Metabolic Damage in Biggest Losers: Will Diet & Intense Exercise Make You Fat, While Surgery Will Make You Lean? Plus: How to Avoid / Correct Diet-Induced REE Reductions

If you start to work out when you are already obese, it'll still help you lose weight, but if you'd been active the years before chances are you'd not have such weighty problems and wouldn't have to fear metabolic slow down.

Let me answer the question in the headline of today's SuppVersity Article right away, 'cause the answer short and easy: "No!" If you compare the body composition of the Biggest Losers who were included in a recent study by scientists from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda and the Pennington State Biomedical Research Center, the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and the University of California-Los Angeles to that of their bariatric surgery patients, the "Biggest Losers" (BLC) had lower body fat and higher lean mass percentages than their peers who took the easy way out (Knuth. 2014). What is non-debatable, though, is the fact that the thirteen "Big Losers" also exhibited significantly more reduced resting metabolic rates - a phenomenon that caused quite a stir in two Facebook groups I am frequenting regularly.

You can learn more about the biggest losers and related topics at the SuppVersity

Weight Cycling & Reduced Metabolic Rates

Biggest Weight Loss Lowest RMR?

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Pastured vs. regular Dairy for Leaner Waists?

If you know the exercise drill and "diet" regimen on the TV show, you are probably not surprised to hear that the calorie restriction along with vigorous exercise in BLC participants resulted not just in a higher preservation of fat free mass (FFM), but also in a significantly more pronounced "metabolic adaption" compared to RYGB subjects.

Now, the fact that this happened despite comparable weight loss clearly suggests that we are dealing with "metabolic damage", right? Well, this is exactly what neither I, nor Nicolas D. Knuth and his colleagues who published the results of their NIH funded research in the peer-reviewed journal "Obesity" would say.

Figure 1: Changes (%) in BMI, lean mass and body fat (%) after 7 (BLC) and 6 months, respectively (Knuth. 2014)

The thing we are dealing with is not "damage", it's adaptation and it's an adaptation process that occurred during the weight loss intervention (30 weeks; see Johannsen. 2012), not after an appropriate reintegration to a normal life.

Things to keep in mind: The study at hand confirms what Pourhassan et al. report in another recent study. Reductions in muscle, plasma triiodothyronine and kidney masses explain only 34.9%, 5.3%, and 4.5% of the reduction in RMR (Pourhassan. 2014). And with respect to the false notion that it would be better not to work out, to avoid "metabolic damage", I can only say that DeLany's recent study into the effects of exercise on the reduction in energy expenditure during weight loss interventions is only the latest in a long line of studies that confirm that working out will not just keep the energy expenditure from dropping, it will also improve the dieters' adherence to a given prescribed caloric restriction (DeLany. 2014).

Against that background and in view of the fact that recent studies show that the contribution of body fat and other organs to the resting metabolic rate may have been significantly underestimated it is questionably how significant this comparison is. A comparison, by the way, that's not exactly fair:

• 

  Sugar + phosphate can limit the reduction in T3 during diets in women (read more)

  6 months in the RYGB patients vs. 7 months in the BL competitors, 
• being sedentary vs. working out vigorously, 
• not being able to cheat vs. being able to stick to a diet and exercise regimen, 
• type II diabetic w/ HOMA-IR >8 vs. still pretty healthy w/ HOMA-IR = 2.0 

Where's the level playing field, here? And how significant are the reductions in leptin (tells the hypothalamus that there is still enough body fat left) and T3 (is the active thyroid hormone and a main determinant of resting metabolic rate) that suggest that the Biggest Losers competition ruined their metabolism temporarily, when they came with significant reductions in blood pressure, andimproved HDL and C-peptide levels, which did not occur in the bariatric surgery group?

If you are sitting in the diet trap your situation is similar to the one of the boys and girls suffering from Athletes's Triad and so is the solution!

What can a "Big Loser" do to get back to normal REEs fast? Based on the contemporarily available evidence, the best thing they could do was to inject leptin (Rosenbaum. 2005; Kissileff. 2012). Other strategies that may work are strategic overfeeding (for 2-3 days; on a high(er) carbohydrate diet) and intake / supplementation of foods and agents that have been shown to increase leptin in normal-weight or reduced obese individuals. The effects should be similar to those scientists observed with leptin injections - albeit much less rapidly: So be patient if you are going to try any or all of the following tweaks.

