Hello, this is Monica Reinagal, and you're listening to episode number 410 of the

Nutrition Diva Podcast, Welcome.

Today's episode, we're going to take a pretty deep dive into some very interesting new research

that might explain why it's so darn hard to keep from regaining weight once we've lost it.

But first...

And now let's get into today's topic.

It's a well-known tale, a large percentage of those who lose weight

end up gaining it all back and often more. For a long time, it was assumed that this was because

dieters lapse back into the eating habits that caused them to gain weight in the first place.

But over the past several years, there have been a series of studies showing that there is something else at work.

People who have lost weight experience long-term changes in their metabolism that make it

extremely difficult to maintain that weight loss even when they are vigilant

about maintaining their healthy eating habits. Their bodies simply burn fewer calories

than those who have never been overweight. And the result all too often is yo-yo dieting,

where people repeatedly lose and gain and lose

the same 30 or 40 pounds many times over the course of their lives. Not only is this frustrating,

it's actually dangerous. Yo-Yo dieting is hard on your heart and increases the risk of various other diseases as well.

However, some new research done at the Whitesman Institute of Science in Israel shed some light

on what might be going on here and how we might be able to stop the cycle.

When we gain weight, the makeup of our intestinal bacteria also changes in ways that tend to promote further weight gain.

When we lose weight, however, our intestinal bacteria don't change back to the bacterial profile we had before we gained that weight.

You might be slimmer on the outside,

...