In this video JJ Virgin explains why many women experience a slowdown in resting metabolic rate (RMR) after losing weight, which often leads to plateaus or weight regain. She reviews a 2025 randomized study that tested wearing weighted vests during a six‑month weight‑loss program. The study found that participants who wore a vest (starting at ~5% of body weight and progressing to ~10%) experienced a smaller decline in RMR compared to controls, likely because the added load boosted non‑exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). Virgin discusses potential criticisms (e.g., reduced overall movement when wearing a vest) and emphasizes the need to monitor daily activity, aiming for at least 8,000 steps. She outlines practical guidelines for safely incorporating weighted vests—short daily wear during chores, walking, or standing‑desk work, with medical clearance for joint issues. The video also integrates broader metabolic strategies: high protein intake, resistance training to preserve muscle mass, and using bio‑impedance scales to track fat vs. muscle loss. Virgin positions weighted vests as a low‑risk, high‑potential tool to offset post‑weight‑loss metabolic slowdown, complementing traditional diet and exercise approaches for women over 40.
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One of the most frustrating things about losing weight is what happens after. You work so hard, the scale is finally down, and then your body responds by just plateauing, or worse yet, starting to gain the weight back. And this is when things get tricky because your metabolism is naturally slower after you lose weight, which, guess what, makes it easier to regain the weight you fought so hard to lose. But I have good news. What if there was a simple, science-backed way to help keep you from plateauing during weight loss without having to add in more workouts and especially more cardio? So there's a new study that shows that wearing a weighted vest could potentially help preserve your calorie burn and set you up for long-term success, which means that midlife weight gain could move to midlife muscle maintenance. Now, I saw this viral video that's just perfect for today's episode. Check this out. It is time. Okay, so in this episode, I'm going to break down what the research found, how it works, and exactly how you can use this strategy in your own routine. And I'm going to tell you, this is all still preliminary, but here's my take on all of this. You got really no risk. Like, the upside potential is huge, the downside's pretty much minimal. But let's talk about the problem. So why does your resting metabolic rate drop after weight loss? You know, when you lose weight, your resting metabolic rate goes down, and your resting metabolic rate is the calories your body burns at rest. And actually, your total daily energy expenditure tends to go down as well. But the RMR is partly due because you have less body mass, and a big part of your resting metabolic rate is your body mass. Now, there's also some hormonal and metabolic adaptations because your body gets a lot more fuel efficient, but the big thing is your body mass. And if you have less resting metabolic rate, it's lower, guess what? You burn less calories. You burn less calories, it's easier to overeat. And if you're in a caloric surplus, you gain weight. So we are going to be digging into this study where researchers found that this post-weight-loss drop in RMR, of course, is a major contributor to weight regain. Even if you have all these healthy habits, if you're hungry and if you eat them out just to not be hungry and that causes weight gain, Houston, we have a problem, right? So this study showed that weighted vests could be a metabolism support tool. This was a 2025 study that looked at whether weighted vest use during weight loss could influence long-term weight maintenance. And this is really important because I'm sure you've heard it, it's like 95% failure rate in dieting. Like, that is the biggest villain I'm working against. So this was adults with obesity who enrolled in a weight loss program, and they were randomized to do a 6-month weight loss program with or without wearing a weighted vest for much of the day. The goal of the study was to see if keeping some of that lost weight on in the form of putting a weighted vest on during a weight loss program could help the body keep burning more calories, not have that drop in resting metabolic rate, so that it's easier to maintain the results. Now, I recently saw that Peter Attia did a debrief on this, and one of the things that he was questioning, which is a really good one, is that maybe people wearing this vest may have started to move less. In fact, what he said is the requirement for wearing a weighted vest may have led this group to drastically reduce their physical activity due to the added strain caused by the weight, which then of course might reduce their RMR as well. So one of the things that we would need to do that I don't think was done in this study is look at the difference between someone, how much they would normally move, and then go back and see how much they move with the vest and ensure that they're getting their activity level, they're keeping that up. Up. So that's an important thing, because if you put a weighted vest on and then sit, you kind of undo the whole point of it. The results of the study were good because it showed that weighted vest wearers experienced less of decline in resting metabolic rate compared to those who didn't. So of course, what's the hypothesis here? That extra load may have boosted their non-exercise activity thermogenesis. We'll talk about that in a minute, but that is all the calories that you burn just doing the everyday stuff, not actual exercise activity, but just doing your chores, moving around, walking. So that means no change in workout routines, no added workouts. You're just wearing this around. Here's what's crazy that's going on right now in the influencer social media space. I got called out as a grifter for promoting weighted vests. I kid you not. And I have no clue why this would be controversial. I mean, to me, I look at this, I go, these are not really expensive. The risks are low, the rewards are high. Why wouldn't you? Now, might help with bone mineral density. There still needs to be more studies. It seems logical it would help a little bit. It's not going to really help you build muscle because you don't have