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Argument Breakdown:
  • Premise 1: Very overweight people tend to have relatively low metabolic rates.
  • Premise 2: When these people lose weight primarily through dieting, their metabolism generally remains unchanged.
  • Premise 3: They burn fewer calories at the new weight compared to people whose normal weight is at that level.
Conclusion: These newly thin persons will ultimately regain weight until their body size matches their metabolic rate again.

Assumption in Choice (A):
Quote:
Relatively few very overweight people who have dieted down to a new weight tend to continue to consume substantially fewer calories than do people whose normal weight is at that level.
Simplified Explanation and Example:
To understand (A), let's consider an example involving two people:

Alice: Normally weighs 150 pounds.
Bob: Was very overweight at 200 pounds and dieted down to 150 pounds.

Metabolism:
Alice, with a naturally stable weight of 150 pounds, has a metabolic rate that matches her weight. She burns a certain number of calories per day, say 2000 calories.
Bob, although now at 150 pounds, still has the low metabolic rate he had when he was 200 pounds. He only burns, say, 1500 calories per day.
Caloric Intake:

Alice can maintain her 150 pounds by consuming around 2000 calories per day.
Bob, to maintain his new weight of 150 pounds, would need to consume around 1500 calories per day because of his lower metabolic rate.

Assumption in Action:
Choice (A) Assumption: Suggests that Bob (and other very overweight people who have dieted down) will not continue to consume only 1500 calories per day (which is what they need to maintain their new weight). Instead, they might start consuming more calories again, similar to what people like Alice consume (2000 calories per day).

Example:
If Bob starts eating 2000 calories per day, the same as Alice:
Alice maintains her weight at 150 pounds because her metabolic rate supports it.
Bob, with a lower metabolic rate (burning only 1500 calories per day), will start gaining weight again because he is consuming more calories than he is burning.

Thus, choice (A) is saying that if very overweight people who have dieted down do not continue to eat fewer calories than people whose normal weight is at that level, they will regain weight. This supports the argument's conclusion that newly thin persons will regain weight to match their metabolic rate.­
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KarishmaB GMATNinja

(C) The amount of calories that a person usually burns in a day is determined more by the amount that is consumed that day than by the current weight of the individual.

Can you help to apply negation to C?

Calories burned is determined more by weight than consumption

If this is true, then at lower weight, few calories will burn, then weight will gain or reduced?
if higher weight, more calories will burn, then weight will gain or reduced?
It breaks the conclusion if people will not regain weight

Calories burned determined by consumption, so if higher consumption, more burned, weight gain not possible.

I'm confused how to negate C. Please help.

How to understand A is more dependent on B than C? can you give example?
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KarishmaB GMATNinja

(C) The amount of calories that a person usually burns in a day is determined more by the amount that is consumed that day than by the current weight of the individual.

Can you help to apply negation to C?

Calories burned is determined more by weight than consumption

If this is true, then at lower weight, few calories will burn, then weight will gain or reduced?

if higher weight, more calories will burn, then weight will gain or reduced?

It breaks the conclusion if people will not regain weight

Calories burned determined by consumption, so if higher consumption, more burned, weight gain not possible.

I'm confused how to negate C. Please help.

How to understand A is more dependent on B than C? can you give example?
Let's consider a simple example to help illustrate the issue with applying "negation" to C:
  • Statement: Your odds of getting into HBS are influenced more by your hair color than your eye color.
  • Negated statement: Your odds of getting into HBS are influenced more by your eye color than your hair color.

The problem is that NEITHER of these statements is true. Your odds of getting into HBS have nothing to do with your hair color OR your eye color (at least we hope so!). Just because the first statement should NOT be assumed, does not mean that the negated statement SHOULD be assumed.

In general, just because an answer choice should NOT be assumed, does not mean that the negated version of that answer choice SHOULD be assumed.

Choice (C) is an example of that. According to the author, the metabolic rate isn't determined by amount consumed OR by current weight. Instead, it's determined by your "normal" weight level. That's why negation doesn't really work in this case.

