Paul Maclean, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado,  has been studying how your body functions after weight loss and what he’s discovered is quite startling. Quoted from L.A.Times

“There are strong physiological adaptations to weight loss that promote weight regain,” MacLean says.

Your body is designed for survival, and so innately it functions to protect it from weight loss and starvation. But what’s interesting is that once you’re overweight, your body assumes that state to be normal and it does everything it can to get it back to the previous “overweight” state once you’ve lost weight.  It’s part of the survival mechanism.  And here’s the kicker, scientists haven’t figured out how long it takes for your body to recognize your new weight as the normal state and hence stop all of the biological processes from sabotaging your efforts.  So you may be fighting your body’s urges for a long time.

Once you lose the weight your metabolism changes, since you need less calories per day.  Each pound you lose you require 8 calories less than before.  This difference in the energy required has been coined the term “energy gap” by Dr. James O. Hill (a professor from University of Colorado and director of Center for Human Nutrition).  This energy gap may be one of many reasons why your body tries to gain more calories back into your body.

One way to fill the void (energy gap) is by changing your body’s appetite hormones.  Leptin, an appetite depressor hormone helps curb your appetite.  But, after weight loss, the level of leptin in your body is lowered, making it harder to curb your hunger.  Another hormone is ghrelin. It’s an appetite stimulant.  It makes you hungry, but subsides after you eat.  However, after weight loss the level of ghrelin in your body is elevated. Even after you eat the level of ghrelin doesn’t do down as much as before.  This leads to lower satiety (satisfaction) levels and increases your chances of over eating.  Additionally, MacLean’s research suggests that even your fat stores in your stomach send signals to your brain to tell the body to regain the lost weight.

It’s no wonder that people gain their weight back.  Your brain and body reprograms everything to try to restore the lost weight and it doesn’t seem to let down until it’s succeeded.

I know… it all seems doom and gloom, but before you raise you hands up in despair and give up. There is a way!

Amongst the estimated 5 - 10% of the successful people that lost weight and kept if off on a long term basis, there was one constant that really made a difference in helping them keep the weight off…EXERCISE.

Rather than just trying to consume fewer calories by eating less, these people exercised more.  Scientists believe exercising helps control your body’s instinctive biological mechanism to regain the lost weight - such as re-sensitizing your appetite controlling hormones like leptin, ghrelin and insulin, so that it can help you keep the weight off.
Quoted from L.A.Times

“Everyone thinks exercise is about burning calories,” Fujioka says. “But you are actually returning the system to more like what it should be. Things start working again.”

Another possible key in the fight to maintain your weight loss, is stabilizing your blood sugar levels.  Some scientists believe that it plays an important role in helping to reprogram your brain and body, so it can see your thinner and lighter body as the new norm.  This in turn helps your body’s biological processes return back to normal.  A key tip in stabilizing your blood sugar level is to eat low glycemic foods and foods with high fiber content along with lean protein and healthy fats.  Eating 5 - 6 smaller meals through out the day will also help keep your blood sugar level even.  Another important tip is to eliminate all processed foods, and replace it with real whole foods instead.  Processed foods have hidden sugars that’ll spike your insulin and trans fats that are very toxic to your body.  Just by eliminating processed foods and ready made foods (And yes, that means all fast foods as well!) you’ll have much better success keeping your blood sugar levels even.  Combining a well balanced eating plan consisting of real whole foods along with an effective, comprehensive workout program that you can easily follow is your best solution to beating the odds of regaining weight and be among the 5% of successful people that “figured it out” and kept their lean body for good.

If you’re tired of going through the same old yo-yo dieting process of losing weight and gaining it back, and this article really made sense to you.  Then it’s time you took action for good this time.  The MAX Workouts program is based on strength circuit training and cardio interval training to maximize your body’s calorie burning potential and help re-sensitize your insulin so it can function optimally to stabilize your blood sugar levels.  The program is fully comprehensive, easy to follow and provides you with all the tools you need to successfully achieve a leaner, fitter and healthier you without any crash dieting, pills or gimmicky gadgets  

Now that you know what you need to do to maintain your lean body and weight loss, how would change the way you approach your body transformation?

And if you’ve already lost the weight but seem to be gaining some back, what do you need to do to get back on track and stop the weight gain?

I’d love to hear your thoughts, so please post your comments below.