Still More Science from the Duh! Files

Dieting makes you hungry!

Appetite hormones spike when obese people diet, and stay high even a year after they have lost weight, researchers reported on Wednesday in a study that shows keeping weight off is more than a mere matter of willpower.

The Australian researchers said their report, published in Thursday’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, shows that dieters need some kind of help in controlling the compelling effects of these hormones if they are to keep the weight off.

“Furthermore, the activation of this coordinated response in people who remain obese after weight loss supports the view that there is an elevated body-weight set point in obese persons and that efforts to reduce weight below this point are vigorously resisted,” Priya Sumithran of the University of Melbourne and colleagues wrote.

In other words, the body rebels against eating less and tries hard to make the dieter eat, the researchers said.

Tell me about it.  But one of the the best things about a low carbohydrate diet is that it helps to control appetite.  I can tell when I've had too much carbohydrates because it increases my appetite.