Critical Reasoning

Researchers have found that when very overweight people, who tend to have relatively low

metabolic rates, lose weight primarily through dieting, their metabolisms 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.
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.
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.
D Researchers have not yet determined whether the metabolic rates of formerly very

overweight individuals can be accelerated by means of chemical agents.
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.