The brain remembers excess weight and specifically prevents you from getting rid of it

Scientists have found out why the lost pounds return so stubbornly: it’s not a matter of weak will, but an ancient brain mechanism that perceives weight loss as a threat to survival and turns on the “return everything as it was” program.

The idea that losing weight is a simple matter of discipline: eat less, move more, is firmly entrenched in the minds of even those who have been unsuccessfully struggling with excess weight for decades, xrust states. But a new study published in the journal Cell challenges that very logic. The authors of the work, Danish neuroscientists from the University of Copenhagen, show that the human brain is literally programmed to protect the weight once gained — and does so regardless of how much the person wants to lose weight.

Inheritance from the Stone Age

To understand where this feature came from, we will have to go back several hundred thousand years ago. For the ancestors of modern man, fat reserves were not an aesthetic issue, but literally insurance against death: too little fat — the risk of not surviving the hungry season; too much — speed and maneuverability were reduced, which could also cost life. Over millennia, the body has developed a complex system of biological defense of energy reserves, built directly into the brain.

The problem is that this system was created for a world of scarcity, but we got it — residents of a world of abundance, where high-calorie food is on every corner, and physical activity has become an option, not a necessity. The mechanism that once saved a species from extinction now works against the individual trying to fit into old jeans.

What happens in the body when you lose weight

When a person begins to lose weight, the body reacts as if it is in danger. Scientists have recorded three parallel processes:

• the level of hunger hormones increases sharply;
• the craving for high-calorie, especially sweet and fatty foods increases;
• the body's energy consumption drops — the body seems to go into saving mode.

Previously, these mechanisms helped the species survive periods of famine and return to normal weight when food became abundant again. Danish researchers have found that the brain does not simply react to the current lack of calories, but stores a kind of “memory” of the maximum weight that a person has ever had. And he perceives this very figure as a norm that must be protected at all costs.

It turns out to be a paradox: the longer and stronger a person weighed more, the more stubbornly the brain, after losing weight, will strive to return to its previous levels. This is not a story about a lack of willpower — this is biology doing exactly what evolution designed it to do.

Why Ozempic and Munjaro do not solve the problem completely

It is against this background that drugs like Wegovy and Mounjaro, known in Russia mainly for their active ingredients — semaglutide and tirzepatide, have caused such a resonance. They act not through willpower, but through simulating gut hormones that signal the brain to reduce appetite—that is, interfering with the very system that has been sabotaging attempts to lose weight for years.

But not everything is smooth here either. Some patients on such drugs experience side effects that force them to stop taking them. For others, weight practically does not decrease, despite therapy. But the main difficulty is different: as soon as the course is completed, biology takes its toll again, and most of the lost kilograms gradually return. It turns out that the drug does not “turn off” the protective mechanism forever, but only temporarily dampens it.

Scientists consider a promising direction to be the development of therapies that can weaken this “weight gain” signal for a longer period, including after completion of treatment. Such methods are currently at the research stage.

Health is not just a number on the scale

class=»notranslate»>__GTAG5__ A separate conclusion made by the authors of the work: good health and good weight are not the same thing. Getting enough sleep, a balanced diet, regular physical activity and psychological well-being can significantly improve heart function and metabolism, even if the scale needle barely moves. So focusing solely on kilograms is not the best strategy for either the body or the head.

The problem is not only personal, but also public

Separately, the researchers emphasize: obesity is not a story about an individual person and his relationship with a refrigerator, but in many ways a systemic problem. Among the measures that can change the situation at the societal level are healthier meals in schools, restrictions on fast food advertising aimed at children, urban environments where walking and biking are more convenient than cars, and standardization of portions in catering establishments.

Scientists advise paying special attention to early childhood — the period from the mother’s pregnancy to approximately the child’s seven years of age. It is at this time that the weight regulation system is especially plastic, and how parents eat, how the baby is fed, and what habits are formed in the first years of life can affect the functioning of the appetite and fat storage centers for decades to come.

What to do for those who are already desperate

For the Russian reader, who has been jumping between diets for years and each time watching how the lost kilograms find their way back, there is an unexpected consolation in this study: it is not a matter of character or lack of discipline. The brain literally works against the person, carrying out a program laid down long before the advent of fitness trackers and low-carb diets.

Practical advice from the study authors sounds more modest than those desperate to lose weight would like: rely less on strict short-term diets and more on sustainable habits. Getting enough sleep helps regulate your appetite, and regular walking can significantly improve your blood sugar levels and heart function — even without sudden changes on the scale.

The main conclusion of the researchers sounds more like a rehabilitation than a recipe: obesity is not a personal failure, but a biological condition behind which are the brain, genes and the environment in which we live. While science and medicine are learning to bypass the brain’s defense mechanisms, rather than fight them head-on, millions of people who considered themselves weak-willed have a formal right not to be angry with themselves.

Sources:

• theconversation.com
• cell.com
• nature.com

Xrust The brain remembers excess weight and specifically prevents you from getting rid of it