For more on (A), check out this post: https://gmatclub.com/forum/researchers- ... l#p3367916.
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AjiteshArun according to explanations so far - Negation technique fails in Option C. Perhaps the only Q, I have encountered so far. The reason is because the actual option C is wrong/conflicting info from the passage, so the negated statement doesn't help either? Is this also a lens that we should apply? Pls see my option analysis for A and C.


Very overweight people lets say current weight 100 kg <who tend to have Low MR - Low MR means body tends to burn fewer calories> WHEN
|
Lose weight - through Dieting
|
MR remains unchanged......(1)

At their New weight lets say 60 kg (Reduced weight after dieting) BURN FEWER Calories - Why? Because of (1) compared to people whose normal/original weight is lets say 60kg

Conclusion: Such newly thin persons aka overweight people who have reduced weight <temporarily due to dieting> WILL regain weight uptill body size matches their actual/original MR

Quick insights:
Calorie burn determined by MR level not by weight
Calorie burn + Calorie intake determine weight regain

Pls read option analysis
Taku
Researchers have found that when very overweight people, who tend to have relatively low metabolic rates, lose weight primarily through dieting, their metabolism generally remain unchanged. They will thus burn significantly fewer calories at the new weight than do people whose weight is normally at that level. Such newly thin persons will, therefore, ultimately regain weight until their body size again matches their metabolic rate.

The conclusion of the argument above depends on which of the following assumptions?

(A) Relatively few very overweight people who have dieted down to a new weight tend to continue to consume substantially fewer calories than do people whose normal weight is at that level.

Negation: NO Relatively few/ Several very overweight people who have dieted down to a new weight tend to continue to consume substantially fewer calories than do people whose normal weight is at that level.

Sure they might be burning less due to lower MR compared to others of the same weight group, but what if they start consuming less as well - this breaks the argument! As weight regain = Calories intake - Calories Burned

(B) The metabolisms of people who are usually not overweight are much more able to vary than the metabolisms of people who have been very overweight.
Variations is not the issue - the MR of overweight people remains same despite weight reduction is at the core of issue. Irrelevant as negating it doesn't break the argument.

(C) The amount of calories that a person usually burns in a day is determined more by the amount that is consumed that day than by the current weight of the individual.
Negation: The amount of calories that a person usually burns in a day is NOT determined more by the amount that is consumed that day than by the current weight of the individual.*
What it means? That current weight may have equal or more role to play than calories consumed that day in burning calories in a day.
This does weaken the argument a little bit but there is no clarity on how much the new weight plays a role so rejecting this.
ALSO THIS IS CONFLICTING INFO FROM PASSAGE.

(D) Researchers have not yet determined whether the metabolic rates of formerly very overweight individuals can be accelerated by means of chemical agents.
Irrelevant as negating it doesn't break the argument. Since chemical agents is not in scope we don't care.

(E) Because of the constancy of their metabolic rates, people who are at their usual weight normally have as much difficulty gaining weight as they do losing it.­
Irrelevant as negating it doesn't break the argument. Since gaining weight is not the scope
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Kavicogsci
AjiteshArun according to explanations so far - Negation technique fails in Option C. Perhaps the only Q, I have encountered so far. The reason is because the actual option C is wrong/conflicting info from the passage, so the negated statement doesn't help either? Is this also a lens that we should apply? Pls see my option analysis for A and C.
Hi Kavicogsci,

You'll have to help me out here. In what way do you think negation fails in option C?

This will likely depend on what you're looking for when you apply negation, so maybe you could start there. Also, I received your PM, so you could reply there if you want.
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AjiteshArun need help only for option C - rest no confusion.

