Group: Beginners to Exercise

Created: 2012/01/01, Members: 970, Messages: 18927

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If you were heavy and dieted down

bb1fit
bb1fit
Posts: 11,105
Joined: 2001/06/30
United States
2006/01/30, 01:45 PM
I have always stated that it is imparitive for a person who was at one time heavy and lost weight to be much more dilligent about their diet from now till the end of time, than more typically lean folks. From Lyle McDonald(the man on dieting :)), this may help to explain a bit further.

Dieted individuals typically show a biology that is absolutely not geared towards anything except packing the body fat back on. Typically, the metabolic consequences of dieting include a lowered metabolism, decreased fat oxidation, decreased HSL activity, increased LPL activity impaired hormonal status (including lowered testosterone and raised cortisol), decreased thermogenesis from a reduction in both thyroid levels and nervous system output and a host of other metabolic defects. All of these serve to both slow fat loss during the diet and ensure rapid fat regain when food is reintroduced.

For example, in the classic starvation study (the Minnesota Semi-Starvation study) men were dieted for 6 solid months reaching 4-5% body fat at the end of the study. Then they were refed and body composition was tracked. By the theory being advocated, they should have gained lots of LBM and little fat during refeeding, they were clearly super lean to start out with. But this is absolutely not what happened.

As would be expected based on the metabolic adaptations to dieting, their bodies were mainly primed to replenish fat stores. Reductions in metabolic rate, fat oxidation and thermogenesis all contributed to a preferential gain of body fat and these systems didn't reset themselves until all of the body fat lost had been regained (8). Quite in fact, signals from body fat (i.e. leptin and the rest) are the mechanism behind this physiology (9).

The bottom line is that, in dieted down individuals, the body is primed to gain body fat at the expense of LBM to replenish what was lost during the diet. Again, this is fundamentally different than looking at genetically lean individuals (for whom a low body fat percentage is their normal level) in terms of what happens when they are overfed.

And even without this research available, anybody who's dieted to a low body fat percentage can attest to the above.


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asimmer
asimmer
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Joined: 2003/01/07
United States
2006/02/01, 10:36 PM
:angry:yep

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In truth, people can generally make time for what they choose to do; it is not really the time but the will that is lacking.
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sstump1
sstump1
Posts: 1,227
Joined: 2005/03/20
United States
2006/02/02, 11:09 AM
So basically anyone who's changed their lifestyle and dropped over say 30ish lbs should be real careful cause their body's are still trying to store fat?

How would this work if you wanted to lean down and then build pure mass? Just have to watch what and how much you increase your diet by?
bb1fit
bb1fit
Posts: 11,105
Joined: 2001/06/30
United States
2006/02/02, 11:43 AM
30 lbs. may or may not qualify you, but it would be smart to be careful at the very least. Being really heavy has to be taken in context, I think you know if you were "fat" or well on your way to being so. If this is the case, this may well apply to you.

You may not be able to go "all out" so to speak on a bulk. You would have a propensity towards fat first. Be very careful with your bulk and monitor yourself.

Genes suck.

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sstump1
sstump1
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2006/02/02, 12:09 PM
I was pretty much obese at 5'4" and 165 (180 at my highest). This might explains why my spare tire seems like it's spring loaded, whenever I start to bulk it'll be 2 days and it's already back, that's only after bumping my diet up 300-400 cals. That's why I haven't really gone on a long term bulk, cause it hasn't seemed to go well for me. I've mastered losing the weight though...just not gaining it back.

Here I was thinking that losing the first 30 lbs was tough...starting to look like putting on clean mass is going to be even more of a challenge.
bb1fit
bb1fit
Posts: 11,105
Joined: 2001/06/30
United States
2006/02/02, 12:20 PM
Unfortunately, this is the case with many folks. Have you ever had your free test levels checked?

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sstump1
sstump1
Posts: 1,227
Joined: 2005/03/20
United States
2006/02/02, 02:28 PM
No I haven't...I should have asked my Dr a few weeks ago when they checked my Chol. levels. Should I give them a ring and see if they can schedule this?
bb1fit
bb1fit
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Joined: 2001/06/30
United States
2006/02/02, 09:14 PM
It may be worth your while.

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Zaboo2
Zaboo2
Posts: 47
Joined: 2005/10/28
United States
2006/02/05, 09:29 PM
ok im a bit confused. reading this i guess its saying if you were really fat then got the fat off it is going to be hard to but on LBM? ok well since im definitely going to be a stat here (lost 50+) when it comes time to bulk is there anything you can do about this? is there anything i can do while dieting down?

all i hear here is bad news :( lol not like im gonna stop though...
bb1fit
bb1fit
Posts: 11,105
Joined: 2001/06/30
United States
2006/02/05, 11:50 PM
I would suggest monitoring your bulk very closely. What the deal really comes down to is you will have more propensity to store fat than the naturally lean person. So, you would not be able to go all out on a bulk for instance. You will have to be much more careful with your calorie intake/and especially type. I would suggest you might try short bulks followed by shorter cutting cycles. Such as an 8 week bulk followed by a 2-3 week "hardening" cycle. The longer your bulk, the longer your cut will be. It is an unfortunate thing, but genes do play a large part.

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severrin
severrin
Posts: 82
Joined: 2006/02/15
United States
2006/03/08, 03:09 AM
ok well i started out as a little kid lean, but years of not having outside activity caused me to turn into a little piggy, i got mss put on during highschool messed my leg up got back to 11% still have all my flexibilty and eveything i had but it caused me to gain more weight, but your saying because i'm fat that it's gonna be harder for me to bulk up, well is it gonna be like that for me forever?
bb1fit
bb1fit
Posts: 11,105
Joined: 2001/06/30
United States
2006/03/08, 11:35 AM
Unfortunately some things cannot change. The fat accumulation you gained could very well haunt you. You will have to be very careful in your bulks. If you do one, and find when you diet down even though you gained weight and looked like you gained some good muscle, but upon dieting end up close to the same place you previously were, you are in that boat. :)

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raiderfanusa
raiderfanusa
Posts: 139
Joined: 2002/06/06
United States
2006/03/10, 04:16 PM
I have been down that road. I went into the service at 205. Got out 3 years later at 167 on my 6' frame. I married at 225 and got as high as 296 a couple of years ago. I have since lost over 50 lbs by Lifestyle changing to be more active, weight train, cycle, and above all Eat Smart and Healthy. I am here to tell you that yes it is tough. So tough in fact that I dont believe my body will ever reset. I have only been successfull because I changed my life in order to be healthy. It is Getting Healthy and staying that way that is my primary goal. It has to be that. The weight loss is a by product of health goals. I expect to hit my target weight this calander year. Tough you ask. Yes Damm tough so listen to BB1fit and the other moderators here as they offer top notch information and advice. Great Post! Makes some sense of why I experienced what I have.

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