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From: "Michael Rae" <crsociety@l...> |
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Walford himself appears to have reduced physical spontaneous physical activity, attributed to his high nitrogen exposure while in Biosphere. I don't think that's a good way to characterize it: W doesn't have reduced fidgeting, but motor dysfunction, which transforms walking into a controlled fall. That's quite seperate from any SPA effect. Digging a little further, I found the following (from http://www.biospherics.org/humandim.html): OTOH, this was a week after emergence, & I suspect that biospherans (except maybe the Grand "Old" Man) immediately went out for full-fat ice cream. The 5 tested Biospherans (again, presumably excluding W) all gained their AL weights back [after 6 months]. Has anyone ever seen any interviews with the Biospherans (besides Walford), or read "Life Under Glass : The Inside Story of Biosphere 2" by Abigail Alling, Mark Nelson, Sally Silverstone (crew members)? No -- but I'd like to. But each of them (including Sally)
discontinued CR immediately upon exiting.. Seems
like it would be good info for the "Where are they
now" thread regarding former CR practitioners. Perhaps the hunger associated with Walford-style CR (high carbs, low protein, low fat) was too much for them? According to Austad's summary of _Life Under Glass_, they got hungry enough to LOCK UP THEIR FOOD to prevent pilfering. IOW, "pretty good guess." But also, I doubt they felt all that hot, between the severe caloric deficit (CR + farm labor) and the NO2 poisoning. The controls were matched for height and body weight Six months after exit and return to an ad libitum diet, body weight had increased to preentry levels [through gaining of fat, according to Michael Rae' reading of the full text]; however,adjusted 24-h EE and spontaneous physical activity were still significantly lower than in control subjects. So the Biosphereans gained the weight back as almost all fat. Couldn't this account for the 6 month reduced 24-h total energy expenditure (TEE)? In other words, energy expenditure is predominantly determined by lean body mass (LBM). If they gained back mostly fat, then they presumably had more fat (and less LBM) than weight matched controls six months after exit. "The 24-h EE remained lower than predicted after weight recovery in the 5 biospherians, although body composition was no longer significantly different from that of the control subjects." But also: remember LEibel. A higher fat content than their setpoint would tend to push SMR down, due to higher leptin secretion by swollen fat cells. In any case: a warning on the yo-yo effect. This is an important point. It sounds like bad news when (or if) one goes off CR. Seems like something for newbies to think about prior to starting CR - just how committed are you to a lifetime of CR? OTOH, such effects might be minimized by gradual introduction & withdrawal of CR, & resistance training. Michael 1: Am J Clin Nutr 2000 Oct;72(4):946-953 Energy metabolism after 2 y of energy
restriction: the Biosphere 2 experiment. Weyer C,
Walford RL, Harper IT, Milner M, MacCallum T,
Tataranni PA, Ravussin E PMID: 11010936 |
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