how weight loss affects your body

Where we learn that your body is a very intelligent organism which can sometimes go against your desires

If, already, the variables of the equation explained in the previous article (

) were static, it would be complicated enough like that. But the reasoning gets carried away and gets a little confusing when you know that touching one of the variables in the equation causes adjustments in the others!

It's a GOOD thing originally: our metabolism evolves and adapts to allow us to survive when food becomes scarce. For example :

When the energy ingested decreases, our body tries (of its own accord!) To decrease the energy expended to rebalance the balance = you burn fewer calories in response to the fact that you eat less.

It is not “perfect”, nor instantaneous, or equivalent for all but it is, in a simplified way, the functioning of the metabolism. This is how our body, in normal condition, tries to avoid unwanted weight loss and starvation. This mechanism allowed our ancestors to survive for 2 million years, the body "fights" against the elements.

As the energy ingested increases, the energy expended tends to increase as well. Already, by more important digestion.

To illustrate this vicious game, let's ask a question: How does your body react when you eat less and start losing weight?

The thermal effect of eating decreases because you eat less.
Your basal metabolic rate drops because you weigh less with the loss.
The calories burned by physical activity decrease because you weigh less (or you have to do more intense / longer).
The thermogenesis decreases because you eat less.
The calories which pass in the stomach and are rejected immediately (not absorbed) decrease = for the same meal eaten, your digestion absorbs more energy (calories) to store whereas before, it rejected more by going to the bathroom.

This response from your body is quite modest at first, which allows you to lose more quickly, but when it realizes that it is not just a "passing phenomenon" its adaptation accelerates to counter the situation (it switches to survival!). So you can see why it sometimes seems easier to lose at first.

We could also take the opposite example of a person not trying to lose weight: imagine doing a lot of physical activity. This leads to an increased need for energy (calories) since you are spending a lot more. You then lose fat mass but increase your muscle mass. This can lead to weight gain but a completely reversed fat/muscle mass ratio.

Survival mode

When the body realizes what is going on, it assumes that losing weight is a risk: it doesn't know when it's going to stop, it wants to protect itself. In this mode, the reduction in calories ingested (by the diet) causes a hormonal reaction in the body which triggers hunger signals. The body tells the brain that it is hungry, even if it doesn't need it right now, in order to push us to eat more.

The result of all this is that:

the body will automatically start to idle (a little) to conserve energy and spend less.
And so the speed of weight loss is slower than you might expect. In some cases, it can even lead to some weight gain.

And to take it one step further, the stress caused by the 'diet' situation can trigger a surge of cortisol (hormone) in our brain. However, cortisol causes our body to retain water, which makes us feel bigger than we really are ( which makes us think and stress even more, etc. ).

Here, our example touched only one parameter (calories ingested) but it would be the same by touching the other variables of the equation. They are not isolated from each other. The 3 points to remember are therefore that:

Understanding the energy balance involves setting better goals (and hopes) about your body change.

To learn more about how to approach the reasons for your body change, read our 2-part article here.

How much you can lose, how quickly, ... depends on your age, your genetic markers, your gender, the ratio of fat to muscles in your body and how long you have had this fat, the drugs you have you may need to take the characteristics of your microbial flora… and so on!

But remember one thing: EVERYONE who is overweight CAN lose weight.

Let's quickly simulate how this might work.

Scientists at the National Institute of Health in the United States studied data from thousands of people who have lost weight, and created a mathematical model that represents how weight and fat loss occurs in real life. . And they discovered that it is never linear.

Take the example of a 40-year-old man, who starts with a weight of 105 kilos. He works in a sedentary job, at an office, and does little physical activity in his daily life. He, therefore, needs 2,975 calories of energy per day to maintain his current weight (overweight).

Objective: eat less / better to remove 500 calories per day from his diet = instead he ingests 2,475 calories now. And he doesn't change his physical activity.

Calculation: 500 calories * 7 days = 3,500 fewer calories per week. 7,000 calories are roughly equivalent to 1 kg. Since this man eats less than half of this number, according to this calculation, he should therefore lose 0.5 kilograms per week on the scale.

If it's regular, after a year it should weigh just under 85 kilograms. ( Be careful with the theory all the same, because, with this mathematical model, it is possible to arrive "in theory" at 0 kilos. But let's continue… ).

We all know that life is not a long quiet river. At the end of the year, re-weighing himself, this man discovers that he weighs 92 kilos. That's 10 kilos more than he expected! While he respected the quantities!

" It's genetic, or else my body is damaged… " he said to himself. No! Nothing is 'damaged'.

But to understand this situation, it is important to fully understand how weight loss works, set appropriate goals for your behaviors and the way you eat/move, and have good hopes for your progress. One striking thing about the story told above is that in one year this man only changed the number of calories to be consumed each day once, when starting up.

So… after such an explanation of how your body works and its "beautiful" complexity (it's impressive all the same!), Can dieting permanently damage our body?

Let's be clear: going on a diet, a priori does not permanently damage your body. Unless this diet causes malnutrition (too much or too little of certain nutrients: excess iron, lack of vitamins, etc.) which cause damage to organs or body. But it is usually reversible.

But after saying that, it's important to add that dieting is not without its consequences. Because of your body's response to fat loss (to prevent it, ultimately), the energy naturally expended by the body for those who have significantly lost weight will always be lower than those who have lost weight. have always been thin.

Indeed :

Losing weight, and keeping that loss, is accompanied by metabolic changes, hormonal responses ... our bodies don't work exactly the same way anymore. As a reminder, it idles a bit.