Possible means to restore leptin to normal would include: Lower omega-3 (Hariri. 2014), total fat (Havel. 1999) and fructose (Teff. 2004), but higher dairy (Wennersberg. 2009) and carbohydrate (Romon. 1999) meals and / or  zinc supplements (Chen. 2000) or sugar + phosphate (learn more) and nicotine (Eliasson. 1999) to increase leptin and leucine / EAA-rich proteins (Binder. 2014) or, again, nicotine (Li. 2003) to increase leptin sensitivity. Ah! And don't forget not to overtrain (Jürimäe. 2003) and, of course, to sleep enough (~8h) - sleeping less will lower leptin by >20% (Spiegel. 2004).

Moreover, if you look at my plot of the data in Figure 1, you will see that the that it is a perfectly normal adaptations to exuberant caloric deficits (>50%).

Figure 2: The metabolic "damage" is rather a metabolic "adaptation" (y-axes; in kcal/day) in response to significant energy deficits (x-axes; calculated energy expenditure (includes exercise induced energy expenditure, therefore it can approach 100%) expressed relative to calculated RMR) - the problems begin with intakes >50% below maintenance.

Whether or not the exercise component made things worth, is something that cannot be said based on the data from this study. What it certainly did, though, was to protect the lean mass of the subjects - a vital requirement to achieve what most people are dieting for: Health and being happy with what they see in the mirror.

In conjunction with the previously cited health benefits (reduced blood pressure, increased HDL, ...) it would thus be idiotic to use the study at hand as evidence against the repeatedly proven usefulness of exercise for weight loss and health improvements in obese and non-obese individuals.

Weight loss does not have to cost muscle and ruing your metabolism - learn more about the science-based "art" of losing weight

Bottom line: The study at hand ain't the evidence the lazy ones have been waiting for. It's not a free ticket to the surgeon and it does not provide convincing evidence that diet + exercise are not far superior ways of losing weight (compared to bariatric surgery).

What the study does show, though, is that the recommendations I made in my previous article "Losing Weight Doesn't Have to Ruin Your Metabolism: No Unexpected Reduction in Energy Expenditure With Sane Weight Loss. Plus: 9 Simple Rules Every Dieter Must Follow" (read more) are spot on: Never (!) stay at a caloric deficit that's >40% of what you'd need on a daily basis for more than maybe a week and take breaks, instead of increasing the calorie deficit, when you feel you're hitting a plateau (read all 9 tips, here) | Comment on Facebook!

Ah, and by the way, it's also a myth that formerly obese individuals have necessarily lower resting and total energy expenditures. As Hume et al. found the RMR of ever-lean and formerly overweight women is identical and the ostensibly lower energy expenditure during physical activity is an artifact that's caused by over-reporting of physical activity in the formerly overweight women (Hume. 2013).

References:

