About 40% of American adults live with obesity – and for many of them, it can feel like a roller-coaster as their weight fluctuates up and down.
The cycle of losing and gaining weight on repeat, commonly known as the the yo-yo effectit may be due to a type of “metabolic memory,” where the body remembers and tries to return to its previous state of obesity, according to new research.
“Obesity is a chronic condition with important metabolic consequences, which are closely related to various metabolic and cardiovascular diseases,” study author Dr. Ferdinand von Meyenn, assistant professor of nutrition and metabolic epigenetics at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, told Fox News Digital.
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“It’s a well-documented observation that the body tends to protect against increased body weight, making weight loss and maintenance more challenging.”
The cycle of weight loss and weight regain over and over again, commonly known as the yo-yo effect, may be due to a type of “metabolic memory,” a new study found. (Stock)
Obesity is a common chronic disease in the US, with one in five children and two in five adults experiencing the condition, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
A new study, published in November in the journal Nature, points to epigenetics (genetic activity) that may play a role in regaining weight after weight loss.
What is epigenetics?
“Epigenetics, which includes chemical signals that influence the function of genes without changing the DNA sequence, is important for how cells work and respond to environmental factors,” Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, he told Fox News Digital.
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“These symptoms can be altered by lifestyle factors, such as diet, and can remain stable for years, effectively creating a cellular ‘memory’ of past states, such as obesity,” added Stanford, who was not part of the study.
It is known that cells retain their genes as they divide. The researchers were curious about what happens to fat cells — which last an average of 10 years before the body replaces them, von Meyenn said.
The researchers investigated what happens to fat cells, which last an average of 10 years before the body replaces them. (Stock)
This is in contrast to other tissue cells, which divide more quickly – intestinal cells, for example, typically divide every week, he added.
Fat cells still have to adapt to external stimuli and undergo epigenetic changes, notes von Meyenn.
Researchers set out to determine whether these changes can be reversed.
Fighting ‘memory’ in fat cells
In mice studies, researchers found that even after significant weight loss, their cells have a “memory” of obesity embedded in the epigenome, which controls gene activity, von Meyenn noted.
“Our research shows that one reason maintaining body weight after weight loss is difficult is that fat cells remember their previous state of obesity and are likely to aim to return to this state,” he told Fox News Digital.
“The body tends to protect the increased body weight, making weight loss and maintenance more challenging.”
“This means that a person will have to ‘fight’ this obesogenic memory in order to maintain body weight.”
Based on this research, the failure to maintain weight loss after eating a diet is not due to a lack of effort or energy, but may also be driven by an underlying biological factor, von Meyenn added.
Possible limitations
The study looked only at fat tissue, and genetic mechanisms were studied only in mice. However, the researchers say they believe the same mechanisms work in humans.
Some experts cautioned, however, that the study only shows correlation and does not prove that epigenetic changes cause the yo-yo effect.
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“The authors stated that they cannot say for sure that epigenetic changes directly cause people to regain their lost weight, or reveal what specific epigenetic signals may be driving this effect,” Petronella Ravenshear, a board-certified nutritionist and author of “The Human”. Being Food,” said Fox News Digital.
Ravenshear of Florida, who was not part of the study, noted that the results should not lead people to say, “It’s not my fault, it’s my genes!”
Plans for future research
“We will now need to expand, see how the memory can be erased and whether other cells or tissues are also affected, [such as] the brain or the liver,” said von Meyenn.
It’s possible that if people maintain a healthy weight for a year or more after eating a diet, that may be enough time to erase the memory from fat cells, according to Ravenshear.
The word “diet,” in its original meaning, meant “lifestyle” — but now it’s synonymous with short-term, uncontrollable dietary changes, one expert says. (Stock)
“These findings emphasize the importance of preventing obesity, especially in children and adolescents, to avoid establishing this epigenetic memory that complicates long-term weight management,” Stanford commented.
“Further understanding of these mechanisms could lead to more effective treatment and prevention strategies, emphasizing the need for a rapid approach to weight management from an early age,” he added.
‘Way of life’
The word “diet,” in its original meaning, meant “lifestyle” — but now it’s synonymous with short-term, unsustainable dietary changes, Ravenshear notes.
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People often regain the weight they lose when they return to the eating habits that led to the weight gain in the first place, many experts agree.
Ravenshear quoted Professor David Benton at Swansea University in the UK, author of “Tackling the Obesity Crisis,” who recently participated in a Guardian interview, “The mantra is that diets fail.”
One expert recommends focusing on breaking addictions to sugar and refined carbohydrates and adopting a new way of eating. (Stock)
“They fail because to avoid losing weight again, you need to permanently change your diet.”
After eliminating the diet, many people return to the previous lifestyle that caused the problem in the first place, he noted.
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“Eating junk food, and eating calorie-dense, junk food, messes up our blood sugar, raises insulin levels and adds to inflammation — and inflammation itself makes it harder to lose weight,” Ravenshear told Fox News Digital.
“Eating calorie-dense, junk food messes with our blood sugar, raises insulin levels and adds to inflammation — and inflammation itself makes it harder to lose weight,” warns one expert. (Stock)
He recommends focusing on breaking addictions to sugar and refined carbohydrates and adopting a new way of eating.
The expert suggests a choice a nutritious whole foodthree meals a day, and fasting without water for five hours between meals.
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Weight loss occurs as a side effect of balanced hormones and reduced inflammation, he noted.
Ravenshear added, “When we get calories, but not the nutrients our body and mind need, we stay hungry because our brain prompts us to keep looking for food.”
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