Scientists explained why it is so difficult to lose weight

For a long time, it was believed that weight loss was a matter of willpower: you just needed to eat less and move more. However, an international team of scientists discovered that it's much more complex - the human brain actively resists weight loss, perceiving it as a threat to survival.

As BAKU.WS reports with reference to Gazeta.ru, the work was published in the journal Cell.

For our ancestors, fat was a vital energy reserve: too little of it could lead to starvation, while too much would reduce mobility and the ability to resist external threats. Over hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, the human body has developed powerful biological mechanisms that protect accumulated reserves. But in a world where food is available at any time and movement has become optional, these same systems hinder weight loss.

When a person starts to lose weight, the body reacts to it as a danger: the feeling of hunger intensifies, appetite hormone levels increase, and metabolism slows down. This is how the body tries to conserve energy - behavior that once helped survival but now prevents shedding extra pounds.

The brain remembers a higher weight and strives to maintain it, even if a person has lost weight. This explains why many find it difficult to maintain results after a diet - the body simply returns the weight to its previous level, considering it safe.

"Weight gain activates brain systems that perceive this level as normal. After weight loss, the body tries with all its might to return to it - this is not weakness, but biology, honed by millions of years of evolution," noted the authors of the work.

Modern weight loss medications work by mimicking intestinal hormones that signal fullness to the brain. They help bypass natural weight protection mechanisms, but their effect is not universal: some patients face side effects or don't get the expected result. After stopping therapy, weight often returns.

"If you find it difficult to lose weight and maintain the result, know this: you are not alone - and it's not your fault. Your brain is simply doing what it has always done - protecting you," the researchers concluded.

Scientists believe that further advances in neurobiology and metabolism will help develop methods that can "reprogram" brain signals and stabilize weight even after weight loss is completed.