Scale stuck on the same number for months?
Weight loss can get much harder after a certain point because cutting too many calories can propel your body into “starvation mode,” slowing your metabolism and storing your fat instead of burning it for fuel.
Even people on drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have found that their weight loss progress seems to drop off after shedding 20% to 25% of their weight — a phenomenon known as the “Ozempic plateau.”
Now, a new study from the University of Southern Denmark offers some hope for altering this frustrating reality.
Lead author Kim Ravnskjaer, a molecular biology professor at the university, acknowledged that weight loss “usually goes well at first, but as people lose some of the weight they aim to shed, their progress stalls because the body’s metabolism adapts.”
This new study suggests that we might be able to control this metabolic adaptation — which would be a total game-changer.
“If we could develop a medication that helps maintain fat or sugar burning at its original high level alongside weight-loss treatments, people could continue losing weight beyond the usual plateau,” he said.
Ravnskjaer and his team researched the role of a gene called Plvap in the livers of mice.
They were aware from previous studies that people born without this gene tend to have issues with their lipid metabolism — the processes by which the body breaks down, transports and utilizes fats (lipids) for energy, storage and cellular functions — and they wanted to explore the connection.
What they found was that this gene is largely responsible for controlling the metabolic shift of burning sugar to fat while in “starvation mode.”
When the gene was deactivated in laboratory mice, the liver failed to recognize the fasting state and continued metabolizing sugar.
This signals there might be a way to “trick” the liver into speeding up metabolism.
“If we can control the liver’s burning of sugar and fat, we might also increase the effectiveness of weight-loss and diabetes medications,” Ravnskjaer said.
Another exciting discovery was that the mice showed no negative effects throughout the experiment.
In fact, they seemed to have lower blood sugar levels and improved insulin sensitivity.
“It’s well known that elevated blood sugar may lead to chronic complications for people with type 2 diabetes,” Ravnskjaer said. “Understanding Plvap could help diabetics better regulate their blood sugar in the future.”
The study’s findings were published Monday in the journal Cell Metabolism.
The research has been limited to mice so far, and human trials are still a ways away.
“It is a long way from insights in mouse experiments to bringing a drug to the market — but this is obviously the potential in our research,” he said.
