The Lasting Impact of Extreme Dieting

Philip Pape 0:01

If you've ever heard about metabolic damage or metabolic inflexibility after crash diets , this episode is for you , because we are diving into the long-term consequences of extreme weight loss methods like those used on the Biggest Loser . You'll discover what really happens to your body and metabolism when you lose weight rapidly and why contestants struggle to keep the weight off years later . More importantly , you'll learn why the concept of metabolic inflexibility might not tell the whole story and what current research actually says about sustainable fat loss . If you think you need to lose weight , whether 10 pounds or 100 pounds , understanding the real impact of extreme dieting is crucial for achieving lasting results without compromising your health . Welcome to Wits and Weights , the podcast that blends evidence and engineering to help you build smart , efficient systems to achieve your dream physique . I'm your host , philip Pape , and today we're venturing into the dark side of extreme weight loss methods the long-term effect of shows like the Biggest Loser . Imagine losing a ton of weight through an intense diet and exercise program , only to find yourself years later not only regaining the weight , but struggling to lose fat no matter what you do . And this is not a hypothetical scenario . It's the reality faced by many contestants from the Biggest Loser , and it's a cautionary tale for anyone considering extreme measures for rapid weight loss . Today , we're going to break down the science behind what really happens with extreme dieting , explore the complex relationship between rapid weight loss and metabolic changes and , most importantly , discuss a more balanced approach to sustainable fat loss . If you enjoy this episode , if you've been following the show for any length of time and you enjoy it , just do me a quick favor and share it on social media . You can just take a screenshot and share it to your story or some apps like Spotify . Let you share directly to Instagram and then tag me at Wits and Weights .

Philip Pape 2:05

All right , let's get into today's topic , because I want to break this down into a few segments . The first is what I'm going to call the biggest loser effect , what the research actually shows from this great example of the most extreme form of weight loss that we have . The second segment is we're going to unpack the concept of not only metabolic damage , which I think if you listen to this show at all , you know it's not a real thing but there is something called metabolic inflexibility , the idea that you shift from fat to carb burning and back and forth , and now , all of a sudden , after an extreme diet , you can't do that as effectively . And then the third segment is going to be well , what is a balanced approach ? What is the alternative when it comes to not just weight loss , but what we talk about here , which is fat loss losing fat , getting leaner , getting healthier , getting the physique and body composition you want , not necessarily a lower number on the scale . So let's start with the biggest loser effect . Back in 2016 , so that's eight years ago as of the time of this episode . In 2016 , so that's eight years ago as of the time of this episode Dr Kevin Hall and his team published a study that followed up with 14 of the contestants from season eight of the Biggest Loser , and their findings opened a lot of eyes . They challenged many of the assumptions people had about weight loss , and I think our space does well to refer to it and learn from that . And I think our space does well to refer to it

The Effects of Extreme Dieting

Philip Pape 3:27

and learn from that .

Philip Pape 3:27

Six years after the show , the contestants were still dealing with the significant slowdown that they had experienced in their metabolism . Now you might think already , okay , well , that sounds like metabolic damage to me , but just hear the whole context . So , on average , they were burning about 500 fewer calories per day at rest compared to what you would expect for someone their size . And then this effect continued . It persisted even in contestants who had managed to keep some of that weight off . So even when they continued to do what they needed to do to try to maintain their weight , it was at a much lower metabolic rate . Here's a very crucial point . This metabolic slowdown wasn't just because they lost weight . It was more extreme than what we would typically expect from weight loss alone , and the researchers called this metabolic adaptation a term that we now use all the time essentially the body fighting against weight loss right , you might have heard the term survival by becoming super efficient with its calories Just very , very efficient . Not something we want to be when we're trying to lose some of that stored energy .

Philip Pape 4:36

Now , the contestants . Here's the other important thing that's super important for us . The contestants didn't just lose fat , they lost a substantial amount of muscle mass as well . Now , this is important , because muscle we talk about , why it helps burn more calories , because it is metabolically active . It burns calories even when you're just sitting around , and I think there's more effects than just that , like the fact that the process of building muscle itself requires more energy . Being athletic requires , you know , bigger organs . A lot of the things I talked about recently on my 7 BMR facts episode go check that out . I'll link that in the show notes . But losing a ton of muscle along with the fat . The contestants essentially downsized the engine of their body , right , it's just a smaller engine .

