Metabolic and body composition changes during rapid and massive weight loss

我们研究了最大的减肥者大赛的参赛者以及接受胃旁路手术的患者，并测量了静息代谢率和身体成分随时间的变化。我们对这些组进行了比较，发现最瘦的参赛者进行的剧烈运动导致了瘦组织块的保存，尽管减肥效果与接受搭桥手术的患者相似。这两组人在体重减轻后表现出新陈代谢减慢，这与他们的身体成分变化不成比例。此外，这种代谢适应被发现与能量失衡的程度以及血液中瘦素激素水平的变化有关。 我们最近发现，尽管平均体重大幅回升，但减肥量最大的参与者在减肥比赛6年后仍保持着代谢适应。

We studied contestants from The Biggest Loser weight loss competition as well as patients who underwent gastric bypass surgery and measured changes in resting metabolic rate, and body composition over time. We compared these groups and found that the vigorous exercise performed by The Biggest Loser contestants led to preservation of lean tissue mass despite similar weight loss to patients who had bypass surgery. Both groups exhibited metabolic slowing following weight loss that was out of proportion to their body composition change. Furthermore, this metabolic adaptation was found to be correlated with the degree of energy imbalance as well as the changes in the blood levels of the hormone leptin. We recently found that the metabolic adaptations persisted in the Biggest Loser participants 6 years after the weight loss competition despite substantial average weight regain.