”

Research shows that between the ages of 20 and 60 our metabolism stays almost completely stable, even during major hormonal shifts such as pregnancy and menopause. Based on the new data, a woman of 50 will burn calories just as effectively as a woman of 20. However, there are two major shifts in our metabolism, with the first occurring between one and 15 months old. The Science study showed that infants burn energy at such a rate to support their development that their metabolism at one year old is more than 50% higher than an adult’s. The second transition takes place at about the age of 60, when our metabolism begins to drop again – continuing to do so until we die.

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Some scientists believe the body is programmed to keep its average daily energy expenditure within a defined range. While there are day-to-day fluctuations, the body still burns the same number of calories overall, but it adjusts how they are used, depending on our lifestyle.