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Food Benders Have Long Term Consequences

Fast Food (via Christian Cable)

On Monday we shared the good news that once you get in shape, it's a lot easier to get back in shape if you lapse. Well, sadly, today there's a little bad news to rain on our parade. New research shows that if you go on a real bender and overeat copiously, even for a short period of time, it can have lasting impact on your health. Individuals in the study were required to eat about 70% more than their usual diet, to eat lots of bad stuff (think fast food), and to severely limit their exercise for four weeks. The average weight gain over the month was 14 pounds. A year later, many of the feasters still hadn't gotten back to the weight they were before the study, but that's not the really bad news. The really bad news was their body composition. Even after two and a half years, they had much higher percentages of fat mass than the control group. Just a little thought for next time you're tempted to throw your hands up and stop taking care of yourself for a while.