enough of a load, right? You need load, pushed hard in short bursts to get you stronger, but it could really help with that resting metabolic rate. So let's break that all down so it makes sense. You have your total daily energy expenditure, Of that, you have thermic effect of food. That's— counts for about 5 to 15%. More protein, higher TEF. You have your resting metabolic rate. That's about 50 to 60% of your calories, like what you would do at rest. And then you have your activity. And your activity thermogenesis is both your exercise and your non-exercise. And that's about 30%, but only about 5% of that is exercise, right? The rest of it— and it could be 20%, but the rest of it's really non-exercise activity thermogenesis. Which means that's the most modifiable. But you gotta trick yourself, 'cause one of the things that our body tends to do is maintain homeostasis. So if you do a hard workout, what do you tend to do? Move less the rest of the day, right? If you lose weight, you move less. If you eat less, you move less. If you eat more, you move more. Your body tends to maintain homeostasis. One of the first things that I like to have people do is monitor their activity level throughout the day, monitor their steps, because then we ensure that we keep that NEAT up. I've seen too often that someone will go to the gym and then they'll get about 4,000 steps in the entire day because they sit the rest of the day and they basically undo the results of the gym. So we wanna make sure that you're monitoring NEAT. I use a simple little Oura ring. You can use a Fitbit, a Garmin, you know, Apple Watch, but I use this and I track it on my phone. And the minimum you really wanna hit each day is 8,000 steps. So that's the first thing, because NEAT is really that most modifiable thing that you can do. Now again, if you started losing weight and your resting metabolic rate is going down because you don't have to carry as much weight around, what could we do? Well, we could add 5% of your body weight back on with a weighted vest, you know, and build up to 10%. But you start really light. I mean, 5%. And remember, we're trying to lose 0.5% to 1% of our body weight a week so that we're holding on to or building muscle while we're losing body fat. So this is just a little bit. You can buy one of those weighted where you just can add little bits of weight throughout and get used to it. You're not wearing this all day long. Start with an hour, maybe build up to 2 to 4 hours. This is not like, now I'm gonna spend 8 hours a day in a weighted vest. You know, it's just part of the time. Maybe this is something you add in just when you're doing housework or you're going out for a walk, walk the dogs. I have very little dogs, so a weighted vest is super helpful because otherwise I'm basically doing a lot of standing while they're, while they're sniffing. But this is where you could use one of these. And again, You, you know, watch what you've got going on. If you've got anything going on with joints, get some medical clearance for it. By the way, if you want my video on the number 1 fat loss secret most people miss, where I explain the full breakdown of NEAT, check this out. Because NEAT is really, when I look at everything, NEAT's the thing you can modify. And all we're doing is adding a little weight back to make your body have to work a little bit harder as you're doing all these other things. We're trying to trick your body into burning more without having to work out more, because again, quite often when you work out more, then you do less NEAT. So we're just putting the weight back on externally instead of doing it internally, right? So we're not having the negative effects on your health. So we're basically getting the calorie burn benefits that you had before you lost the weight, which— how cool is that? So to me, it makes a ton of sense. I'm not sure why people have got like this weirdo, uh, whole emotional response to weighted vests. And I the important thing is to really look at how you can start light with this. Again, you know, 5% of your body weight to start. Just start light, start wearing it around the house, low-impact activities, chores. Maybe you're on your standing desk. I've been running a, um, Q&A sessions for my— one of my programs, and one gal is always on her walking treadmill and with her weighted vest on. I'm like, so fantastic. And again, it's something that you build up to, but it's got to be part of the whole program. You're eating your high protein, you're doing your resistance training, and then you're pumping your NEAT up. You're adding a little bit of power to your NEAT by throwing on the weighted vest. Again, remember, one of the other reasons I promote resistance training is it's another way that you can impact your resting metabolic rate. Higher muscle mass, better resting metabolic rate. So there's some other cool things too. There's another hypothesis out there, and I think this makes a ton of sense, and I'm hoping that we'll get some great studies on it, but that, you know, as we lose weight, done incorrectly, we tend to lose about 25 to 40% of our weight from muscle. This is why I'm big on ditching the regular scale, using a bioimpedance scale, and making sure that you're losing fat while you're holding on to or building muscle, because there's this whole idea that we have increased appetite after weight loss because the body is trying desperately to put that muscle back on. So we can avoid a lot of that with resistance training, with eating the protein, right? And that's going to help us impact that resting metabolic rate. And also, of course, it gives carbs a place to go in your muscles rather than in that visceral adipose tissue, and muscle helps improve insulin sensitivity. Now, if you want to know more ways to keep your metabolism higher after weight loss, check out my video on 5 simple tips to increase your metabolism after 50. But here's the takeaway: weight loss doesn't have to mean a slower metabolism. This new research shows a weighted vest can help offset the drop in resting metabolic rate by increasing your NEAT. And that could be the difference between keeping the weight off and watching it slowly creep back. And of course, focusing on building muscle for the win is helpful too. Now, if you found this helpful, hit subscribe and share it with a friend who would love to hear this too. Here's to aging powerfully and keeping the result you've worked so hard for.
