Former Biggest Loser Winner Struggling To Maintain Healthy Weight Due To Slow Metabolism

NBC's hit reality TV show and contest 'The Biggest Loser' subjects out-of-shape obese individuals to a grueling experience of extreme workout regime. The recent title holder last season was Roberto Hernandez who staved off 106 lbs. off his weight.

The reality, however, begins to set in as soon as the fitness trainers, nutritionists, and spotlight go away. Without a tough fitness plan to keep additional pounds at bay, former contestants are at pains to hold on to their target weight. In a recently published research featured in the medical journal Obesity, a new study reveals that most Biggest Loser contestants are regaining most, if not all, of their weight they lost during the competition.

The research findings conclude that the body seems to automatically work on getting all the lost weight back by purposefully slowing down metabolism. If this conclusion holds true in other studies involving dieters, this would explain why it's a constant challenge to keep people from gaining weight again after losing them.

"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," New York Times reported.

As per report from The Wrap, the reality show's extreme fitness training decelerates their contestants resting metabolism which could no longer bounce back to its normal rate, the study suggests. The dire consequence of extreme workout regime in too short a time is the inability of the contestants to maintain their smaller without significantly reducing their calorie consumption. Furthermore, hunger-controlling hormones seem to decrease in numbers among the contestants which will never be replenished.

"Long-term weight loss requires vigilant combat against persistent metabolic adaptation that acts to proportionally counter ongoing efforts to reduce body weight," the authors concluded as quoted by ARS Technica.