Blame hormones, not laziness for weight-loss struggle?

Those hormones again! Chemicals created by the body which control virtually everything from behavior to growth are now being labeled as the culprit for why it's so hard to lose weight and keep it off.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Scientists have long suspected that hormones play a significant role in weight control, and now an Australian study confirms that suspicion. 

Australian researchers conducted an investigation to see what would happen to hormone levels after participants followed a strict diet and lost approximately 10 percent of their body weight. What they found was that the body reacts strongly to weight loss and actively works to put the weight back on.

Doctor Steven Blum, an obesity researcher from the Hammersmith Hospital in London said, "it is showing something I believe in deeply -- it is very hard to lose weight...your hormones work against you."

In this study, researchers from the University of Melbourne recruited people who weighed an average of 209 pounds. At the start of the study they evaluated their hormone levels and assessed their hunger and appetites. They then spent the next 10 weeks on a very low calorie diet consuming only 500 to 550 calories per day.

The diet was designed to make them lose 10 percent of their body weight. The diet however, went further than expected and caused participants to lose an average of 14 percent of their body weight. The end result: Their hormone levels changed in such a way as to increase their appetites.

Following their crash diet, they were given long-term diets designed to maintain their weight loss. After one year researchers repeated their measurements. They found that despite the maintenance diet that they were following, the subjects were getting their weight back. On average, participants gained back half of what they had lost over the course of one year. Doctors believe the hormone levels provide at least a partial explanation.

Researchers concluded that hormones which stimulate hunger increased dramatically and remained that way for a substantial period of time. Researchers speculate that the body could have a natural weight and that dramatically reducing that weight could cause the body to resist. The body resists by increasing appetite and retaining calories.

If true, then doctors may need to reevaluate how they approach the question of treating obesity.
The study needs follow-up. The sample size was only 50 subjects, and 16 of them did not complete the program. The results were published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'