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HOME > Overview > Part 8 > Chapter 9 Summary and Sample Text

Chapter 9

How the Body's Metabolism Adapts to Dieting and Weight Loss

Key Chapter Highlights

  • This chapter presents to you the most important factor that you need to know to understand how Metabolic Adaptations powerfully affect the Energy Balance Equation
  • If you don't understand and make adjustments for Metabolic Adaptations, which are the changes that occur in your body as you lose weight, you'll certainly fail at the weight control game
  • Simply, as you lose weight, your body becomes 1) more efficient 2) has less weight to carry around, and 3) moves less. All of these factors lead to decreased energy requirements; if you do not adjust for this, you will stop losing weight before you reach your goal
  • Metabolic Adaptations become more powerful as the total amount of body fat decreases

Chapter Subheads
  • The Scientific History of the Discovery of Metabolic Adaptations
  • What are the Effects of Overfeeding
  • Set-Point Theory of Bodyweight
  • How Do Changes in Food Intake Affect the Two Main Parts of Calorie Burn?
  • What are the Effects of Decreases in Food Intake on the Physical Activity Level (PAL) Part of the Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE)

Sample Text

So, I would reduce my food intake to lose some fat. Every time I tried to push my weight to a lower level, I required an ever-lower level of calories to reach my goal. That fact was indisputable.

This observation made me question the simplistic calculations used by nutritionists in weight loss programs. They first measure the subject's bodyweight, then they calculate his calorie needs based on standardized tables. They use the Body Mass Index (BMI) or measure the subject's body composition to figure out his ideal bodyweight and then calculate the number of calories the subject needs to eat to reduce to a new lower bodyweight. They use the assumption that each pound of fat contains 3,500 calories.

They make no provision for the fact that a portion of the lost bodyweight will include a loss of Lean Body Mass (muscles and organs, see the chapter on body composition).

And, they make no provision, in short, for the Metabolic Adaptations I'm about to describe.

This time-worn procedure is overly simplistic. It's doomed to fail because the nutritionist makes no provision for the fact that, as one sheds pounds, Metabolic Adaptations occur. These Adaptations lead to fewer pounds lost at the same calorie intake. In other words, one loses weight (and fat) faster the fatter one is. As one becomes "leaner," this process changes dramatically. For example, let's say we reduce one's calorie intake by 1,000 calories a day. Over time, this reduced calorie intake will fail to stimulate the same rate of bodyweight loss as it did at the start of the diet.

Again, a decrease in calorie intake below energy needs results in more weight loss the fatter one is. It also leads to more fat loss. As the diet proceeds and bodyweight decreases, the rate of bodyweight loss will slow or even stop. It's very important that this fundamental fact is understood!...


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