New Studies Cast Serious Doubt on Diet Math

at 2:12 PM

The age old question: how many calories should you cut to lose a pound? The answer that most dietitians have long provided is 3,500 calories. But recent studies indicate that calories can not be converted into weight through a simple formula. Over the long term, results of the studies suggest that the 3,500 calorie rule gets things very wrong.

Think about this: the chocolate-chip-cookie fan who adds the 60-calorie cookie to his daily diet. By the old math, the cookie would add up to six pounds a year and 60 pounds a decade. But new research-based on studies on volunteers whose calorie consumption is observed in laboratory settings rather than food diaries-suggests that the body's self-regulatory mechanisms tamp down the effects of changes in diet. This study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association earlier this year.

So rewriting the math has great implication for the fight against obesity. Revising this formula also alters the math for one substantially obese woman who has launched a well-publicized effort to become MORE obese. To challenge world records, Donna Simpson wants to drastically change her food environment and hopes to reach 1,000 pounds. To reach her goal, she has said she will consume 12,000 calories every day. But just as the body requires less fuel to power itself as weight declines, it requires more fuel to sustain the higher weight.

Therefore just as it is hard to lose weight because the formula is not so simple, it is also difficult to gain weight. The 3,500-calorie rule makes sense in short periods of time, but in the long run the regulatory system in the body ( such as the endocrine system) starts making tweaks here and there to balance out huge energy changes in the body.