I want to talk about what no one tells you after you lose weight—what actually changes inside your body, and why keeping the weight off can feel so much harder than losing it in the first place.

In this episode, I walk through what I’ve learned from decades of metabolic research and clinical medicine: when you lose weight, your body doesn’t reset. It remembers. And biologically, it fights to return to where it was before.

We’ll unpack the science of adaptive thermogenesis—the quiet metabolic shift that makes your body burn fewer calories, move less, and slow down even when your habits haven’t changed. I explain how your muscles become more energy-efficient, why your thyroid output can drop, how spontaneous movement fades, and why two people at the same weight can have dramatically different metabolisms.

Then we go deeper into hunger—not as a feeling, but as a coordinated hormonal system. I break down what happens to leptin, ghrelin, GLP-1, and other appetite signals after weight loss, and why cravings get louder while fullness gets quieter. We also explore how the brain changes: food becomes more rewarding, hunger signals get amplified, and the part of the brain responsible for restraint gets less support.

This is why weight regain feels personal—even when it isn’t. Nothing about these changes is visible. All you feel is hunger, fatigue, and frustration. So most people blame themselves, again. But your body never stopped defending itself.

I also address one of the biggest questions I hear right now: what role do GLP-1 medications really play? What happens when you stop them? And how do you build a system underneath the medication so the progress doesn’t disappear when the drug does?

This episode isn’t about fear or failure. It’s about understanding the biology you’re working with—so you can stop fighting your body and start building a version of maintenance that your physiology can actually sustain.

If you’ve ever said, “I did everything right—why is this so hard?” this episode is for you.Dr. Marbas Substack: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/

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