Philip Pape 5:25

The study also found major hormonal imbalances , for example leptin , that's the hormone that signals fullness . It dropped , you know , it plummeted At . Ghrelin , the hunger hormone , increased significantly , right ? These are extreme versions of what we would see in a dieting phase , and the combination of the two left contestants then constantly ravenously hungry , even when they'd eaten enough . You know , quote unquote enough . And then there's the psychological toll , which we cannot understate here . It was immense because many of the people on the show developed disordered eating patterns , swinging between restrictive dieting and binge eating , the classic yo-yo cycle on steroids to the extreme . Their relationship with food and exercise became warped . They started to view workouts as punishment for eating and food as the enemy . And if you can relate to this , it's important to understand the psychological impacts of extreme dieting .

Philip Pape 6:26

So now let's talk about the idea of metabolic inflexibility and you might have heard this term maybe you haven't . You've probably heard of metabolic damage and there's other terms for that in the fitness industry , and it's often used to explain why people struggle to lose weight or to keep it off after extreme dieting and why so many people say well , you just have to eat more , you just have to reverse diet . But what does the science actually say , and I think it's good to revisit this topic . Metabolic flexibility specifically refers to the body's ability to switch between using carbs and fats for fuel efficiently . Now , in theory , someone who is metabolically flexible can easily burn fat when in a calorie deficit and they efficiently use carbs when they eat them . And the idea goes that extreme dieting might impair this flexibility , making it harder to lose fat in the future . However , skepticism antennae should always be up here . It's important to note that , while metabolic flexibility is a , it's important to note that , while metabolic flexibility is a real physiological concept , I think its role in managing weight and fat loss and body composition and all of that is still being researched and debated . In other words , it may not apply right .

Philip Pape 7:37

Here's what we know . First , metabolic flexibility does change with obesity and with weight loss , but the relationship is very complex . There are lots and lots of variables going on here and we can't always tease out the cause and effect . Number two this impaired metabolic flexibility has been observed in people with obesity and with type 2 diabetes . But again , it's not clear if this is a cause or it's just an effect of the conditions . Kind of like we say , well , people who are overweight drink Diet Coke , so Diet Coke must be making them overweight , but in fact they're overweight so they're trying to lose weight and therefore more people who have weight to lose drink Diet Coke .

Philip Pape 8:15

Number three the direct link between metabolic flexibility and how easy it is to lose weight or to maintain your weight again , is not straightforward as it's often portrayed in , you know , the fitness industry . Some researchers argue that the importance of it in weight management may be overstated . So researchers themselves are saying this in the studies . So yeah , it's a pretty cool concept , an intriguing concept , to the point where I've thought of dedicating an episode just to the concept . But I think it's something we don't want to put too much thought into because it's not something we can control , nor is possibly relevant to what we're doing . Anyway . It's probably not the whole story when it comes to why the contestants from the Biggest Loser struggle to maintain their weight loss , and the reality is , this is physiology , this is biology , more complex .

Philip Pape 9:06

What we do know more conclusively is that rapid , extreme weight loss can and does lead to significant metabolic adaptation . And I always advise if you're going to lose fat , we're going to do it at a conservative rate of loss so we don't experience so much adaptation , so much hunger , so much reduction in our hormone production , and also so that we are not suffering through the process psychologically . All those reasons Plus . And so we don't lose muscle . So we don't lose muscle . All of the reasons . There's no reason to crash diet , basically . And it's not about the flexibility of our metabolism , it's really just your body's becoming super efficient with calories and it's fighting to regain the lost weight all throughout that process , especially the more extreme you go . So just to revisit why this happens , why does metabolic adaptation occur ?

