Adrienne Smith wrote:

>Say a person is overfat and desires to lose weight.  That person then
>embarks on a low carb, sufficient calorie regime and begins to lose fat.
>Over time, the weightloss slows to a crawl and/or stops.  I think that
>there is evidence that this could be caused by a slowing of the metabolism
>regardless of caloric intake.  This would be caused by the body's natural
>resistance to losing fat ie it is protection against starvation.
>

In addition, weight loss by definition involves metabolic slowing.  Your
basal metabolic rate is the energy you use keep all your tissues alive
even if you do nothing else but lie there.  As you lose weight you have
less tissue to support.  Even fatty tissue is metabolically active.  As
you lose weight your energy demand drops.  I've read that in calorimeter
studies overweight people have been shown to have *higher* metabolic
rates than people of normal weight, which is actually what you'd expect,
given the energy demands imposed by the extra weight.  So even without
thyroid dysfunction there is going to be some metabolic slowdown.

Todd Moody
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