• Chen, Ming-Der, Yuh-Min Song, and Pi-Yao Lin. "Zinc may be a mediator of leptin production in humans." Life sciences 66.22 (2000): 2143-2149.
• DeLany, James P., et al. "Effect of physical activity on weight loss, energy expenditure, and energy intake during diet induced weight loss." Obesity 22.2 (2014): 363-370. 
• Eliasson, Björn, and Ulf Smith. "Leptin levels in smokers and long‐term users of nicotine gum." European journal of clinical investigation 29.2 (1999): 145-152.
• Hariri, Mitra, et al. "Does omega‐3 fatty acids supplementation affect circulating leptin levels? A systematic review and meta‐analysis on randomized controlled clinical trials." Clinical endocrinology (2014).
• Havel, Peter J., et al. "High-fat meals reduce 24-h circulating leptin concentrations in women." Diabetes 48.2 (1999): 334-341.
• Hume, David John, Jacolene Kroff, and Estelle Victoria Lambert. "Resting and activity-related energy expenditure: Do formerly overweight women differ from their ever-lean counterparts?." International Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism 5.8 (2013): 134-139.
• Johannsen, Darcy L., et al. "Metabolic slowing with massive weight loss despite preservation of fat-free mass." The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 97.7 (2012): 2489-2496.
• Jürimäe, Jaak, Jarek Mäestu, and Toivo Jürimäe. "Leptin as a marker of training stress in highly trained male rowers?." European journal of applied physiology 90.5-6 (2003): 533-538.
• Kissileff, Harry R., et al. "Leptin reverses declines in satiation in weight-reduced obese humans." The American journal of clinical nutrition 95.2 (2012): 309-317.
• Knuth, N. D., Johannsen, D. L., Tamboli, R. A., Marks-Shulman, P. A., Huizenga, R., Chen, K. Y., Abumrad, N. N., Ravussin, E. and Hall, K. D. "Metabolic adaptation following massive weight loss is related to the degree of energy imbalance and changes in circulating leptin." Obesity.  (2014) doi: 10.1002/oby.20900 
• Li, Ming D., and Justin K. Kane. "Effect of nicotine on the expression of leptin and forebrain leptin receptors in the rat." Brain research 991.1 (2003): 222-231.
• Pourhassan, Maryam, et al. "Impact of body composition during weight change on resting energy expenditure and homeostasis model assessment index in overweight nonsmoking adults." The American journal of clinical nutrition (2014): ajcn-071829.
• Romon, M., et al. "Leptin response to carbohydrate or fat meal and association with subsequent satiety and energy intake." American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology And Metabolism 277.5 (1999): E855-E861.
• Romon, Monique, et al. "Postprandial leptin response to carbohydrate and fat meals in obese women." Journal of the American College of Nutrition 22.3 (2003): 247-251.
• Rosenbaum, Michael, et al. "Low-dose leptin reverses skeletal muscle, autonomic, and neuroendocrine adaptations to maintenance of reduced weight." Journal of Clinical Investigation 115.12 (2005): 3579-3586. 
• Teff, Karen L., et al. "Dietary fructose reduces circulating insulin and leptin, attenuates postprandial suppression of ghrelin, and increases triglycerides in women." The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 89.6 (2004): 2963-2972.
• Wennersberg, Marianne Hauge, et al. "Dairy products and metabolic effects in overweight men and women: results from a 6-mo intervention study." The American journal of clinical nutrition (2009): ajcn-27664.

Weight Loss Reduces Biggest Losers' Metabolic Rate by 20%! 7% More Than Predicted by Another Useless Formula

Image 1: How many Biggest Loser ranches like this could you possibly build from the billions of dollars the American Health Care System alone is paying for drugs to manage instead of tread the obesity epidemic? And would it be worth it?

If you really want to get me started, you got to ask me "how many calories" you are supposed to eat. In my whole life, I have never even seen let alone eaten such a thing as "a calorie" and although I have no scientific evidence for that, my personal experience tells me that meticulous and even anxious calorie counting can make you skinny and crazy, yet never lean and sane. Aside from food quality factors, which certainly have a major impact, the real, fundamental fallacy of the "cut your calories" approach to weight loss is the ubiquitous ignorance towards the adaptive capabilities of the human body. A topic, I have broached several times before - yet obviously to no avail, other than the constant decry that "dieting will downregulate your metabolism"; of course, it will! If you weigh less, you need less energy.

You count calories? You must have a DEXA scanner, a ton of doubly labeled water and a Finnigan MAT 252 dual-inlet gas isotope ratio mass spectrometer, then, right?

And in view of the complexity of the human body, you should not be surprised that neither the resting nor the total energy expenditure exhibits a linear or otherwise deterministic association with your body weight and activity level. That even smart scientist, sophisticated mathematical formulas and accurate body fat, lean mass, etc. parameters (something you will by the way never have unless you got a decent DEXA scanner next to your scale in your bathroom ;-) cannot calculate the exact amount of energy you need has only recently confirmed in no one else but The Biggest Losers - in this case the actual "losers" from the TV show (Johannsen. 2012; thanks Steven Arcera for posting the link on my Facebook wall).

