The Biggest Looser
Danny Cahill, 46, palestrante, autor, agrimensor e músico, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
Peso anterior ao Reality Show = 195 Kg; Peso ao final do Programa = 87 Kg; Peso Atual = 134kg
Cientistas rastrearam ao longo do tempo, concorrentes do Reality Show "Biggest Loser". Os resultados publicados hoje podem explicar por que a perda de peso é tão difícil.
Kevin Hall, cientista de um centro de pesquisa federal, teve a ideia de acompanhar os competidores do "Biggest Loser", por seis anos, a partir da noite vitoriosa. O projeto foi o primeiro a medir o que aconteceu com as pessoas depois de terem perdido grandes quantidades de peso através de dieta intensiva e exercício.
Danny Cahill ficou de pé, um pouco atordoado, sob uma nevasca de confete enquanto o público gritava e sua família correu no palco. Ele havia vencido a Oitava Temporada do reality show da NBC "The Biggest Loser", perdendo mais peso do que qualquer outro concorrente em todas as temporadas do programa - espantosos 239 libras - 108 kgs - em sete meses.
Na noite de 08 de dezembro de 2009, vestindo camiseta e shorts, ele era magro, atlético e pesava apenas 191 libras.
"Eu tenho minha vida de volta", declarou ele. "Quero dizer, eu me sinto como um milhão de dólares."
O Sr. Cahill deixou o palco do show em Hollywood e voou diretamente para Nova York para começar uma turnê triunfal dos talk shows, conversando com Jay Leno, Regis Philbin e Joy Behar.
Mas nos anos seguintes, apesar de seus melhores esforços, ele já havia engordado mais de 100 libras - 46 kg - em uma altura de 5-foot-11 - 1,80 m. Na verdade, a maioria dos 16 concorrentes que temporada, recuperaram grande parte, se não todo o peso que perderam tão arduamente. Alguns deles se tornaram ainda mais obesos.
Mas enquanto as suas experiências, foram uma amarga decepção pessoal, para a ciência foi um presente. Um estudo sobre os de competidores da Temporada 8 rendeu novas e surpreendentes descobertas sobre a fisiologia da obesidade, ajudando a explicar por que tantas pessoas lutam, sem sucesso, contra o ganho de peso.
O seu peso atual é 295 libras e apresenta uma taxa metabólica de repouso, cerca de 800 calorias/ dia menor do que seria esperado para um homem do seu tamanho.
"É assustador e surpreendente", disse o Dr. Hall, especialista em metabolismo do Instituto Nacional de Diabetes, Doenças Digestivas e Renais, que faz parte dos Institutos Nacionais de Saúde.
Quando o show começou, os competidores, embora extremamente acima do peso, teve metabolismos normais para o seu tamanho, o que significa que estavam queimando um número normal de calorias para as pessoas de seu peso. Mas após o término do programa, os seus metabolismos tinham abrandado radicalmente e seus corpos não estavam queimando calorias suficientes para manter o peso diminuído.
Os pesquisadores já sabiam que após uma deliberada perda peso o metabolismo se torna mais lento. Assim, eles não ficaram surpresos ao ver as taxas metabólicas dos concorrentes quando o show terminou.
O que chocou os pesquisadores foi o que aconteceu em seguida: Como o passar dos anos, o metabolismo dos concorrentes não se recuperou, mas se tornaram ainda mais lentos, como se os seus corpos estivessem se esforçando trazer os competidores de volta ao seu peso original.
O caso do Sr. Cahill foi um dos piores. Como ele recuperou mais de 100 libras, o seu metabolismo desacelerou tanto que, apenas para manter o seu peso atual de 295 libras, ele agora tem que comer 800 calorias por dia menos do um típico homem do seu tamanho. Qualquer coisa a mais se transforma em gordura.
'A Básica Realidade Biológica '
A luta dos competidores ajudaram a explicar por que tem sido tão difícil fazer progressos contra o problema da obesidade da nação americana, que atinge mais de um terço dos adultos americanos. Apesar de gastar bilhões de dólares com drogas e programas de dieta, mesmo os mais motivados trabalham contra a sua própria biologia.