These changes mean that your body is spending 5-10% less energy (calories) than you might expect just by looking at how much weight you have reached.

Thus, due to this adaptation of the body, someone who has done several diets to lose weight will often need 10% fewer calories per day to maintain their weight compared to someone who has always had this weight.

This means that someone who has never been overweight may need 2,200 calories per day to maintain themselves, while someone who has attained the same weight after losing it will need to ingest only 1,980 calories to maintain. this weight.

Today, research is not conclusive on how long this decrease in the body's energy expenditure lasts after diets. According to some of them, people still have this decrease observed 7 years after weight loss. To be continued ...

But this is important to understand for people who have dieted repeatedly or athletes who often have large variations in weight and gain a lot when they stop their career.

In conclusion :

Repeated diets do not prevent you from losing weight, but they are not without consequences on the way your body works and the difficulties in losing weight sustainably afterward.

To explain it well, let's look at the fat / lean mass ratio. And as you will see, not all diets are created equal.

Talking about weight is one thing, talking about body composition is another

I was able to emphasize the complexity of the different variables that influence your weight loss. What then is one of the major consequences of rapid and unsustainable diets on your body and these variables?

Saying " my weight" actually hides several elements, including body fat (energy reserves stored in the form of fat) and lean mass (muscle, tissues, bones, organs, body fluids). Thus, knowing that someone weighs 80 kilos does not tell us much about whether that person has "belly" (abdominal fat) and little muscle; or on the contrary little fat and a lot of muscle. But the scale will show the same number!

To simplify :

Fat mass + Muscle mass + Bone mass = 100% of your body composition

The same goes for "losing" weight. You can lose a lot of one of the masses and not of the other and vice versa. When we say "I want to lose weight" we usually mean "I want to lose fat". And this is where the trap of diets making you lose weight very quickly comes in ! When you lose quickly ( say, 3-5 pounds in two weeks ), you are sure to lose a lot of water and muscle . But little fat. When you repeat this several times, you are putting your body fat percentage out of balance with your lean (especially muscle) percentage.

For example :

Initially, a 80-kilogram person has a body fat percentage that constitutes 20% of their body composition and a muscle mass percentage of 72%.
She is on a drastic diet which makes her lose 6 kilos very quickly but mainly muscle mass because her body has not had time to adapt, was careful to keep fat reserves to fight and drew everything from muscles.
On arrival, this person weighs 74 kilos BUT now with a body fat percentage of around 23% and a muscle mass percentage of 69%.

What will happen physically? This person becomes lighter but does not see his abdominal belt (fat in the stomach) disappear. It becomes more 'lean' but also more 'fat'. And as explained earlier in this article, her metabolism having slowed down, her muscles (which burn calories!) Having decreased, she must keep the amount of calories ingested low otherwise she will quickly regain weight on the scale.

That's why we recommend at Stimul to also monitor your waist and hips, in addition to weight, to achieve your goals.

Now, let's say the person in the previous example can't keep up with this drastic reduction in calories for long, is "always hungry" ( remember your body's reaction to signals to your brain ), and begins to eat a little more.
Let us add that the loss of muscle mass and the lack of energy consumed tire this individual.
He started to gain weight quickly.

Yes, but when you gain weight because you start to eat more, where does that weight go? In priority, these are fats stored by the body. Especially if the fatigue causes a decrease in physical activity of the person. Your organization says to itself: “ I was surprised once, but not twice! I'll store it in case it happens again ”. Thus, the person does not regain all his weight but goes back to 78 kilos. Since this weight is mainly taken in fat mass, the percentage of fat mass increases further (25%), and that of muscle mass decreases again (67%).

The vicious effect of this change, since the person's metabolism has slowed down, is that the amount of calories (energy) that they will be able to ingest to maintain their 78 kilogram weight will be less than they could have. ingest if it had been more progressive, without the yo-yo effect and a strong slowing down of its metabolism, while maintaining a better percentage of muscle mass.

Indeed :

If the same person had taken 4 months to gradually drop from 80 to 78 kilograms, their daily calorie requirement to maintain weight would have dropped, for example, from 2370 to 2335 = reasonable decrease.
Except that by modifying her fat mass / muscle mass ratio as in the previous example and by quickly regaining weight, she can only consume 2,120 calories per day to maintain her weight of 78 kilos.

We are talking here about the same person who follows 2 different paths in their weight loss! So you can imagine the vicious cycle that repeated diets can cause when the example is repeated several times for the same person.

So you understand why some people say to themselves " I have the impression of not eating anything but I am not losing weight " or " I have lost weight but I am not losing belly " . It is then necessary to start by restoring its fat mass / muscle mass ratio. The ideal is to lose fat mass through better nutrition and gain muscle through physical activity.

This detrimental change in the percentage of fat mass compared to the percentage of muscle mass is one of the very negative consequences of repeated rapid diets which are not sustainable in the long term. Or that make you eat dishes and quantities that will be impossible to hold in the long term.

What should we then deduce?

Even people whose bodies are resistant to fat loss or muscle gain can accomplish their goals

All physiological changes (weight loss, muscle mass gain, fat loss, etc.) require different efforts and durations depending on the person. We must avoid comparing ourselves to the neighbor.

To continue (third and last part) - "The top 8 Stimulants for lasting weight loss" - click here .

This article has 3 parts that you can read by clicking on the titles below:

Part 1- Why are your diets not working?
Part 2-Your body's vicious game with your desire to lose weight
Part 3- The top 8 Stimulants for lasting weight loss

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