Hi! I'm your SANE concierge. What can I help you find today?

Study Shows Starved Overweight People Burn Less Fat Than Starved Thin People


In previous posts we reviewed research showing that eating less of a traditional diet and doing more traditional exercise does not effectively burn fat. Rather, it is effective at causing our metabolism to slow down and our muscles to be burned. In this post we’ll explore a study done at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, which shows that this “slow down, burn muscle, then burn fat” dynamic is intensified in heavy individuals.

In the study, researchers examined both heavy and thin people to see how their metabolisms behaved when they were given no calories. As expected, everyone slowed down. Because these people were on zero-calorie diets, everyone also burned some body fat, but here’s the kicker. Thin people burned off nearly 50% more body fat than heavy people.

Think about that for a second. Despite having more body fat, the heavy people burned less body fat. In the words of the researchers:

“…obese patients could not take advantage of their most abundant fat fuel sources but have to depend on the efficient use of…the breakdown products of body protein [muscle].”

That finding is depressing. The heavy people burned what relatively little muscle they had rather than burning the excess body fat they were drowning in. They needed to burn body fat, but did not burn body fat effectively.

But why?

Creating the need to burn body fat isn’t enough to burn body fat effectively. Our body must also have the ability to burn fat. The requirement for both the need and the ability to burn body fat is a very important point to understand, because at the root of chronic weight gain is our body’s inability to burn body fat effectively. This is why research J.M. Friedman at the Rockefeller University noted that there is “something metabolically different about [overweight] individuals results in obesity independent of their caloric intake.” He is referring to their inability to effectively burn fat despite how little they eat and how much they exercise.

In SANE I call the inability to burn fat a “clog” in our metabolism. Researchers at the Harvard Medical School call it “metabolic dysregulation.” And whether we call it being clogged or experiencing metabolic dysregulation, science shows that until we restore our ability to burn body fat, eating less of our existing diet and doing more of our existing exercise routine will primarily slow us down and burn muscle. Fiddling with the quantity of calories in or out does not create the ability to burn body fat. To do that we need to shift our focus to eating more—but higher-quality—food and doing less—but higher-quality—exercise.

Eating more high-quality food provides more nutrition while preventing overeating. This creates the need to burn body fat. Add less, but higher-quality exercise, and we activate clog-clearing hormones which restore our ability to burn body. And since we will eat as much high-quality food as we want while doing only ten to twenty minutes of high-quality exercise per week, we can keep this up permanently. That permanent need and ability to burn body fat is our proven path to long-term fat loss.


