Possible Hidden Factor Has Found That Makes It Difficult To Lose Weight
The standard wisdom for weight loss is simple: reduced calories in the diet lead to weight loss, which then is maintained with a moderate diet. But endocrinologists have long known that dieting is not easy. In 2016, a study of participants in the TV show The Biggest Loser, in which participants competed in weight loss, showed that most of them soon regained the lost weight, but their metabolism was significantly lower than the average people their size. The competitor’s bodies struggled for years to regain their weight, despite the efforts and desires of the competitors. It was not clear to anyone what the reason was.
According to the Atlantic, the team of Anna Maria Schmidt, an endocrinologist at New York University School of Medicine, recently published a paper with results that may explain this phenomenon. Scientists believe they have found a mechanism that controls weight gain and loss in mice. It is a protein that excludes the body’s ability to burn fat when the body goes under stress, including reduced or increased diet – diet or overeating. This finding may be crucial in explaining why it is so difficult to lose weight and even keep it low.
In 1992, while researching the complications of diabetes, Schmidt discovered on the surface of fat cells a receptor for glycation products, RAGE, which also plays a role in the body’s metabolism and inflammatory reactions. In a recent paper, Schmidt reported he found a big difference in weight gain in conventional mice and those in which the RAGE gene turned off whose cells do not produce the protein. The second group gained 70% less weight, had lower glucose levels, and expended more energy on the same diet and physical activity. Conventional mice stepped on the brakes of metabolism, and they couldn’t burn the same amount of energy as those with deleted RAGE.
Schmidt believes that the RAGE gene appeared during evolution as protection for mammals, including humans, in conditions where food is scarce. In Conditions of reduced dietary intake, the body tries to save energy and resources. But the receptor is also active in Conditions when we have large amounts of food. It is the mechanism that slows down our metabolism when we are on a diet and trying to lose weight, which prevents us from maintaining a reduced weight. It makes perfect sense for the body to save on a reduced diet, but it is cruel, at least in our modern times, that the Same mechanism slows down our metabolism even after a hearty meal.
Although it is not yet clear how the results from the mouse study will express in humans, Utpal Pajwani, a professor of endocrinology at Columbia University, says he is optimistic about the findings. The study shows possible methods to reduce RAGE signaling in fats with beneficial effects in humans.
Schmidt warns against the tendency to explain complex phenomena in people with too simple beliefs, such as the idea that weight loss is achievable with a simple reduced diet and the power of our will. “Losing weight is very, very difficult,” says Schmidt. “Only by studying the good things, the bad things. As well as those that have emerged as good and can become bad, can we see the big picture and how to make safely human lives healthier and better”