Philip Pape 9:59

Well , first , you have a decreased resting metabolic rate . Your RMR or your BMR pretty similar concepts have dropped for multiple reasons . One being you weigh less . Another being you're eating less . You may have a tiny bit of muscle loss , things like that . Number two is , you tend to become more efficient when you move , when you're in fat loss , and often it's unconscious . Not only do you potentially move less , you also become more efficient in movement , and this all the way goes down to this . This goes all the way down to the cellular level , practically like cells become more efficient . I'm not saying that cells movement becomes efficient , but the efficiency is systemic . Is what I'm saying ? Also , hormonal changes that increase hunger and decrease fullness right , the same hormones we talked about leptin , ghrelin occur and they get ramped up because your body's saying feed me , feed me now , feed me now . A lot you know , the more you go into that diet . I think I mentioned on a recent episode how we see how , for example , thyroid production drops like five or six percent immediately in a diet and then it comes right back up at the end . But keep in mind that the biggest loser contestants went through a much more extreme change and so it took a lot longer for that to recover .

Philip Pape 11:13

And yeah , we need to understand that these adaptations exist and , yes , they make weight loss and fat loss and maintaining our weight more challenging . They don't . This is important . They don't represent permanent damage to your metabolism period . With time , with proper nutrition meaning you're not continuing to diet these adaptations can be reversed and I'm going to say they'll be reversed . Can they be reversed all the way ? Well , that's the question . If you have so much adaptation and your body has changed so much because you've lost a ton of weight and muscle , can you reverse it all the way ? Well , possibly not , until you get your body back to the state it was , which itself might be an uphill climb . If you've lost a bunch of muscle , for example , now you have to spend several years training to get that muscle back . It's not just about the calories , if that makes sense Now .

Philip Pape 12:05

There are multiple reasons for this adaptation , and it isn't just the dieting itself , but what the dieting has caused that you need to now also reverse . So what does this mean for sustainable fat loss ? You're like , okay , doom and gloom . Let's talk about how to approach this . This is the bread and butter , what I love about a flexible , balanced , sustainable approach that you can actually stick with and enjoy and go out with your friends and go out with your family and eat , go on vacation and eat out at a restaurant .

Philip Pape 12:39

Okay , the big takeaway , I think , from the Biggest Losers study is not that weight loss is impossible or that dieting always fails and if you know me , you know , I don't even care about weight loss . I care about body composition and fat loss , even though to induce that sometimes also requires dropping some weight in the form of fat . It is that extreme rapid weight loss crash dieting that is going to backfire . I was going to say it often backfires pretty much always backfires in some way . Even if you do it in a quote-unquote , controlled way , like if you go on keto and you cut carbs and you all of a sudden use 40 pounds in a month , there are still going to be consequences for that . So instead , why don't we focus on gradual , sustainable changes that work with our biology ? Once you know all of this , you realize that our biology is complex , but there's a way to work with it . Be friendly to our bodies .

Philip Pape 13:22

Here's the philosophy that I advocate . Number one I want you to focus on health , not just weight . I want you to focus on health Okay , health Instead of obsessing over the scale . Prioritize health , and I don't often say it that way . Sometimes I say body composition , but really what I'm getting at is are you giving yourself the energy you need to be able to train and perform the sleep quality and quantity you need ?

Philip Pape 13:47

You know the performance in the gym itself .

Philip Pape 13:49

You're training hard , you're going after it to be a healthy , fit person , getting strong and building muscle , and then the nutrition supports that , and if at some point you go through a fat loss phase , that's fine .

Philip Pape 14:00

But by having to focus on health first , mentally and physically , all the rest becomes that much more well aligned and natural and easy to go after . I can't tell you how many clients I've had who they might start off in a fat loss phase after we do the pre-diet maintenance phase for anywhere from four to six weeks , I'll say and they might go into a fat loss phase and realize you know what I don't necessarily like the cost of fat loss , the trade-offs that I have to make of , you know , eating less and having a little bit less energy , a little bit less performance and and kind of a slowdown in my progress in the gym . I'd rather actually be going all out right now for performance . That's not everybody . Some people are like , yep , I'm willing to make the trade-offs right now . So just so I can lean out a bit . But it all comes down to how do you feel , how do you perform , how's your health , and then we let the other things fall along with that .

