By Heidi Pruett, RN, BSN, CCM
I recently read a blog posted by InBody and I wanted to share it with you since it really drives home the importance of body composition when it comes to maintaining weight loss.
“About a year ago, a new study on long-term weight loss and metabolism was published in the journal Obesity. Studies are published in scientific journals all the time with little, if any, public attention. However, this one was different. This one was about former contestants on The Biggest Loser. The study involved 14 of the show’s contestants and looked at their body composition at three different times: before the show, after the show (after completing a 30-week weight loss program), and 6 years after the show. “
Strikingly, the Biggest Loser contestants had regained an average of 90 pounds after 6 years, nearly reversing all the incredible weight loss they achieved while on the show. According to the study and the dozens of articles that reported on it, the reason for the weight gain was that the extreme weight loss had permanently throttled their metabolisms, meaning that in the 6 years following the show, when they were eating an amount of food they believed to be appropriate for their new body weights, they started gaining fat again. Stories like this can make some people get discouraged and think negatively: “See! Weight loss is impossible!” “If they can’t keep the weight off, even after they worked with professionals, how can I hope to keep it off?” “I’m just doomed to be fat and there’s nothing I can do about it!”
This is understandable: Seeing people regain their weight after achieving their goals in a very public setting can be extremely disheartening for people struggling to meet their own weight loss goals. However, the unhappy result of the Biggest Loser contestants regaining their weight has one positive outcome: it underscores everything that is wrong with the way we think about improving health when we measure our results in terms of “weight loss” and not in terms of “fat loss.” Don’t be discouraged by the doom and gloom you’re hearing about destroyed metabolisms and inevitable weight regain. Maintaining your weight loss is not impossible. There is a reason why the Biggest Loser contestants failed to keep their weight off, and you can learn from their experience to ensure that it doesn’t happen to you.
What Happens When You Lose Weight
The first thing to understand is that when you lose weight, you’re generally not just losing body fat: you’re making changes to each component of your body composition. This includes, along with body fat, Lean Body Mass and Body Water. When you lose weight, you don’t necessarily get to control how much of each you lose (but you can have an influence on what’s lost.) How does weight loss actually happen? While there are virtually hundreds of diets and exercise programs out there that will help you achieve fat loss – some better than others – the good ones boil down to essentially the same thing: reducing energy in from food while increasing energy out via exercise/activity (a caloric deficit) so that your body is forced to make up for the missing energy by breaking down your body tissues, including body fat.”
I wanted the blog to shed some light on why I see many people struggle to lose weight. As a health coach, it is my job to help my clients live healthier, more complete lives. There are many aspects to wellness, but a healthy weight plays an important role in physical, medical and mental health. I recently had a client who was frustrated that she had not lost any weight and she was exercising, eating right and feeling better. As part of her evaluation, we checked her body composition. After reviewing the results, we found that she had lost 4% of her body fat while gaining 5 pounds of muscle. Her weight hadn’t changed, but what it was comprised of had changed drastically. She had been ready to give up on her new habits, but after seeing that they really were working, she was more committed than ever.
Have you ever been frustrated that you are exercising, eating right and not losing weight? Have you noticed that your clothes fit better, but that the number on the scale stays the same? You may have made more progress than you think. In today’s world with all the scientific advancements, why are we still focusing on BMI as an indicator of obesity? BMI was developed in the 1830s by a mathematician to give a quick and easy way to measure the degree of obesity of the general population and to assist the government in allocating resources. It was never meant to be used to determine obesity for individuals. BMI (body mass index) is a ratio of your height as compared to your weight. It does not account for how much of your weight is muscle, bone, fat or water. In order to get a better picture of your health, we recommend using body composition to get a more complete analysis of your weight. Body composition scales can break down your weight into specific data that will help you understand your health and what you need to do to improve it. Body composition focuses on:
Fat Percentage (healthy percentages are broken down by age and gender)
Muscle Mass (how much of your total weight is muscle)
Total Body Water (lets you know if you are hydrated or dehydrated)
Visceral Fat (the hidden fat around your organs that can lead to heart disease and diabetes)
Basal Metabolic Rate – BMR (the number of calories your body burns to sustain life)
**BMR gives you a reference point to decide how many calories you can consume to lose or maintain your current weight.
