New Ways To Lose 5kg

Why is it that some people seem to shed kilos easily, while for others the struggle is real? To find out, we checked into the world’s top obesity research lab to report on the potential future of weight loss

Every week over several months, a new volunteer checks into the metabolic ward of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in the US. Each stays for 24 days and she or he is fed meals that are meticulously measured so their kilojoule intake is less than what their body burns, guaranteeing weight drops off.

Participants begin the study by spending three days locked inside one of Pennington’s “metabolic chambers”. Not as sinister as it sounds: Dr Eric Ravussin, the white-coated concierge of these suites, compares them to “hotel rooms but with a glass wall and precise sensors”. Here, every breath is measured to assess each volunteer’s metabolic rate. Participants then spend 17 days on a “campus” – where meals and exercise are logged – before returning to the chamber for a final evaluation. The goal? To record how much weight the subjects lose, as well as how their metabolic rates are affected by the process of cutting kilojoules.

An annoying true story: if losing weight is hard, then keeping it off is harder.

Ravussin made headlines recently with a study revealing that extreme diets can cause a significant metabolic slowdown. “People who lose weight are almost doomed to regain it,” he says. Sigh.

The thing is: weight gain is difficult to conceptualise. It results from a heap of desperate yet coexisting factors – from metabolic and emotional issues to a lack of exercise and poor nutrition. In Pennington’s Ingestive Behavior, Weight Management and Health Promotion Laboratory, Dr Colby Martin looks at everything from how eating pace affects satiety to how group dynamics (read: the influence of your friends) impact upon food choices. In another lab, Dr Owen Carmichael uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to better grasp cravings (stop staring at us, snack drawer) at a neurological level.