Essa experiência mostra que o corpo vai lutar por anos e isso, disse o Dr. Michael Schwartz, Pesquisador de Obesidade e Diabetes e Professor de Medicina na Universidade de Washington, é "novo e importante".
"O ponto-chave é que você pode perder enormes quantidades de peso, mas você não pode ficar longe de uma realidade biológica básica", disse o Dr. Schwartz, que não participou como pesquisador, nesse estudo. "Enquanto você estiver abaixo de seu peso habitual, o seu corpo vai tentar levá-lo de volta."
O médico do show, Robert Huizenga, diz que esperava que as taxas metabólicas dos concorrentes caísse logo após o show, mas estava esperando por uma queda menor. Ele questionou, se as medições seis anos mais tarde foram precisas, contudo concorda que manter a perda de peso é difícil e que é por isso que os competidores necessitam se exercitar pelo menos nove horas por semana e monitorar suas dietas, para manter o peso conquistado.
"Infelizmente, muitos competidores não são capazes de manter o apoio contínuo adequado com personal trainer, psicólogos, especialistas em sono - e isso é algo que todos nós precisamos trabalhar duro para mudar", disse ele em um email.
As conclusões do estudo, a ser publicado na segunda-feira - 09/05/16 - na revista Obesity, são parte de um esforço científico para responder a algumas das questões mais fundamentais sobre a obesidade. Os pesquisadores estão tentando descobrir porque a obesidade leva tantas pessoas desenvolverem diabetes e outras condições médicas e eles estão à procura de novas maneiras de bloquear a gordura. Eles estão começando a desvendar as razões da cirurgia bariátrica permitir que a maioria das pessoas percam quantidades significativas de peso, enquanto a dieta tantas vezes falha. Eles estão à procura de novos cuidados médicos para pessoas obesas.
SEGUE TEXTO ORIGINAL
Scientists tracked “Biggest Loser” contestants over time. The results, publishing today, may explain why weight loss is so hard.
Danny Cahill stood, slightly dazed, in a blizzard of confetti as the audience screamed and his family ran on stage. He had won Season 8 of NBC’s reality television show “The Biggest Loser,” shedding more weight than anyone ever had on the program — an astonishing 239 pounds in seven months.
When he got on the scale for all to see that evening, Dec. 8, 2009, he weighed just 191 pounds, down from 430. Dressed in a T-shirt and knee-length shorts, he was lean, athletic and as handsome as a model.
“I’ve got my life back,” he declared. “I mean, I feel like a million bucks.”
Mr. Cahill left the show’s stage in Hollywood and flew directly to New York to start a triumphal tour of the talk shows, chatting with Jay Leno, Regis Philbin and Joy Behar. As he heard from fans all over the world, his elation knew no bounds.
But in the years since, more than 100 pounds have crept back onto his 5-foot-11 frame despite his best efforts. In fact, most of that season’s 16 contestants have regained much if not all the weight they lost so arduously. Some are even heavier now.
Danny Cahill stood, slightly dazed, in a blizzard of confetti as the audience screamed and his family ran on stage. He had won Season 8 of NBC’s reality television show “The Biggest Loser,” shedding more weight than anyone ever had on the program — an astonishing 239 pounds in seven months.
When he got on the scale for all to see that evening, Dec. 8, 2009, he weighed just 191 pounds, down from 430. Dressed in a T-shirt and knee-length shorts, he was lean, athletic and as handsome as a model.
“I’ve got my life back,” he declared. “I mean, I feel like a million bucks.”
Mr. Cahill left the show’s stage in Hollywood and flew directly to New York to start a triumphal tour of the talk shows, chatting with Jay Leno, Regis Philbin and Joy Behar. As he heard from fans all over the world, his elation knew no bounds.
But in the years since, more than 100 pounds have crept back onto his 5-foot-11 frame despite his best efforts. In fact, most of that season’s 16 contestants have regained much if not all the weight they lost so arduously. Some are even heavier now.