Jenny 14:50

Hi , my name is Jenny and I just wanted to say a big thank you to Philip Pape of Wits and Weights for the 15 minute rapid nutrition assessment he offers for free . During that session I found he asked really good personal questions that helped him be able to give me excellent advice and tangible tools which I've applied , and since then I have lost 12 pounds where I was otherwise stuck . Now that I'm closer to my weight goals , I'm focusing more on my fitness and muscle and strength . So I just really want to say thanks , philip , for all of your encouragement and the free tools you offer , as well as the positive podcast message . It's really helped me .

Gradual Fat Loss and Sustainable Habits

Philip Pape 15:33

The second thing is gradual fat loss . So if you are going to go into fat loss , aiming for that slow , steady progress of around a half 0.75% of your body weight per week is a usually pretty solid place to be . For a lot of people that's around a pound a week , right , I'm just giving you rough numbers . We'd have to personalize it for you specifically , depending on your metabolism , your goals , your timeframe , the calorie intake , so many things . But aiming for no more than 1% of your body weight per week , that is going to minimize the metabolic adaptation and the muscle loss , especially the muscle loss . You're still going to have metabolic adaptation , but it's going to be a lot less . It's proportional to the quickness , the rapidity of the diet . Now , just real caveat here . A little caveat Because it's proportional . Just understand that you are getting something for it . I want to be clear on that . So if you decide to step on the gas and go at 1% body weight per week and then the metabolic adaptation therefore kicks up to its maximum within that range , the benefit is you're getting 1% body fat loss per week . So it's faster and you know larger magnitude and for some people that's what they want and they're willing to make that trade off . So it's just , it's all . Let's be objective about it , right ? It's not a right or wrong . It's just if you do this , you get this . If you're okay with more metabolic adaptation , you do this .

Philip Pape 16:56

Now the muscle loss piece . I have a problem with that that we have to be careful of . If you go too fast , you're going to lose muscle and again , there's always exceptions . I have plenty of clients that have a good base of strength and muscle . They have a high calorie base to work with , so they can intake a lot of carbs that are anabolic or anti-catabolic . When they're losing , they can take both protein and even when they're on a diet , whereas other people with a much lower metabolism , the carbs come down pretty low and that starts to eat into their ability to hold onto that muscle other than the protein . So what I'm saying is you can go past 1% in some cases , very personalized , okay .

Philip Pape 17:33

Number three we do want to emphasize body composition over weight . So if we're going to still be looking at fat loss and using the number on the scale as one of many measures , we still want to prioritize maintaining or , for some of you , a tiny bit of gain of muscle mass while losing the body weight , because that means you're losing fat . It also maintains that metabolic rate , it mitigates some of these other problems and then along the way , throughout this whole process , we want to create sustainable habits , because it's not about dieting as a switch , as an on-off switch . It's really about your identity , your routines , your systems around nutrition , around training and stress management , sleep and so on that can carry with you for the rest of your life , regardless of these short-term cycles of building or losing fat . You know , building muscle or losing fat , and so with that comes some patience and some consistency .

Philip Pape 18:32

But I think we give that lip service too much where it's like got to be patient , got to be consistent . Let's look at it this way If you try to crash diet and you're not patient , in that context it's all going to come back . You're going to lose muscle , you're going to feel terrible , it's going to take longer to recover and , guess what , you're actually further back than when you started . So even if you're impatient , like I kind of am , in a way that's actually the most frustrating long way to do it , inefficient , lengthy way to do it . So that's where you hear something like the long path is the fastest path , so to speak . It's like the planned out , consistency based approach is the one that's going to get you the fastest result at the end , ironically , or whatever term you want to use get you the fastest result at the end , ironically , or whatever term you want to use .