Analysis:
Very overweight people lets say current weight 100 kg - tend to have Low MR (Low MR implies body tends to burn fewer calories)
|
WHEN: Lose weight - through Dieting
|
MR remains unchanged......(1)

At their New weight lets say 60 kg (Reduced weight after dieting) BURN FEWER Calories - Why? Because of (1) compared to people whose normal/original weight is lets say 60kg

Conclusion: Such newly thin persons aka overweight people who have reduced weight <temporarily due to dieting> WILL regain weight uptill body size matches their actual/original MR

Quick insights:
Calorie burn determined by MR level not by weight
Calorie burn + Calorie intake determine weight regain

The conclusion of the argument above depends on which of the following assumptions?

(A) Relatively few very overweight people who have dieted down to a new weight tend to continue to consume substantially fewer calories than do people whose normal weight is at that level.

Negation: Several very overweight people who have dieted down to a new weight tend to continue to consume substantially fewer calories than do people whose normal weight is at that level.
Implication - Yes their MR may be low but what if they continue to eat fewer calories than normal people at that weight level eat - we have reason to believe then that they might not regain weight.
keep

(C) The amount of calories that a person usually burns in a day is determined more by the amount that is consumed that day than by the current weight of the individual.
Negation: The amount of calories that a person usually burns in a day is NOT determined more by the amount that is consumed that day than by the current weight of the individual.
Implication - The amt of calories burned is determined by greatly/equally by current weight than calories consumed

Doubt 1: Now this too shakes the argument because now newly thin individuals might not regain weight as calories burned is also affected by current weight
Doubt 2: But this negation goes against the evidence of the argument where calories burnt are a function of your MR level and not at all by current weight. SO is the learning that if negation goes against the evidence/support then ignore that option.

Hope this explains

AjiteshArun
Kavicogsci
AjiteshArun according to explanations so far - Negation technique fails in Option C. Perhaps the only Q, I have encountered so far. The reason is because the actual option C is wrong/conflicting info from the passage, so the negated statement doesn't help either? Is this also a lens that we should apply? Pls see my option analysis for A and C.
Hi Kavicogsci,

You'll have to help me out here. In what way do you think negation fails in option C?

This will likely depend on what you're looking for when you apply negation, so maybe you could start there. Also, I received your PM, so you could reply there if you want.
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Kavicogsci
Doubt 1: Now this too shakes the argument because now newly thin individuals might not regain weight as calories burned is also affected by current weight
Doubt 2: But this negation goes against the evidence of the argument where calories burnt are a function of your MR level and not at all by current weight. SO is the learning that if negation goes against the evidence/support then ignore that option.
Hi Kavicogsci,

Let's take a look at what the argument says:
Taku
Researchers have found that when very overweight people, who tend to have relatively low metabolic rates, lose weight primarily through dieting, their metabolism generally remain unchanged.
How should we interpret this? Let's say that someone goes from 150 kg to 70 kg through dieting, and their MR at their original weight was 1579 cal/day. Should we expect their new MR (at 70 kg) to be exactly 1579 cal/day? Personally, I'd look at "their metabolism generally remains unchanged" as meaning that their metabolism remains mostly (but not necessarily exactly) the same. If it helps, we can take the word generally as applying to MR rather than to the number of ~dieters.

The crux of the argument is that such ~dieters "burn significantly fewer calories at the new weight than do people whose weight is normally at that level". Option C just gives us information about the relative importance of two other factors, neither of which is important for the argument.
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Hi GMATNinja IanStewart
I got the correct answer A but not very clear on how to eliminate option C? Can you please help on this?
Also, is it important that we should be able to eliminate other 4 wrong options properly with confidence in CR even when we have 100% confidence on the correct answer?
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Hi GMATNinja IanStewart

I got the correct answer A but not very clear on how to eliminate option C? Can you please help on this?

Also, is it important that we should be able to eliminate other 4 wrong options properly with confidence in CR even when we have 100% confidence on the correct answer?
Try reviewing this post and let us know if you still have questions: https://gmatclub.com/forum/researchers- ... l#p3507941.

For our thoughts on process of elimination, check out the "Don’t fall in love" section of this article, and see what you think: https://gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topi ... 43170.html.

Enjoy!
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