Dr Leibel tells us why 95 percent of dieters gain the weight back |
The following is a transcript from a speech by Dr Rudy Leibel,
a renown obesity researcher details the
biochemical system which kicks in when there IS a weight loss, to force
the individual to gain back the weight (likely why 95 to 98 percent of
dieters regain the weight within 5 years, a statistic Dr Leibel quotes
himself in this speech).
Dr Leibel also mentions
melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) mutations
- this is the one gene which can account for 5 percent of obesity
in children, Dr Leibel stated. Since the true figures on the clinically
obese are about at 15 percent we can see that they have even found the
gene which accounts for 33 percent of these!
Dr Leibel also comments that the heritability of obesity
is 65 percent (from the twin studies which have been done) and that there
are AT LEAST (if not more, he said) 30 to 40 genes involved in obesity.
From Dr Leibel's studies of formerly obese
(who are keeping weight off), he observed that they are hungry all the
time, are cold and other symptoms of the biochemical system kicking in to
force a weight gain. When they exercise, these individuals burn 15 to 20
percent LESS calories than a normally thin person and they evidence large
amounts of cortisol in the blood (the cortisol has been observed in some
studies to cause weight gain in and of itself). Dr Leibel's comment
was:
>
"the system is set up to defend bodyfat
so if you monkey with it down here, all hell breaks out and the body goes
haywire!" <
Dr Leibel feels that even a small weight loss (as
little as 10 lbs) can be beneficial but comments that for most people it
is impossible to keep the weight off even WITH medications like Meridia
(which he said posed an independent cardio-vascular risk and must be taken
constantly). "Even with that," he concluded, "after a few years, the
medication seems to lose its effect and the individual re-gains the
weight."
So if we ARE obese individuals, what can we do?
Dr Leibel states that ALL the methods to keep weight lower than the body
wants, are ineffective in most people except the gastric bypass. In
gastric bypass patients, studies show that some patients can keep off
significant amounts of weight (average BMI under 35) but he called
this invasive surgery, a "draconian" solution that posed tremendous risks
to the patient in terms of malnutritional and medical issues and therefore
he did not recommend it.
Leibel feels that the current research may be the
most productive. Several pharmaceuticals are working on solutions which
interfere with this powerful biochemical system which forces a regain of
lost weight in most people.
In the meantime, he mentioned that a loss of a small
amount of weight can reduce risk factors. The HAES study suggested
that those risk factors were reduced NOT because of the weight loss itself
but because of the lifestyle changes which had been made which had caused
modest amounts of weight loss.
In the Cooper Institute studies of 20,000 men, the
lean men who were physically fit showed the least risk. But the risk
factor of the men who were FAT and physically fit was only 0.1 point more
than the normal weight men who were physically fit (0.2 points higher than
the lean physically fit men) - this is a statistically insignificant risk
differential . To be significant a risk factor, the differential
must be greater than 1.0 points difference.
Normal, fit men: RR = 0.83
Obese, fit men: RR = 0.90 Lean, fit men: RR = 1.0
In a Harvard Health newsletter, which favors the
research of Dr Willet (who is thought to be affiliated with the Atkins
corp. since his studies are listed on the Atkins site with results
favorable to the Atkins plan) and Jo Ann Manson who has admitted being a
consultant to a couple of pharmaceuticals which produce diet drugs,
even THIS NEWSLETTER admits that, in the Cooper Institute studies, the
risk factor differential between Lean-fit men, normal weight-fit men and
fat-fit men was INSIGNIFICANT
>
Moreover, the all-cause mortality rate of fit, overweight men wasn’t
significantly different from that of the fit, lean men. Their heretical
conclusion: If you’re fit, being overweight doesn’t increase mortality
risk. <
They also quote another study reported on in the
JAMA which found similar results:
>A
study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in
September 2004 came to a similar conclusion. For almost four years, the
researchers tracked heart attacks and other “cardiovascular events” among
900 American women who had had a coronary angiogram. They found that lack
of physical activity, as calculated from answers to standard
questionnaires, was a better predictor of an adverse event than weight. <
HAES or Health at Every size - focusing on lifestyle
changes and better food choices (which usually results in a small loss of
weight which is often gained back later), seems the answer for now until
such time that the powerful weight regaining biochemical system can be
interrupted with a medication.
Rudy Leibel in a BBC video show on obesity Leibel "Our bodies have built in a weight that they want to be" In the Experiment detailed in the above show, the average weight gain in the cohort (all slim people) after eating 5000 calories a day and not exercising, was only 6-11 lbs! After the experiment, they all easily went back to their normal weight without "doing anything". This tended to suggest that the affinity to gain weight as well as the affinity to eat when no longer "hungry" may be genetic also. |