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Feb 28

Why Do People Have Trouble Keeping Weight Off After Losing It? – courierjournal

Lose Weight Comments Off on Why Do People Have Trouble Keeping Weight Off After Losing It? – courierjournal

In this installment of my weight management series on the House Calls column, I will discuss one of the biggest obstacles that people run into when losing weight- keeping it off. Its not uncommon for me to start a patient on a weight management program and for them to have great initial success. Then, after having great momentum in their weight loss, they suddenly plateau and stop losing weight. Many patients then notice that it is easier for them to gain some of that weight back. As you can imagine, that creates a lot of frustration for folks that have worked so hard to lose weight. Naturally, people want to know why this happens. The answer is that its complicated and we as doctors dont completely understand why this happens but we do have an idea of a couple of things that are going on.

One of the changes that happens when somebody loses weight is that their muscles change in the way that they use energy and burn calories. When we are overweight and heavy our muscles use a bunch of energy in order for us to move properly and be able to do the things we do in our everyday life. As we lose weight, our muscles have less work to do and are more efficient at getting us from point A to point B. Because of this, our muscles use less energy during our day to day activities after we have lost some weight. You can imagine that as our muscles burn less calories that it gets harder to lose weight and easier to gain the weight back. The scientific term for this change in our muscles is adaptive thermogenesis. It is because of these muscle changes that it is especially important to be regularly exercising in order help keep the weight off as you will burn more calories on a given day.

The other major change that happens when we lose weight is in our hormones. When you are losing weight, your brain is tricked into thinking that it is starving and in survival mode. It has no idea that you are deliberately losing weight. As a result, hormones and other chemicals are released that can promote weight gain. One of these hormones is a substance called ghrelin, which is made by the stomach and causes people to get hungrier as they lose weight. Another hormone that can sometimes change is your thyroid hormone, which may go down after weight loss. Having low thyroid slows down your metabolism and can mess with your weight loss plans. Thats why I will commonly check thyroid hormone levels in patients who are having trouble with weight loss after initial success.

Lastly, it is important for people trying to lose weight to make sure that they are sticking with their dietary plan as it is not uncommon for folks to cheat a little more here and there after losing weight. For that reason, it is important to pick a dietary plan that someone can realistically stick with in the longer term. As always, consult with your primary care provider before implementing any of the advice given in this column.

Dr. Roy Barco welcomes your questions concerning health and wellness. Please facebook him at http://www.facebook.com/roy.barco.5 where you can submit questions for the column, or write to:

True Medical Group

Shoals Professional Building

203 Avalon Ave, Suite 120

Muscle Shoals, AL 35661

256-286-4026

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Why Do People Have Trouble Keeping Weight Off After Losing It? - courierjournal

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