Rebecca Wright and her husband, Daniel Wright, have gained back a lot of the weight they lost six years ago on a TV reality show. A study of the contestants helps explain why.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.
1 How many pounds did Rebecca and her husband lose together?
2 What has happened in the last six years?
3 How healthy are Rebecca and her husband?
4 What will happen to your body if you are successful losing weight?
5 What are the people trying to lose weight fighting against?
6 What simile does Dr Hall use?
7 How do Rebecca and her husband feel when they hear how difficult it is for them to fight against their slow metabolism?
8 What have they learnt after taking part in the study?
Three. Two. Exhale. Good job.
Rebecca Wright, a personal trainer, and her husband, Daniel, first met on season eight of "The Biggest Loser." They together lost almost 250 pounds. But in the last six years, they've gained almost all the weight back.
Daniel and I have never given up since "Loser."
We've seen some pretty big downfalls. We've put weight back on. But we've never stopped being healthy.
Wright participated in a recent study that helps explain why she and many other contestants have regained most of their weight.
Two more.
The more successful you are at losing weight, the slower your metabolism will be and the more hungry you'll be.
Dr. Kevin Hall led the study. He's a senior investigator at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, and he says the findings show how hard the body fights back against weight loss.
These "Biggest Loser" folks, not only did they cut their calories, but they increased the amount of exercise that they're doing by an enormous amount. [High.] However, despite that, their metabolic rate slowed dramatically. [Up. Press.] On the metabolism side of things, your body is trying to slow down and resist further weight loss and actually promote weight regain. And you're fighting against that at the same time as you're fighting against an increased appetite. [Rip it across. Yes.] So it's a little bit of a double whammy. And what happens to most people is that they can't keep up the fight against the slowing of metabolism and the increased appetite, and so they slip backwards. It's like asking someone to hold their breath. You can do it for a little while, but it is very difficult to do it for much longer than a minute or two. [One.]
So I think when you hear that you have a slower metabolism, you're a little disheartened. We're bombarded by messages that say, here are seven things you can do to boost your metabolism. I saw on the program at 4:00 PM today that, if I eat this, I'll have a faster metabolism. It's this word that's been thrown around since I was as young as I can remember.
I have to stop at ALDI and get wraps for huevos.
So when you first hear you have a slow metabolism, you're a little disheartened, because you're like, well, does that mean I'm set what does this mean?
Like, I'm just doomed. I'm never gonna be able to lose weight. Does that mean you throw the towel in? No. You get to eat soon, mi amor.
So now we know why this happens to us and why it's hard. So now it's like, oh, 'cause someone, someone medically is saying, hey, it is hard. But the other answer is it's saying it's not impossible. There are people from the study who have maintained weight loss. So I think the point from the study is, oh, here's why I've been yo-yoing. So now what can I do to kind of design my life to not do that as much anymore? And this time doing it reasonably and doing it slower, so hopefully there's not this big swing that we saw after "Biggest Loser."