"Big losing" reduces your energy expenditure by -9% in six weeks

Some of you will know that the Biggest Losers are no strangers here at the SuppVersity (cf. my discussion of Ashmadi. 2011); not because I am a fan of the show, but rather because the TV producers worked hand in hand with a group of scientists who are now coming out with some relatively well-controlled (in the actual "camp" phase; 13 weeks for the last losers standing ;-) data on the effects of a weight loss program that consisted of a reasonable reduction in energy intake (-30%; pretty reasonable for someone who is as obese as a Biggest Loser - for leaner folks I would yet suggest to try to hover at max. -20% of their maintenance food not calorie intake and that for no longer than 6 weeks followed by a maintenance phase!) and an insane amount of (mostly) aerobic exercise.

Figure 1: Changes in BMI, fat free mass (FFM), fat mass (FM) and body fat (%) of the Biggest Losers after six weeks in the camp (total time in camp 13 weeks for the winners) and at the 30-week follow (left); fat / fat free mass weight loss ratio (right) and body weight change over the whole 30 week period (upper right; based on Johannsen. 2012)

And if you take at the results of the 11 (our of 16) competitors who survived the first 6 weeks, the results were actually not too bad. The subjects lost a whopping 7% of body fat (12kg!) and only 4% of their fat free mass. This yields a fat / fat free mass weight loss ratio, i.e. the ratio of the amount of fat to the amount of fat free mass (this is not just muscle, but also bone, organ weight, etc.) the subjects dieted and exercised away, of 4.8 - or put more simply. The subjects lost "only" one kg of fat free mass per ~5kg of body fat, which, if you come to think about it, is not all too bad. Most surprisingly, the weight loss did not stall (cf. figure 1, small graph), when the big losers went home after 13 weeks. In fact, the average weight of all sixteen participants, including the "real losers", who gave up before week 6 had declined by -40%(!) at the 30 week follow up and the "average loser" (7 men, 9 women) had lost 47kg of pure fat (-66%!) - if those are "the biggest losers", I guess the "biggest winners" are soon going to walk on the Karl Lagerfeld's catwalk ;-)

Are the Biggest Losers all winners, after all?!

The biochemical and blood pressure readings at the follow up support the notion that, overall, "housing [obese people] in an isolated ranch[es] outside Los Angeles" could be the long sought-for solution to the diabesity epidemic - a wonderful success story, if we (or rather you my dear American friends) had enough isolated ranches, personal trainers, television crews etc. to house and pamper 36% of the population (obesity rates according to NHANES data from 2008).

And though I am actually not sure if it would cost so much more than the billions of dollars the American Health Care System is investing year by year in drugs to manage, instead of to cure obesity, diabetes and co. if they actually constructed respective facilities, hire trainers and staff, revised the dietary guidelines and took all the other necessary measure to get down to the root of the trouble (and these are not just carbohydrates!), we all know that this is not going to happen.

Figure 2: Predicted and measured resting metabolic rate (RMR.) and total energy expenditure (measured using doubly labeled water analysis) of the subjects at week 6 (in the camp) and on 30 wk follow-up (left); changes in adipokine and thyroid hormone levels from baseline at 30 wk follow up (data calculated based on Johannsen. 2012)

If you take a closer look at the data in figure 2 it is also questionable how sustainable the results of these efforts would be, if we do not eventually step back from the typical western "more is more principle", according to which it is good and highly desirable to eat copious amounts of (junk-)food without any of the natural side effects this practice has.After all, the -20% reduction in metabolic rate (-560kcal/day), the scientists attribute to "centrally mediated with a parallel action on the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis", because ...

[...] the magnitude of metabolic adaptation was not significantly correlated with circulating T3 changes but was as-sociated with the change in TSH such that those with the greatest increase in TSH had the least metabolic adaptation.

and an average resting metabolic rate of  1764kcal/day will make it difficult to remain weight stable in a society where eating as much as possible (without gaining weight, of course) is perceived as desirable.

"More, more, more, ... I want to eat more!"

Image 2: Could Adelfo's physique partly be attributable to the fact that eating as much as possible is not among his goals in life?

If we disregard any appetite dysregulation and cravings for junk food, and take an objective look at the total daily energy expenditure of the subjects (in the absence of drill instructors enforcing the 90min/day of intense aerobic exercise), even the calories in vs. calories out principle would leave more than enough room for these big losers to eat to satiety - 2906kcal/day (!), this is ~27% more energy than our mutual friend Adelfo Cerame is consuming at the moment.

