Key to lasting weight loss? Keep on dieting for a YEAR
AS any dieter knows, losing weight is not so difficult – it is keeping it off that’s the real challenge.
But scientists say they have worked out how slimmers can make their svelte shape last longer – keep dieting for a year.
It seems that after 12 months, the body’s hormones have undergone big changes that should help stop the pounds piling back on.
The Danish researchers said: ‘You shouldn’t give up. If you are able to keep your weight down for a year, it becomes easier.’
The team from Copenhagen University put 20 obese men and women on a very lowcalorie diet. After two months, they lost 2st on average – around an eighth of their body weight.
However, blood tests showed that levels of ghrelin – a hormone that fuels hunger pangs – had shot up. In other words, their bodies were fighting against their weight loss and trying to make them eat more.
The volunteers then spent the next year trying to keep the pounds off. While they were no longer on the very-low calorie plan, they still dieted. They also made regular visits to a dietician and, if their weight started to creep up, replaced meals with weight-loss shakes.
The strategy worked, with all of the participants maintaining their new weight, the European Journal of Endocrinology reports.
Blood tests showed that changes to their hormones may be the key. Levels of ghrelin, the ‘hunger hormone’ which had initially risen, had fallen and were now even lower than at the start of the study.
Production of other hormones called GLP-1 and PYY, which trigger the feeling of being full, had increased. Researcher Signe Sorensen Torekov said it seemed the dieters’ hormones had stopped fighting against the weight loss and reset themselves to work with the new weight.
She added: ‘We know that obese people have low levels of the appetite-inhibiting hormone GLP-1.
The good thing is that now we are able to show that you can actually increase the levels of this hormone, as well as the appetite-inhibiting hormone PYY, by weight loss and the levels are kept high when you maintain your weight loss for a year.
‘This study shows that if an overweight person is able to maintain their initial weight loss – in this case for a year – the body will eventually “accept” the new weight. Thus, the body is no longer fighting against you, but actually with you, which is good news.’
However, others were more cautious. Giles Yeo, a hunger hormone expert at Cambridge University, said that it was impossible to tell whether the 12-month rule works, without also testing hormone levels of dieters whose weight has rebounded.
He told The Times: ‘A recovering alcoholic is an alcoholic for life. In a similar way, an obese person who is no longer obese will always be an obese person on the inside.’