A new study led by researchers at Columbia University is trying to understand why some people are able to keep weight off after losing it, while others struggle.
The study will follow more than 100 people who have obesity and manage to lose weight through diet and exercise.
Researchers will track their progress over time to learn more about what helps people maintain weight loss.
Dr. Rudolph Leibel from Columbia University says it’s very hard to keep weight off because the body fights back. After someone loses weight, their metabolism slows down, their appetite increases, and they tend to move less. The body acts as if it’s starving and tries to save energy. This can make it really hard to keep the weight off.
The researchers want to learn why some people can overcome these changes and others can’t. To do this, they will look at many parts of the body, including fat cells and brain activity.
They will use advanced tools to measure things like how much fat and muscle a person has, how many calories they burn, how active they are, how well they sleep, and what kinds of food they choose to eat.
The study will even include MRI brain scans to look at brain activity, as well as blood, muscle, and fat samples to see what’s happening inside the body on a cellular level.
This research project is called the POWERS study, which stands for Physiology of the Weight Reduced State. It is being carried out with the help of Drexel University, Tufts University, and the University of Pennsylvania. The study was started by the National Institutes of Health.
Participants will first go through a five-month program to help them lose at least 7% of their body weight through a supervised plan of diet and exercise. After that, they’ll be followed for another 12 months to see what happens during the maintenance phase.
Dr. Leibel says that even a small amount of weight loss, if kept off, can really improve a person’s health. The team hopes that this research will help create better tools and methods to support people who are trying to maintain a healthy weight.
This study is important because it doesn’t just focus on losing weight. Instead, it tries to understand the complicated mix of body changes and behaviors that affect whether someone can keep the weight off. The results could help doctors give more personalized and effective advice in the future.
If you care about weight loss, please read studies about Scientists find secrets to long-term weight loss success and findings of Weight loss surgery linked to this mental disease.
For more about obesity, please read studies about Obesity drugs can help prevent weight regain after weight loss surgery and findings of Research shows big hidden cause of obesity.
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