WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO AVOID WEIGHT RANGE?

Weight loss is certainly the goal of many people. But while losing weight has its own difficulties, avoiding weight regain is even more difficult. The percentage of people who manage to maintain their weight after losing weight is very small!

But why is that?
For a number of factors. The first and perhaps most important is the diet mindset. It is no use adopting a fad diet! Or even if you look for a nutritionist and follow a diet plan, think of the plan as a “diet” that should only be followed while you are losing weight, and then resume old habits. The change in eating behavior is permanent!

Another point is that weight loss without proper planning (that is, without supervision by a nutritionist) can generate several nutritional deficiencies. When we prescribe a diet, we are prescribing the amounts calculated individually for you for each vitamin and mineral. It is no use following the diet of the neighbor who managed to lose weight! Weight loss without adequate micronutrient intake is not weight loss, it is malnutrition.

Third: muscle mass is perhaps the biggest player in weight maintenance. This is because whoever determines the resting metabolic rate (that is, the amount of calories needed for basic body functions) is mostly muscle mass. The more muscles, the higher the rate. And vice versa: those who have little muscle, have a low metabolic rate. This means that those who lose weight without exercising and / or with an inadequate diet will lose muscle mass along with fat. As the resting metabolic rate will decrease, less food will be needed for basic functions, with the rest becoming fat. In other words, consuming the same amount of food you used to eat will make it easier to put on weight! Famous accordion effect.

Finally, there is a very important scientific study in Cardiology called Look AHEAD. It was a clinical trial with 5145 patients with type 2 diabetes, separated into two groups (one receiving general guidelines for diabetes and the other receiving intense lifestyle intervention, in consultation with a nutritionist, physical educator and psychologist) for 1 year aimed at weight loss . Then, for another 7 years, the participants continued in the study, receiving support to maintain their lost weight.

The group that received a lifestyle intervention managed to lose an average of 4.7% of the initial weight after the EIGHT years! This is very impactful, since the maintenance of lost weight has been achieved. The group that received only general guidelines, on the other hand, showed a loss of 2.1%.