  1. 1998: Poehlman E T; Mepoundy C Resistance training and energy balance. International journal of sport nutrition 1998;8(2):143-59.
  2. Barkeling B, Rössner S, Björvell H. Effects of a high-protein meal (meat) and a high-carbohydrate meal (vegetarian) on satiety measured by automated computerized monitoring of subsequent food intake, motivation to eat and food preferences. Int J Obes. 1990 Sep;14(9):743-51. PubMed PMID: 2228407.
  3. Boden G, Sargrad K, Homko C, Mozzoli M, Stein TP: Effect of a low-carbohydrate diet on appetite, blood glucose levels, and insulin resistance in obese patients with type 2 diabetes. Ann Intern Med 2005, 142(6):403-411.
  4. Booth DA, Chase A, Campbell AT. Relative effectiveness of protein in the late stages of appetite suppression in man. Physiol Behav. 1970 Nov;5(11):1299-302.PubMed PMID: 5524514.
  5. Comparison of the Action of Macronutrients on the Expression of Appetite in Lean and Obese Human Subjects ANDREW J. HILL, JOHN E. BLUNDELL Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Volume   575,  Issue, Pages 529  –  531 1989 the New York Academy of Sciences
  6. Craig BW, Everhart J, Brown R. The influence of high-resistance training on glucose tolerance in young and elderly subjects. Mech Ageing Dev. 1989 Aug;49(2):147-57. Review. PubMed PMID: 2677535.
  7. E.A. Newsholme and C. Start. Regulation of Metabolism. 173 ISBN: 0471635308
  8. Eaton SB, Cordain L, Sparling PB. Evolution, body composition, insulin receptor competition, and insulin resistance. Prev Med. 2009 Oct;49(4):283-5. Epub 2009 Aug 15. PubMed PMID: 19686772.
  9. Frayn, K. N. Metabolic Regulation: a Human Perspective. London: Portland, 1996. Print.
  10. Friedman JM. Modern science versus the stigma of obesity. Nat Med. 2004 Jun;10(6):563-9. Review. PubMed PMID: 15170194.
  11. Gibala MJ, McGee SL. Metabolic adaptations to short-term high-intensity interval training: a little pain for a lot of gain? Exerc Sport Sci Rev. 2008 Apr;36(2):58-63. Review. PubMed PMID: 18362686.
  12. Goldberg M, Gordon E. Energy Metabolism In Human Obesity. Plasma Free Fatty Acid, Glucose, And Glycerol Response To Epinephrine. JAMA. 1964 Aug 24;189:616-23. PubMed PMID: 14162576.
  13. Harvey RF. Gut peptides and the control of food intake. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed). 1983 Nov 26;287(6405):1572-4. PubMed PMID: 6416508; PubMed Central PMCID:PMC1549802.
  14. Hill AJ, Blundell JE: Macronutrients and satiety; the effects of a high protein or high carbohydrate meal on subjective motivation to eat and food preferences. Nutr Behav3 :133 –144,1986 .
  15. Hunter GR, Wetzstein CJ, Fields DA, Brown A, Bamman MM. Resistance training increases total energy expenditure and free-living physical activity in older adults. J Appl Physiol. 2000 Sep;89(3):977-84. PubMed PMID: 10956341.
  16. Jeevanandam M, Young DH, Schiller WR. Obesity and the metabolic response to severe multiple trauma in man. J Clin Invest. 1991 Jan;87(1):262-9. PubMed PMID: 1985100; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC295040.
  17. Kelesidis T, Kelesidis I, Chou S, Mantzoros CS. Narrative review: The role of leptin in human physiology: emerging clinical applications. Ann Intern Med. 2010 Jan 19;152(2):93-100. Review. PubMed PMID: 20083828; PubMed Central PMCID:PMC2829242.
  18. King, J., Panton, L., Broeder, C., Browder, K., Quindry, J., & Rhea, L. (2001). A comparison of high intensity vs. low intensity exercise on body composition in overweight women. Medicine and Science in Sports & Exercise, 33, A2421
  19. Koopmans, Henry S. Experimental studies on the control of food intake.. In: Bray GA, Couchard d, James WP, eds. Handbook of Obesity. New York: Marcel Dekker, 1997: 273-311.
  20. Larosa JC, Fry AG, Muesing R, Rosing DR: Effects of high-protein, low-carbohydrate dieting on plasma lipoproteins and body weight. J Am Diet Assoc 1980, 77(3):264-270.
  21. Layman DK. Dietary Guidelines should reflect new understandings about adult protein needs. Nutr Metab (Lond). 2009 Mar 13;6:12. PubMed PMID: 19284668; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2666737.
  22. Miller BV, Bertino J, Reed TG, Burrington C, Davidson LK, Green A, Gartung A, Nafziger A: An Evaluation of the Atkins’ Diet. Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders 2003, 1:299-309.
  23. Miller WJ, Sherman WM, Ivy JL. Effect of strength training on glucose tolerance and post-glucose insulin response. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1984 Dec;16(6):539-43. PubMed PMID: 6392812.
  24. Muscle logic : escalating density training changes the rules for maximum-impact strength training / Charles Staley.
  25. Poehlman ET, Mepoundy C. Resistance training and energy balance. Int J Sport Nutr. 1998 Jun;8(2):143-59. Review. PubMed PMID: 9637193.
  26. Volek JS, Feinman RD. Carbohydrate restriction improves the features of Metabolic Syndrome. Metabolic Syndrome may be defined by the response to carbohydrate restriction. Nutr Metab (Lond). 2005 Nov 16;2:31. PubMed PMID:16288655; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC1323303.
  27. Weigle DS, Breen PA, Matthys CC, Callahan HS, Meeuws KE, Burden VR, Purnell JQ. A high-protein diet induces sustained reductions in appetite, ad libitum caloric intake, and body weight despite compensatory changes in diurnal plasma leptin and ghrelin concentrations. Am J Clin Nutr. 2005 Jul;82(1):41-8. PubMed PMID: 16002798.
  28. Weigle DS, Sande KJ, Iverius PH, Monsen ER, Brunzell JD. Weight loss leads to  a marked decrease in nonresting energy expenditure in ambulatory human subjects. Metabolism. 1988 Oct;37(10):930-6. PubMed PMID: 3173112.