Interesting data from Oprah's diet program

J

John Picard

New Member
As you all may be aware, there is an anabolic effect that occurs just from eating food. I have seen several studies that prove this. Increasing your intake of food causes an increase in lean body mass. It is also true that dieting causes lean mass to disappear.

Years ago, Oprah Winfrey shared how she went on her own diet plan. She did this on her own without exercise. Just trying to diet her way. Here is her data:

July
Weight: 212 lbs
Body Fat: 38%

August
Weight: 192 lbs
Body Fat: 35%
Lean weight lost: 6 lbs
Fat weight lost: 14 lbs

September
Weight: 175 lbs
Body Fat: 33%
Lean weight lost: 8 lbs
Fat weight lost: 9 lbs

October
Weight: 160 lbs
Body Fat: 30%
Lean weight lost: 5 lbs
Fat weight lost: 10 lbs

November
Weight: 146 lbs
Body Fat: 28%
Lean weight lost: 7 lbs
Fat weight lost: 7 lbs

So after her own dieting, she lost the following:

Fat lost: 40 lbs
Lean lost: 26 lbs

Naturally, I would love to know how much of the 26 lbs was pure muscle. That I'm not sure of. Now here's some more...

Several years later, she gained the weight back. Then she went on a diet/exercise program under the supervision of a nutritionist/exercise guru. Her exercise program involved weight training about 4 times a weekly along with daily cardio of about 1 hour. During the 5 months, she went from 222 lbs (41% bf) to 150 lbs (20% bf). Luckily, she also shared how much fat and lean body weight she lost. Below is the data for this run:

July
Weight: 222 lbs
Body Fat: 41%

August
Weight: 195 lbs
Body Fat: 35%
Lean weight lost: 4 lbs
Fat weight lost: 23 lbs

September
Weight: 177 lbs
Body Fat: 30%
Lean weight lost: 3 lbs
Fat weight lost: 15 lbs

October
Weight: 161 lbs
Body Fat: 25%
Lean weight lost: 3 lbs
Fat weight lost: 13 lbs

November
Weight: 150 lbs
Body Fat: 20%
Lean weight lost: 1 lbs
Fat weight lost: 10 lbs

First, notice the difference! This time she lost:

Fat lost: 61 lbs
Lean lost: 11 lbs

So, over the course of 5 months, she lost 1 lb of lean mass for every 6 lbs of fat. I find this encouraging. By training with weights and eating quality food, she only lost 11 lbs of lean mass out of 72 lbs. WOW!!! If she can do that, surely we can too!!!

Naturally, this leads me to make an assumption. The assumption is that all the pigging out she did that got her to 222 lbs also gave her an increase of lean body mass. So, her "overeating" lead her to increase her lean body mass by MORE THAN 11 lbs. Maybe somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 to 25 lbs of lean body mass. Just how much would be very very interesting to know! But because she did alot of weight training, she forced her body to keep "ALOT" of lean body mass, only giving up 11 lbs total.

There may be alot that can be drawn out of this. Maybe some here that are wiser than me can share some more on all this. I would love to hear some opinions.
 
After re-reading my post, one thing I noticed was this...

212 lbs * 38% about 80 lbs
So Weight without the fat = 212 - 80 = 132 lbs

From second weight...
222 lbs * 41% is about 91 lbs
So weight without the fat = 222 - 91 = 131 lbs

Not sure what it means. It may mean that her lean body mass had basically hit its limit from the amout of just pure eating only ( remember she is not weight training while pigging out). From this, her limit for lean body increase from just eating alone appears to be about 130 to 135 lbs.

This appears to all work out. Since, at 150 lbs she had a body fat % of 20.

150 lbs * 20 % is 30 lbs. 150 lbs - 30 lbs fat = 120 lbs of lean body weight. And remember she said she lost 11 lbs of lean body mass total during her 5 months.
 
Or that she got too fat for the method of measuring bodyfat to give a decent result

When gaining fat, you will generally gain ~1lb lean to 3lbfat. lean isnt muscle, its the tissue associated with the fat cells (mitochondira etc)
so if she lost 1lb of lean per 6lb of fat its pretty good results.
 
Another big question is: was this her first time lifting weights? We all know how well beginners respond to weight training. When I first started I gained 9 pounds in 6 months while losing 1.5 inches around my waist -- and I wasn't that fat to begin with. Anyway, this might account for her success.
 
Also remember, she was going from uber-fat to average, not average to lean (which is probably the case with most dieters on this board.)
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (John Picard @ Oct. 12 2003,10:54)]Naturally, this leads me to make an assumption. The assumption is that all the pigging out she did that got her to 222 lbs also gave her an increase of lean body mass. . . But because she did alot of weight training, she forced her body to keep "ALOT" of lean body mass, only giving up 11 lbs total.
Click to expand...
Aaron brought up a key point here -- distinguishing fat, lean body mass, and muscle.

In the ranges bodybuilders normally talk about, where you're looking at a couple of percent difference in fat and a few pounds difference body mass, the vast majority of the difference in lean body mass will be muscle. When you're talking about huge difference in poundage -- 50, 75, 100 -- you will see some big differences in non-muscle, non-fat bodymass. Sure, you'll have bigger thighs and glutes to carry yourself around. You'll also have a bigger heart to pump the blood through the thousands of miles of extra capillaries, a bigger liver to process all the food eaten -- you'll even have more pounds of skin to cover all the new mass. It all adds up.

So when Oprah lost her weight the second time, while lifting, she lost certain kinds of lean mass, buy have preserved or gained others. If it was her first weight-lifting regimen, she may well have increased muscle mass, especially upper body, while losing lean mass overall -- reduced organ size, reduced skin, reduced GI tract and contents, etc. She may have lost a little leg muscle size, but maybe not.

So yes, with large weight fluctuations, you can lose fat, and gain muscle, and lose lean mass, ALL at the same time!
 
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