It can be motivating to see a friend or a celebrity lose weight. They are on a diet and exercise regimen, and transform their figure from overweight to actually lean. But then they gain the weight back again and you wonder why and you maybe even become frustrated or confused.
Dr. Palaniappan Manickam, a Gastroenterologist, explained this in a recent Instagram video. He practices medicine in California and is also a health educator on social media. In the video he discusses that when you lose weight from dieting, your fat cells shrink. Your fat cells don’t disappear.
They have shrunk just like balloons without air. “But the moment you eat more again, they will fill back up like magic.” This is why, part of the reason, people who were once overweight and lose weight are likely to gain it back quickly. At some point in your life, weight loss becomes more than willpower, it is a biological issue. You are trying to lose weight in fat cells that you already have.
Dr. Manickam also pointed out that the body stops making fat cells after teenage years. If you were overweight (as an example) when you were a teenager, you likely have more fat cells than the average non-overweight person or someone who was overweight and lost weight after teenage years. Generally, those with more fat cells as adults typically have a larger weight management issue in adulthood.
He emphasized, “When you lose fat rapidly, those cells will signal hunger to your body. This is why it’s difficult to stick with crash diets.”
Crash diets will cause rapid weight loss. But your body will fight against that fast weight loss by signaling for hunger to increase. This is why you feel exhausted, angry, and always hungry after a crash diet, or dieting too aggressively or too quickly. Your body will instinctually assume that it’s under threat, and work to regain that lost fat as swiftly as possible.
Dr. Manickam advocates for focusing on sustainable weight loss. The goal shouldn’t be purely fat loss. The objective is to create a lifestyle conducive to better digestion, sleep, energy, and wellness. Healthy habits will one day turn into what we know as weight loss.
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Fitness coach Rajni Singh agrees. “It’s about smaller, basic changes, not eating well and exercising just for 30 days and ignoring everything else.” Singh has developed a five stage guide for any new begining to partnership with healthier behaviours, remember the basics, eat well, exercise, and ignore current fad trends. “Real strength, and confidence comes from consistency” Singh explained, “not from a shortcut, or crash diet.”
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