So, let me ask you this: What is the underlying problem here? Is it really the downregulation of the metabolic rate, or isn't it rather the combination of our insatiable appetite that grew from year to year on the standard western junk / convenient food diet with subsequent and intermittent unbalanced starvation diets, which makes everyone moan about a "sluggish" metabolism, these days?

Fiber Up Your Foods, Omega-3 Preload For Female Fat Loss, 50+ Ways to Treat Constipation, Serotonergic Peptides in Milk, Weight Cycling & Reduced Metabolic Rates, Exercise & 102% Weight Loss From Fat - Plus: More Short News

Inulin enriched foods are good for your gut, your waistline and your pancreas (anti-diabesity effect) and what's more inulin is also on the list of anti-constipation agents,

100g that's this week's SuppVersity figure of the week and that despite the fact that it is the amount of fat you are going to gain within one year when your metabolic rate is 100kcal below where it should be (Piaggi. 2013)... Where it should be? Yeah, ok I know that's idiotic, but if you read today's news-item about the down-regulation of the metabolic rate due to YoYo-dieting the picture that emerges is that of yet another vicious cycle that leads directly into a weight spiral that knows but one direction: upwards!

Another one of today's news-items does however hint at a solution: Just lose 102% fat! What? I see I got you interested. So what are you waiting for? Lot's of good stuff today. So much in fact that let's spend no time and get right to the news-business ;-)

"Fiber up" you foods with prebiotics (inulin in particular)

Pretty obvious that these Spanish Christmas confections take a toll on your HbA1c ;-)

(Capriles. 2012; Garcia-Garcia. 2013) -- You've read about the benefits of "feeding the good guys" a couple of days ago. Now, aside from being a substrate for the purportedly beneficial gut bacteria fiber also changes the feel, taste and most importantly digestive properties of foods. A couple of recently published studies confirm that this can have pretty profound and in most cases highly desirable consequences.

Garcia-Garcia, for example, added some inulin (5%) to Turon, a traditional Spanish sweet treat that's made of toasted almonds, honey and sugar and fed 30g of the Christmas nougat-type confection to 32 healthy, normal-weight volunteers.

While the subjects in the "regular" Turon group had a slight but significant increase in HbA1c (long-term measure of blood glucose management) the blood glucose management of the 17 subjects in the active group did not budge. And while most subjects (64%, specifically those who conumed Turon as a Christmas snack on a regular basis) preferred the "classic" variety, at least 24% did actually like the inulin Turon better (Garcia-Garcia. 2013)

Gluten will interact with PPARs & gut bacteria and can thus precipitate insulin resistance (read more).

In a similar study, scientists were able to show that the addition of prebiotic inulin-type fructans to gluten-free bread (4 g of fructans per 50 g bread serving size) did

"[...] provide structure and gas retention during baking, thus improving GFB quality by yielding better specific volume, softer crumb, improved crust and crumb browning with enhanced sensory acceptance" (Capriles. 2012)

 and decreased the glycemic index and glycemic load of the gluten-free bread by 34% (from 71 to 48) and 33% (from 12 to 8), respectively.

Omega-3 loading improves weight loss in obese women

(Munro. 2013) -- According to a recently published study, a 4-week preload with 6 × 1 g capsules per day LC ω-3PUFA (fish oil) each comprising 70 mg EPA and 270 mg DHA, increased the amount of weight the female (and only the female!) participants of a very low calorie weight loss intervention lost in the subsequent 8-weeks.

Despite being statistically significant, the 1.4% increase in bod weight loss is yet not so pronounced that anyone whose been dieint with LC-PUFA preload in the past should now be fretting about having missed out on this great chance of getting ripped. If you are a man, the protocol would have been useless, anyways.

