Diet, weight, and metabolism research tidbits

I was doing some research this weekend and thought I would share some of the interesting tidbits that came out of the various studies I was reading:

1) within 48 hours of beginning a "calorie restricted" diet -- and this is not talking about the severely restricted caloric intake after WLS -- the metabolic rate drops anywhere from 15-30% (which probably means our metabolism drops at least 30% during that first couple of months!)

2) research supporting the significant role of genetics in obesity included studies done on identical twins raised apart (nearly identical BMIs) and adults who were adopted by knew their birth parent(s) (body size was much more closely aligned wih biological parents than adoptive parents)

3) a meta analysis of 31 obesity studies found that, 5 years after embarking on the diet, 30% - 60% of the dieters who lost 5-10% of their body weight within 6 months ended up weighing MORE than when they started the diet; only 1% of dieters maintained their loss at 5 years (I had always heard 5%)

4) {my personal favorite!} a study of several hundred self-identified "average" or "normal" weight adults (in the U.S.) found that only 23% had a BMI in the "normal" range; 62% were "overweight"; 5% were "underweight"; 9% were "obese" (but many of them were very athletic so their muscle mass is what put them in that category, not fat)

Lora

How incredibly disheartening!  Has there been any good research on how to increase one's metabolism?   If it decreases when on a diet (the body concluding that there's a famine, I suppose), can one trick the body into thinking there's plenty of food available, so go ahead and burn it fast?

That is part of the theory behind "calorie cycling".  Bumping the calories up for a few days to get the body to raise the metabolism back up and them dropping the calories back down to take advantage of that (apparently only 2 day) period where your calories are low but your metabolism is till normal...

Lora

Exercise, exercise, and more exercise. Just my two cents :)

My mother had a child at 16 that she put up for adoption.  3 years later I was born.

My mother found my 1/2 sister's adoptive parents when I was 21. 

My 1/2 sister was overweight, like my mom (and me of course) and her adoptive parents are skinny.

Does a high protein diet increase your metabolism? That seemed to be when I would loose my weight more rapidly. The higher my protein intake, the higher my daily weight loss. Just curious.

1. I wonder if  there are any studies of people who lost significant weight in the year or six months before surgery?

2. I think that if my parents had been educated on nutrition, and were focused on nutrition I might not have gotten to be SMO. I doubt I would have stayed below 150 lbs. This would have left me in the Overweight category.

3. ONE percent? Jeepers, I thought it was 5%. I've always felt like the 5% leads to the BEST response to the "You took the easy way out".... whihc really leads to "I took the onlty way out".

4. Does this one mean that BMI is broke and not a good measure of weight? or is it merely that Americans are deluded?

I heard somewhere..(not sure where) but in Canada they are thinking of doing away with the bmi..... 

 I have no idea on #1.  I suspect that, minus the trauma, I would have been obese but never SMO.  Yah, I had always heard 5%, too, but I never heard where that number came from (and still don't know), so I found it interesting that in 31 studies it was SO low.  A number of the studies used were based on Medicare data which means that the average age of the participants was higher than in some of the other studies (and may have skewed the overall numbers, of course).

The BMI as a measure of "healthy weight" (which was developed in the 1800 when people were much smaller in general (both height and weight) and was never intended to be used for determining healthy weightin the first place) is inherently flawed since it is a simple height weight ratio and does not take into consideration bone or, more importantly, muscle mass (which can increase weight significantly).  I have a friend who is visibly overweight and has a low-30-something body fat percentage (too high for a woman of any age).  She is, however, very petite and not at all muscular so she still has a "normal" BMI.  I, on the other hand, have a BFP of 25% (considered optimum for a 50-year old female), but have a BMI that is still overweight by 1 or 2 points because I have large bones in my lower body, very muscular legs, and big boobs.  Body fat percentage is a much better indicator of being at a healhy weight (and some of the basic impedance measurements on bathrooms scales are pretty accurate).

Lora

yeap  and yeap on the BMI.