It's TOTAL Energy Expenditure that Matters, and RMR Doesn't Necessarily Predict It!
Post Overview: In the context of weight loss, maintenance or gain, eventually all roads lead to the acceptance that *calories matter* ... you must be in deficit, balance or surplus respectively. In the wake of the recent The Biggest Loser Regain study , there has been a lot of doom-and-gloom reporting, led by Gina Kolata and Sandra Aamodt in the New York Times . I've distilled the results down to the bare bones: Summarized from Table 1 from Fothergill et.al. 14 Contestants (6 Men , 8 Women) The "alarming outcome" was that resting metabolic rate was reduced as might be expected, but seemingly remained suppressed and even further declined despite significant re-gain (70% re-gain/loss for the mean) after 6 years. However the TEEs -- the TOTAL energy expenditures for the day -- tell a different tale. These were measured over a roughly two week period by doubly labeled water in free-living conditions. The TEEs remained high at 30 weeks...