Constipated? Review offers three types of "solutions" - in some cases a literal sense

(Gelinas. 2013) -- If you are one out of five, chances are you belong to the 20% of the world's population who suffer from constipation on a regular base. If that's the case, you may want to consider one of the following "treatment" strategies, Pierre Galinas mentions in his latest review of the literature:

• 

  Table 1: Relative laxative potential of 50 food ingredients for the prevention of constipation

  Bulking agents  - They soften the stool by binding water; examples are psyllium seed husk, wheat bran, methylcellulose, calcium polycarbophil; are considered "mild" and are not habit forming, but may cause abdominal pain and bloating because of gas formation
• Osmotic agents - They also soften the stool but ba a dfferent mechanism than the bulk fiber, they create an osmotic gradient, which will distend the intestines and stimulates a contractile response; examples are lactulose, sorbitol, mannitol, polyethylene glycol (PEG), magnesium hydroxide (milk of magnesia), sodium phosphate; side effects are gas, and the offensive taste (of some)
• Softeners and lubricants  - They  lubricate (oil) and soften (detergent) the stool; examples are sodium docusate and various mineral oils; pretty milk
• Stimulants - Just like the stims in a fat burner get you going, these get your colon going; examples are epson salts (magnesium sulphate heptahydrate), bisacodyl, sodium picosulphate, sodium sulphate, magnesium oxide, phenolphthalein; they taste offensive, but don't produce gas
• Herbal teas - Provide water and can increase bowel frequency; examples are anthracenes derivatives (senna; aloe; cascara, Frangula bark); unfortunately they taste offensive and work almost immediately; moreover tolerance builds up pretty fast

As you can see there are different ways to get going with the bulk agent aka an increase in fiber intake being the only healthy long-term solution.

Even unhappy cows produce "Happy Milk"

"Mutant Milk" is homogenized milk a potential threat to your health (learn more)?

(Nongonierma. 2013) -- Three days ago a paper by Alice Nongonierma and her colleagues was published ahead of print on the website of the Journal of Food & Function. In the said paper, the researchers describe an experiment, in the course of which they were able to proof that hydrolyzed milk proteins contain a peptides that "behave as serotonin 2C (5-HT2c) receptor agonists" (Nongenierma. 2013). According to the scientists, the bioactive peptides have a relatively low molecular mass (< 1 kDa) and are hydrophobic in nature. With the 5-HT2c receptor being more than just a pharmacological target for the treatment of depression and anxiety, but also a trigger of neurogenesis (growth of new neurons) in the hippocampus (Millan. 2005), this certainly is good news for all the milk junkies out there - or could the serotonine-like effects make you fat?

Magic anti-diabetic mushrooms

(Su. 2013) -- Not what you are thinking now, folks! That's Traditional Chinese Medicine. After all, mushrooms such as Coriolus versicolor and Grifola frondosa have been used in TCM for centuries now. As a recent study by Scientsts from Kang Jien BioTech confirms rightly, so. Extracts from both mushroom had potent inhibitory effects on the carbohydrate digesting enzymes α-amylase and α-glucosidase. With Coriolus being a better inhibitor of the former and Grifola a more potent inhibitor of the latter enzymes.

How this relates to glucose control? Easy: If you don't disentangle the complex carbs your body cannot access their sugar content and if you do it only very slowly even "high" GI starches suddenly turn into low GI foods.

Weight cycling does not forestall future weight loss, but it makes it harder

Geoffrey Cannon's "Dieting Makes You Fat" was first published in 1983 but is that true? Does dieting always make you fatter and would it be better so simply surrender   (learn more)?

(Bosy-Westphal. 2013) -- While the ups and downs in body weight so many dieters are experiencing on a regular basis do not, as it was long suspected, ruin your body composition. A paper that has been published roughly a week ago in the International Journal of Obesitysuggests that another often touted downside, namely the long-term creeping down-regulation of the basal energy expenditure is unfortunately very real.

According to the analysis of the researchers from the Christian-Albrecht University in Kiel, Germany, the 27 "weight regainers" (after ~30% of loss) showed a reduced REE adjusted for changes in organ and tissue masses after weight loss that was not present in the 20 previously weight stable, yet likewise overweight / obese subjects in the control group of the researchers' 13-week dietary intervention study.

It is however not sure, whether this actually is a result of previous weight cycling or vice versa; meaning that the people with the ups and downs in body weight are the ones whose metabolism shuts down the easiest. The study at hand was obviously not able to exclude this possibility.

More than 100% weight loss from fat? How is that supposed to work?

