Biggest Weight Loss Rule is a Myth

It's all in the numbers—that of the scale, height, the measurement of your waist, BMI, dress size. These are things that we measure to determine if we're fat, overweight or obese. For those who are struggling to lose weight, here's something to challenge your current beliefs in weight loss.

You've probably been told by a nutritionist or nutrition book or blog that if you cut down 3,500 calories in a week's diet, you're bound to lose one pound. However, Stuff reports that Kevin Hall, a researcher at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases pointed out: "I see dietitians using it all the time, making recommendations based off of it. Unfortunately it's completely wrong."

This can be traced back to the research of Max Wishnofsky in the 1950s, which revealed that a pound of fat tissue represents 3,500 kilocalories of energy. This research did not take into consideration that the weight one loses is not purely fat tissue.

Hall created what he called the Body Weight Planner that challenged the 3,500 calorie rule to show that the research done in the 1950s does not really apply.

He said, "What we found when we made the comparison between the 3,500 calorie rule and our revised prediction is that it over predicts how much people will lose by a sizable margin. If you’re just looking at diet changes alone it’s about two fold greater a year."

Dieters are also met with more bad news, the Washington Post reports, as a research published in the American Journal of Public Health studied more than 278,000 people in England for nine years and revealed that "patients with a BMI of 30 or greater kilograms per meters squared, maintaining weight loss was rare and the probability of achieving normal weight was extremely low."

"Research to develop new and more effective approaches to obesity management is urgently required," the study authors concluded. 

Speaking of obesity management, University of Minnesota psychology professor and author of "Secrets from the Eating Lab" Traci Mann told the Washington Post in an interview: "Everyone is blaming dieters for regaining weight they lose, and that's just wrong."

"After you diet, so many biological changes happen in your body that it becomes practically impossible to keep the weight off. It's not about someone's self-control or strength of will," she explained. She categorized the biological changes into three—neurological, hormonal, and metabolic.

Neurological changes make you more responsive to food. When one diets, the level of hormones in the body that makes it feel full also decreases, while the level of hormones that make you feel hungry increases. Lastly, metabolical changes affect how your body uses calories when you cut down.

"Your metabolism slows down. Your body uses calories in the most efficient way possible. Which sounds like a good thing," Mann explained. "But it isn't a good thing if you're trying to lose weight, because when your body finds a way to run itself on fewer calories there tends to be more leftover, and those get stored as fat, which is exactly what you don't want to happen."

Find out more on Mann's study results in her book, Secrets from the Eating Lab and take notes on how to come up with a nutrition plan that won't negatively affect your weight loss program in the long run. It is also recommended to regularly consult a dietician or nutritionist for the best regulated diet options for your fitness goals.