Many people who have tried to lose weight by cutting calories are familiar with this frustrating reality: at some point, the body stops shedding pounds.
It senses the reduced calorie intake and responds by slowing down metabolism, causing it to burn fewer calories than before the diet.
This happens because the body perceives a potential starvation threat and adapts by conserving energy while still carrying out essential functions.
It may seem incredibly unfair that the body doesn’t recognize the goal of weight loss and instead works against it by holding on to calories.
Now, a new study from University of Southern Denmark has identified a possible way to maintain calorie burning even when consuming fewer calories.
This discovery could be particularly important for patients using weight-loss or diabetes medicines like Wegovy and Ozempic. Many people taking these medications find that their weight loss plateaus after losing about 20-25% of their body weight.
According to Kim Ravnskjaer, a Prinicpal Investigator and associate professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Southern Denmark, this stall is likely due to the body’s natural response: “It usually goes well at first, but as people lose some of the weight they aim to shed, their progress stalls because the body’s metabolism adapts,” he said.
If it were possible to control this metabolic adaptation, it could be a game-changer for anyone trying to lose weight. A medication that could counteract this effect might extend the benefits of treatments like Wegovy, which often stop working after a certain point.
This is where the new study by Kim Ravnskjaer and colleagues, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, comes into play.
“If we could develop a medication that helps maintain fat or sugar burning at its original high level alongside weight-loss treatments, people could continue losing weight beyond the usual plateau,” he explains.
