Tis a long article and one that needs digesting...
But the jest is, That your body fights back to regain the weight it lost.
If you took 2 people weighing 9 stone, one weight was a natural 9 stone, and the second perhaps had been on a diet and 9 stone was a reduction from 12 stone..
To maintain this weight the dieter would still have to eat less calories than the natural 9 stone individual... As the dieters metabolic system changes and starts working against them to regain the 3 stone they've lost.. So these changes does things likes stimulate the 'reward value' of food, increases hunger and actually slows the bodies ability to burn off calories via exercise.. And if the weight is gained back the body, it doesn't switch the metabolic system back it the it's original mode straight away but takes time, hence why often dieters end up not only gaining their original weight back, but also gaining a bit more!
To throw into the mix on all this, other research has suggest and identified several genes that pre-disposes individuals more to weight gain than others...
Exercise seems to be more important for general health than weight loss, as to burn of the same calories for a dieter compared to somebody of equivalent natural weight, you had to work a lot harder..
Some interesting and thought provoking research starting to come out lately, such as the Hunter Gather research, based on the Hadzac tribe, which suggested that humans has a predisposed amount of calories required to fuel the body for a day!
