The last temptation: keeping the final few pounds off to resume "normal" eating

The Last Temptation

AFTER YOU'VE CONSCIENTIOUSLY DIETED AND ARE finally at your weight goal, you may be fearful of regaining the fat you struggled so hard to lose. Weight goals, either self-imposed as with many recreational athletes, or sport-imposed as with figure skaters and lightweight wrestlers, can be frustrating to maintain. For example, Mark, a wrestler, rigorously dieted to cut weight before competitions only to regain within a day what he'd struggled for five days to lose. "I get so tired of dieting," he complained. "I look forward to the end of the season so I can be at my natural weight and eat again."

For dieting athletes, the question commonly arises, "Why can't I simply lose weight and keep it off? Why do I struggle with this never-ending battle to be thinner?" Often, these dieters are striving to be unnaturally thin; they overlook the fact 70% of weight is genetic. If they've inherited a stocky physique which contradicts their vision of slimness, they'll tend to regain any weight they lose once they resume "normal" eating.

What causes this weight-regain phenomena that plagues many athletes? Nutrition researchers at Columbia University theorize body weight may be regulated by the amount of fat contained in the fat cells, according to the Journal of Clinical Nutrition last May. When you lose weight, your fat cells get emptied. Hence, if you are a genetically heavy person who has reduced down to a weight that leaves your fat cells abnormally depleted, your body may respond with metabolic changes that enhance fat deposition. Despite eating a skimpy diet that "should" promote weight loss, you may maintain weight and easily regain without obvious overeating. In comparison, if you are a genetically lean person who overeats and overfills your fat cells (as with high school boys who try to gain weight), your fat cells will easily reduce back to their normal size once you decrease your calories.

Since not everyone was born with a sylph-like physique, you may be more robust than you'd like. In your continual efforts to slim, you may have become a "restrained eater" (i.e., one who skips meals to save calories, avoids high calorie foods or ends meals not because of satiety but because of a self-imposed food limit). At the Max-Planck Institute in Munich, researchers compared the everyday eating behavior in healthy 18 to 30-year-old women classified as either restrained or non-restrained eaters. The restrained eaters ate about 250 fewer calories per day than the unrestrained group (2,050 vs. 2,300 calories), despite the fact they weighed more. When adjusted for differences in body composition and height, the restrained eaters consumed 620 fewer calories per day - the equivalent of a generous meal, according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition last July.

Compared to the non-restrained eaters, the restrained eaters had been on more reduction diets during which they'd lost at least nine pounds. They reported dieting more often than the non-restrained eaters. They tended to eat less fat and drink less alcohol than their counterparts. The authors conclude all these efforts to be thinner may have resulted in changes that negatively impacted weight control. That is, the women who tried to keep their weight below a natural level (the weight they would easily maintain without dietary restrictions) may have lowered their metabolism and fallen into the vicious (and often fattening) cycle of going on and off diets.

Such was the case with Laura, one of my clients. She expressed anger at her inability to lose five pounds. Laura weighed 135 pounds - a number that simply sounded too heavy, so she pursued a low calorie (but ineffective) diet. Laura exercised like crazy, constantly felt hungry and reported "blowing her diet" at least once a week. She was 18% fat (much leaner than the average woman who is 25-28% fat); she denied that she was lean.

Laura was from an obese family and had been heavy as a child. Now, due to extreme exercise and calorie restriction, she had finally gotten to her thinnest. But she was nevertheless discontent. I reminded Laura even if she were to lose five pounds, she'd undoubtedly regain it shortly. I questioned whether or not dieting would be worth the effort. She was clearly fighting a battle against Mother Nature.

If you, like Laura, experience similar frustrations with losing those final few pounds and then keeping them off, you might want to ask yourself, "Is it really worth the effort to lose weight just to regain it?" Perhaps it's not. After all, there's a price to pay for being abnormally thin - the ability to eat - and enjoy eating - a sports diet that enhances your athletic performance and invests in your future well-being.

Nancy Clark, M.S., R.D., sports nutritionist at SportsMedicine Brookline, Massachusetts, helps weight-conscious athletes be successful with food. Her books The Athlete's Kitchen and Nancy Clark's Nutrition Guidebook ($15) are available through New England Sports Publications, P.O. Box 252, Boston, MA 02113.

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