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The Weight Loss Trap: Why Your Diet Isn't Working 4 What Hall  discovered , however–and what frankly  startled  him–was that even when the  Biggest  Loser contestants  gained  back some of their weight, their  resting  metabolism didn’t speed up  along with it . Instead, in a cruel twist, it  remained  low, burning about  700 fewer  calories per day than it did  before  they started losing weight in the  first place . “When  people see  the slowing  metabolism  numbers,” says Hall, “their eyes bulge like, How is that  even possible ?” The  contestants  lose a massive amount of weight in a  relatively  short period of  time–admittedly  not how most doctors  recommend  you lose weight–but research  shows that  the same slowing  metabolism  Hall observed tends to  happen  to regular Joes too. Most  p...

The Weight Loss Trap: Why Your Diet Isn't Working 3 The  concept  of the calorie as a unit of  energy  had been studied and  shared  in scientific circles  throughout  Europe for some time , but it  wasn’t until World War I  that calorie  counting became de  rigueur  in the U.S. Amid  global  food shortages, the  American  government  needed a  way to  encourage  people to cut back on their  food intake , so it issued its first ever “ scientific diet ” for Americans, which  had calorie  counting at its  core . In the  following  decades, when being  rail-thin  became ever more  desirable , nearly all dieting  advice  stressed meals that were low  calorie . There was the  grapefruit  diet of the 1930s (in  which people  ate half a grapefruit with  every meal  out of a belief tha...

The Weight Loss Trap: Why Your Diet Isn't Working 2 It’s also  fueled  a rise in research.  Last year  the NIH provided an  estimated  $931 million in  funding  for obesity research,  including Hall’s , and that research is  giving  scientists a new  understanding  of why dieting is so hard, why  keeping  the weight off over time is  even harder  and why the  prevailing  wisdom about weight  loss seems  to work only  sometimes–for  some people. What  scientists  are uncovering  should bring  fresh hope to the 155 million  Americans  who are overweight,  according  to the U.S. Centers for  Disease  Control and  Prevention . Leading researchers  finally agree , for instance, that  exercise , while critical to good  health , is not an especially  reliable  way to keep off body fat over...

The Weight Loss Trap: Why Your Diet Isn't Working (This article is divided into 8 parts and you'll receive it in 8 days) Like most  people , Kevin Hall used to think the  reason  people get fat is  simple . “Why  don’t they  just eat less and  exercise more?”  he remembers  thinking . Trained as a physicist, the  calories-in-vs .-calories-burned  equation  for weight loss always  made sense  to him. But then  his own  research–and the  contestants  on a smash reality-TV  show–proved  him wrong. Hall, a  scientist  at the National  Institutes  of Health (NIH), started  watching  The Biggest Loser a  few years  ago on the  recommendation  of a friend. “I  saw these  folks stepping on  scales , and they lost  20 lb . in a week,”  he says .  On the  one hand, it tracked with  widespr...

5 Weight Loss Tips From People Who Have Actually Done It Most  Americans  want to lose weight, but it’s no  simple feat . Just ask someone who’s  done it . That’s  exactly  what TIME did in a  recent  cover story looking at new weight  loss science . After speaking to  people  who had successfully lost  weight  (after failing many times), it  became  clear that there’s no best way to  go about it . Instead, evidence—both  scientific  and anecdotal—show that it’s  possible  for anyone to reach a  healthy  weight through a strategy that works  best for them . Here’s what  worked  for five people who lost weight  and kept it off . Go slow and  steady “I’ve been  overweight  my entire life. I’d try  different  diets, lose a few pounds and then  gain it back . When I turned 25, I  was 485 lb . and I knew I  was...

30 Easy Tips to Get Slimmer in 30 Days One month to fit The  New Year  signals a clean slate (and a  clean plate !). The good news:  Implementing  even small everyday  diet  and exercise  changes  can lead to a long-term  difference , says Lee  Goldman , MD, executive vice  president  and dean of the  faculties  of health  sciences  and medicine at  Columbia  University Medical  Center . When it  comes  to exercise, "the  simple  message  is to  stay active,"  he says . Focus on  building  activity into your  daily  routine, he adds,  whether  it's going to the gym, walking  several  extra blocks rather than  driving , or taking the stairs  instead  of the elevator. Dr.  Goldman  also cautions against the  common  mistake of  celebrating  your new exercise...