Why it's hard to maintain weight loss - Los Angeles Times

Why it's hard to maintain weight loss - Los Angeles Times

Most people can lose weight. But few can maintain their new weight for long. Researchers are now tackling that problem, and what they're learning is disconcerting. The human body, it seems, is designed to sabotage weight loss at every turn -- once a body has been fatter, it wants to get back to the weight that it used to be. Physiology is cruelly changed in two ways: The body needs fewer calories to maintain itself, but its craving for food is more intense.

Becoming overweight, in other words, is like being issued a credit card with an uncomfortably high balance that you'll probably end up paying off forever. Making sure the pounds stay off means pitting one's willpower against a swarm of biological processes involving the brain, hormones, metabolism and fat storage.