Philip Pape 19:22

Okay , and then the food itself . This is oh . There's so many debates about what are the right diets and what should you cut out , and I I I need to be good or bad , I need to cut out alcohol , I need to cut out sugar and I need to cut out carbs . The best thing to cut out is this thinking and to instead add in the things that satisfy you and that you need and that you're not going to be guilty eating , and that is lots of protein , lots of fiber and , yes , some carbs . That all support your goals , make you feel great , allow you to perform , allow you to train , and it's very flexible . Resistance training , of course , is super important throughout this whole thing . The biggest loser contestants a lot of them were going all out on cardio and it wasn't about muscle mass at all , and that's a huge problem . So , just being a person who lifts weights regularly and uses progressive overload and lifts in , you know the strength regime , for part of that , using compound lifts is going to have a massive base to build on and maintain metabolic health , whatever phase they're in , including fat loss .

Philip Pape 20:21

And then recovery goes hand in hand with that right Getting enough sleep , getting enough stress for supporting your hormones and supporting your cravings and supporting the fat loss as well . And then when you're doing fat loss , you know having diet breaks built in can be helpful for some people . Some people don't need them , they just go all out . You know , for eight , 12 , 16 weeks , go all out for a fat loss phase and then you're done . Others want to have breaks in there . You know weekend breaks or week-long breaks , breaks aligned with their lifestyle , like business travel , right , or just a weekend where you plan to go out to a restaurant or go to your you know grandmother's house for Thanksgiving , whatever it might be . It can give you a little mental reset . It's not too much of a physical reset , let's be honest . I should probably do a whole episode about that .

Philip Pape 21:11

Refeeds and diet breaks Again , because people give too much emphasis on recovery physical , physiological recovery from diet breaks . Not so much , really , really not so much . We don't see meaningful recovery until you're out of a diet for some time , at least for several weeks in a row . But there are huge psychological benefits from short-term recovery and there also is a perceived level of recovery just from all the extra calories you're able to eat when you go back to maintenance , even if it's just for a day or two . And throughout all of this , of course , you're going to be monitoring , adjusting , paying attention to how your body responds , and know that what works for you or someone else might not be working for you , because the goal is health and quality of life , which is going to be very personalized itself . Right .

Philip Pape 21:56

I spoke to someone today who is a cyclist . He's getting ready for a hundred mile mountain biking race and he's in his sixties . He wants to be strong , he wants to be healthy . He doesn't even care about aesthetics . Now , you might care about aesthetics and , honestly , if you focus on health , aesthetics will take care of themselves . But you know for him he has a specific goal that he's going after . That's very personalized and so health and quality of life for him might be different than for someone else .

Philip Pape 22:23

You know I had surgery last year on my shoulder , so health and quality of life for me was recovery , taking it at the right pace to get back and not re-injure myself , having the right nutrition supplementation to support that , okay , and this approach might again seem like , oh , that's more work , that's going to take longer , but it's actually the one that's going to stick and give you the lasting results , which means it's actually more efficient and even faster . So I want to leave you with something super powerful , because I know the context of this was the biggest loser and I think the biggest lesson from that show isn't really about metabolic damage or metabolic flexibility or inflexibility . I think it's about the importance of working with your body and not against it . Not punishing yourself , not doing something that feels like I mean , if anybody's aware of that show , it was like people screaming at them . It was this all out , balls to the wall , go above and beyond everyday extreme . That is not realistic for anybody to do this sustainably . We're not even talking about a competition or a race or something where , yeah , you do want to do a more extreme level of training than just a normal lifestyle training to get ready for that . But even then , it's in a controlled , conservative fashion to get you there with your health intact and with the right fuel and the right performance to go after it and just trying to lose a ton of weight is not going to be that . So , instead of viewing your body as something that has to be punished , has to be hacked , has to be tricked into rapid transformation , see it as an adaptive system that responds best to love , to gradual , consistent change . Every meal that you're balancing out with protein and fiber , every training session that you give it , that what we call acute or hormetic stress , that good stress that your body feels great but it also is going to have lasting effects by building muscle , every good night's sleep you know that you wake up feeling refreshed . Those are all investments that really pay off . Those are investments in your health , right ? Not punishing yourself on a treadmill , getting sweaty , getting sore , feeling like you're going to die , feeling like you're going to just keel over and thinking that that is somehow a good sign , that is somehow associated with good health . Cause , it's not . It's not If you're punishing yourself .