Yet their experiences, while a bitter personal disappointment, have been a gift to science. A study of Season 8’s contestants has yielded surprising new discoveries about the physiology of obesity that help explain why so many people struggle unsuccessfully to keep off the weight they lose.
Kevin Hall, a scientist at a federal research center who admits to a weakness for reality TV, had the idea to follow the “Biggest Loser” contestants for six years after that victorious night. The project was the first to measure what happened to people over as long as six years after they had lost large amounts of weight with intensive dieting and exercise.
“I won’t be victim to this. It’s the hand I’ve been dealt.”
Danny Cahill
46, speaker, author, land surveyor and musician, Broken Arrow, Okla.
WEIGHT Before show, 430 pounds; at finale, 191 pounds; now, 295 pounds
METABOLIC RATE Now burns 800 fewer calories a day than would be expected for a man his size.
The results, the researchers said, were stunning. They showed just how hard the body fights back against weight loss.
“It is frightening and amazing,” said Dr. Hall, an expert on metabolism at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. “I am just blown away.
It has to do with resting metabolism, which determines how many calories a person burns when at rest. When the show began, the contestants, though hugely overweight, had normal metabolisms for their size, meaning they were burning a normal number of calories for people of their weight. When it ended, their metabolisms had slowed radically and their bodies were not burning enough calories to maintain their thinner sizes.
Researchers knew that just about anyone who deliberately loses weight — even if they start at a normal weight or even underweight — will have a slower metabolism when the diet ends. So they were not surprised to see that “The Biggest Loser” contestants had slow metabolisms when the show ended.
What shocked the researchers was what happened next: As the years went by and the numbers on the scale climbed, the contestants’ metabolisms did not recover. They became even slower, and the pounds kept piling on. It was as if their bodies were intensifying their effort to pull the contestants back to their original weight.
Mr. Cahill was one of the worst off. As he regained more than 100 pounds, his metabolism slowed so much that, just to maintain his current weight of 295 pounds, he now has to eat 800 calories a day less than a typical man his size. Anything more turns to fat.
‘A Basic Biological Reality’
The struggles the contestants went through help explain why it has been so hard to make headway against the nation’s obesity problem, which afflicts more than a third of American adults. Despite spending billions of dollars on weight-loss drugs and dieting programs, even the most motivated are working against their own biology.
Their experience shows that the body will fight back for years. And that, said Dr. Michael Schwartz, an obesity and diabetes researcher who is a professor of medicine at the University of Washington, is “new and important.”
“The key point is that you can be on TV, you can lose enormous amounts of weight, you can go on for six years, but you can’t get away from a basic biological reality,” said Dr. Schwartz, who was not involved in the study. “As long as you are below your initial weight, your body is going to try to get you back.”
The show’s doctor, Robert Huizenga, says he expected the contestants’ metabolic rates to fall just after the show, but was hoping for a smaller drop. He questioned, though, whether the measurements six years later were accurate. But maintaining weight loss is difficult, he said, which is why he tells contestants that they should exercise at least nine hours a week and monitor their diets to keep the weight off.
“Unfortunately, many contestants are unable to find or afford adequate ongoing support with exercise doctors, psychologists, sleep specialists, and trainers — and that’s something we all need to work hard to change,” he said in an email.
The study’s findings, to be published on Monday in the journal Obesity, are part of a scientific push to answer some of the most fundamental questions about obesity. Researchers are figuring out why being fat makes so many people develop diabetes and other medical conditions, and they are searching for new ways to block the poison in fat. They are starting to unravel the reasons bariatric surgery allows most people to lose significant amounts of weight when dieting so often fails. And they are looking afresh at medical care for obese people.
Matéria publicada no Jornal The New York Times, Segunda-Feira 02/05/2016 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weight-loss.html?emc=edit_na_20160502&nlid=68448649&ref=cta&_r=0.
Claudia B., c.pilatesyoga@gmail.com
Pós-Graduação: Método Pilates – Fisioterapia Esportiva/ Certificação: Yoga – Treinamento Funcional – Treino em Suspensão