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Shedding pounds and metabolism: Why it’s hard to keep weight off

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Science is explaining why it’s so hard to keep the pounds off after a major weight loss. A study published Monday in the research journal ‘Obesity’ suggests it may not be the dieter’s fault as to why the fat comes back.

Researchers behind the study followed 14 contestants from season 8 of the Biggest Loser show for six years. They found that the more weight a contestant lost, the more their metabolism slowed.

Researchers found it’s almost as if the body fights against all efforts to keep the weight off in hopes of returning the body to its original, or baseline, weight.

Researchers found that by the end of the show, the participating contestants had lost substantial weight as well as a lot of their resting metabolism rate (RMR). RMR is what determines how many calories a body burns while at rest.

The RMR for all six men and eight women dropped significantly and after six years most of the contestants had gained most of their weight back.

What’s even more disheartening is that the study found that even as the weight crept back on the metabolism didn’t recover throughout the six years. Contestants were burning hundreds of fewer calories a day while at rest than the average man and woman.