Philip Pape 24:45

If you think of your language around the gym , if it's like , oh , that was brutal , oh , that crushed me , and it's not done out of just like jest . Like you know , if I do a heavy back squat , I'm like grinding through it , I'm like , oh , that was brutal . That's different , I mean , in my opinion , because it's more about the language . That's different than something that just makes you want to puke and collapse afterward and then you can't walk up the stairs for three days and then guess what . It's really not going to give you a result anyway that you're going for . There's a difference . If you go on the biggest loser , are you going to have a dramatic before and after ? Absolutely Right , is that really what you want when you then lose it ? So the biggest losers lost a lot more than that , didn't they ? They lost their ability to sustain that , and it actually crushes your confidence , because then it sets you up for thinking the only way I can get to something that I'm going for with aesthetics or weight or whatever , is to do this crazy extreme thing . And then you dread that thing or you just won't do it . You're like , well , I'll do that next week or I'll do that next month , and then you don't do it because it's not the right thing to do for you , right , it's not the right thing to do .

Philip Pape 25:49

You want a peaceful relationship with food . Food is something you eat multiple times a day , every day , for the rest of your life , don't ? We want to enjoy that relationship . It doesn't mean you have to , you know , indulge and just love every single bite and mindfully eat 100% of the time , or anything like that . It also doesn't mean that everything that goes in your body has to be just of the perfect health , so to speak , right . Give yourself some flexibility .

Philip Pape 26:12

Training is kind of the same thing . It's like life is going to happen . You might have to shift your training day around , you might have to swap out some exercises . Just show up and go to the gym , get it done right , and in the long run , that's going to matter for who you are and then what you are , what you're able to do and , yes , even what you look like . So imagine being able to lose fat when you want to maintain your weight wherever you want to maintain it , and then actually enjoy the process . That's what we're going for here . Okay , and it's achievable For anyone who's willing to play that long game . It's achievable and I want you to reach out . If you want to understand how right Reach out , send me a text message using the link in the show notes . Hit me up on Instagram at Wits and Weights .

Philip Pape 26:55

I want to recap , just to kind of reiterate the importance of this episode and what we learned from the Biggest Loser , because that extreme dieting , that rapid weight loss that leads to significant metabolic adaptation , that results in weight regain but , worse than that , it results in your overall metabolism being lower than it was before because now you've lost a bunch of muscle . The concept of metabolic inflexibility it's very intriguing Metabolic damage and flexibility but in reality , a lot of this is effect and cause , not cause and effect . Having a balanced approach that prioritizes health and then the consistency and patience to get there is really what's going to pay off . All right , before we wrap up , if you found value in today's episode , I really appreciate it . I'm so grateful if you would just share it on your social media . That's all I'm asking for .

Philip Pape 27:40

Tell people about it .

Philip Pape 27:41

Take a photo of you listening you know , hey , look at me or a screenshot of the episode and just post it . Post it to wherever Instagram X threads . Tag me at what's in weights and let your friends know what you learned and why you found the information helpful . That's really all I'm asking for . If you found this helpful , if you're like , hey , this guy talked about what really is happening when we diet , I think you find it pretty cool because he talks about , you know , losing fat instead of losing muscle , or he talks about a better approach that you could actually enjoy , and you don't have to feel guilty and like you're punishing yourself

Promoting Sustainable Health Strategies

Philip Pape 28:14

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Philip Pape 28:14

Just share it with people . I also love to see who's listening , so when you share it on social , I'll be able to see who's commenting , who's listening and then hearing how you describe the show to people . So don't be shy . Don't be shy . Share away . Let's spread the word about smart , efficient , sustainable strategies based on the evidence . Okay , until next time , keep using your wits , lifting some weights , and remember your body is incredibly adaptive . With the right approach and with the love it deserves , you can achieve your goals without anything extreme , without extreme diet and extreme measures . I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits and Weights Podcast .