(Hall. 2012) -- Actually this study was published late in the year 2012, that it still made it to On Short Notice has two reasons. Reason #1 is that it was an Epub way ahead of print. Reason #2 is that the figures the author reports appear to be pretty nonsensical. I mean how on earth can the projection K.. Hall from the National Institute of Health in Bethesda made based on data from the Biggest Loser camp yield a net weight loss of 24kg of which more than 100% (102% to be precise) came from the exuberant body fat stores of the (>70kg for the average participant) of the "big losers"?

For the researchers who worked with the Biggest Losers the highly successful TV show was a fluke. Having a TV station pay for their "research" certainly is something extraordinary and against and the study at hand is only the latest publication based on data from the Biggest Loser camp (read up on a previous news item)

The answer is actually pretty straight forward and underlines the efficacy of exercise as a weight loss tool that won't leave you skinny fat, but lean and more muscular. After all, the initially counter-intuitive +2% extra came from the increase in lean mass the Big Losers experienced despite being on a 1,300kcal-1,600kcal diet and working out at a "vigorous intensity" for 3.1h and 1.1h per day in phase 1 and phase 2 of the boot-camp intervention (the simulation of a diet only intervention yielded a slightly larger total weight loss yet with only 65% of the weight coming from the fat stores).

The one thing I am a bit skeptical about is whether Hall's prediction that the weight loss will be sustainable with no more than 20min/day of, once again, "vigorous" exercise per day. I mean that probably would be true in the sheltered environment of the weight loss camp. In a real life scenario, on the other hand, the super size menus, family pizzas and cosy TV couches are probably too much of a temptation for the many of the Big Losers.

---

Wine was yesterday! Chocolate liqueur is the future of healthy alcohol consumption (learn more)

That's all for today, at least as far as On Short Notice is concerned. By now the majority of you should yet be aware that there's always more... correct, the Facebook News - not sure if you notices, but you can actually see the latest items in the side-bar of the SuppVersity. To make sure you don't miss any of them it would yet be wise to simply "like" the SuppVersity on Facebook and/or register as a follower to my Twitter Account. It's hard-wired to the Facebook page, so if you are into tweeting.. maybe you prefer being notified this way.

Whatever your social media service provide of choice may be, I am pretty sure that you don't want to miss news such as the one on the total phenols, flavonoids, flavan-3-ols and proanthocyanidins of chocolate liqueur and how this may make it a better choice for your daily dose of "healthy" alcohol than wine ;-)

References:

• Carpiles VD, Aréas JADG. Effects of prebiotic inulin-type fructans on structure, quality, sensory acceptance and glycemic response of gluten-free breads. Food & Function. 03 Oct 2012 [Epub] 
• Garcia-Garcia E., Narbona E, Carbonell-Barrachina AA, Sanchez-Soriano J, Roche E. The effect of consumption of inulin-enriched Turrón upon blood serum lipids over a 5-week period. International Journal of Food Science & Technology. 2013; 48(2):405–411.
• Gelinas P. Preventing constipation: a review of the laxative potential of food ingredients. International Journal of Food Science & Technology. 2013; 48(3):445–467. 
• Hall KD. Diet versus exercise in "The Biggest Loser" weight loss competition. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2012 Oct 3. doi: 10.1002/oby.20065. [Epub ahead of print]
• Lai MN, Ng LT. Inhibitory effects of medicinal mushrooms on α-amylase and α-glucosidase – enzymes related to hyperglycemia. Food & Function. 2013 [Epub ahead of print].
  
• Millan MJ. Serotonin 5-HT2C receptors as a target for the treatment of depressive and anxious states: focus on novel therapeutic strategies. Therapie. 2005 Sep-Oct;60(5):441-60.
• Munro IA, Garg ML. Prior supplementation with long chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids promotes weight loss in obese adults: a double-blinded randomised controlled trial. Food & Function. February 2013 [Epub ahead of print].
• Nongonierma A,  Schellekens H, Dinan T,  Cryan JF, Fitzgerald D. Milk protein hydrolysates activate 5-HT2c serotonin receptors: influence of the starting substrate and isolation of bioactive fractions. Food & Function. 2013 [Epub ahead of print]
• Piaggi P, Thearle MS, Bogardus C, Krakoff J. Lower Energy Expenditure Predicts Long-Term Increases in Weight and Fat Mass. JCEM. 2013; jc.2012-3529;