Most people are able to successfully lose weight only to regain it shortly after. The hardest part about losing weight is keeping the weight off. Data at the National Weight Control Registry has shown that people who have successfully kept the weight off shared some very common characteristics. Exercising regularly was a key commonality among those who kept the weight off.

Weight Gain After Restrictive Diets

Restrictive diets take a psychological toll on the body. Restrictive diets cause people to be persistently hungry. Once the dieting ends, psychological signals in the body start influencing food consumption. The body is most likely in a state of deprivation after the weight loss. The body starts sending psychological signals to start over eating. This is compounded by the fact that most people already have a compromised metabolism after losing weight.

Exercise Prevents Weight Gain in Rats

A study was published in the American Journal of Physiology. Researchers wanted to investigate if exercise had an effect weight gain. They used rat that were prone to being obese. The rats were first made to gain weight. These rats ate a high fat diet for the first 16 weeks. The rats did not exercise during this period.

The rats were then placed on a low-fat diet for 10 weeks. One group of the rats remained sedentary while the other exercised. In the last 8 weeks of the study, the rats stopped the diet and were allowed unrestricted consumption of low-fat food. The sedentary rats remained sedentary while the other group continued with exercise.

In the last 8 weeks of the study, the researchers made the following observations about the rats that exercised;

• Had less weight gain
• Were able to better maintain their weight loss
• Burned more fat early in the day and more carbohydrates later in the day
• Accumulated fewer new fat cells
• Gained lesser abdominal fat
• Did not overeat as much as the sedentary group

Fuel Utilization Preference

Interestingly, the bodies of the sedentary rats burned carbohydrates while storing fat in the fat cells. This could be due to the fact that storing energy as fat is less energy intensive. Carbohydrates need to be first converted to fat before being stored in fat cells. The body’s preference to burn carbohydrates also caused persistent feelings of hunger and increase appetite in the sedentary rats.

The rats that exercised had a completely opposite fuel utilization preference. The bodies of the rats that exercised preferred to burn fat instead of carbohydrates. These rats also had a reduced appetite.

Reduced Number of New Fat Cells

Researchers also found that the sedentary rats had an increase in the number of new fat cells. The sedentary rats had more new fat cells which accelerated the weight gain when the rats got off the diet. This explained the reason the sedentary rats ended up with higher weight than the starting point.

Exercise Prevents Weight Gain

Sustainable weight loss is achievable via exercise. The data at the National Weight Control Registry correlates with the findings of the above study. The study could explain how exercise blunts the effects of weight gain in humans. Anyone wanting sustainable and long-term weight loss should have exercise as an integral part of their efforts.