Interesting study on weight maintenance

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Pawsforme
Pawsforme Posts: 645 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Study suggests method to maintain stable weight loss

"Many people lose weight through diet and exercise, only to find it as difficult, or harder, to keep the weight off than it was to lose it.

Researchers in Denmark found obese people who lose weight can avoid this if they maintain their initial weight loss for at least a year, retraining the way their bodies process food.

The study showed it takes about that long for two hormones regulating appetite to adjust to a lower "set point" for body weight after weight loss. Before these hormones adjust to the new normal, the body fights the lower weight, making it more challenging to maintain weight loss, similar to the difficulty associated with attempting to change the eating and exercise habits that led to obesity."

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  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited April 2016
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    And I continue to debate is there really a body's set point? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2990627/

    edited: to say I do not believe that the body has one or "a" set point. There may be evidence but I am not in the know that there are factual studies that prove that any one body has a typical or "one" set point especially after weight loss.

  • blackcoffeeandcherrypie
    blackcoffeeandcherrypie Posts: 486 Member
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    "Over the course of the year, the researchers found the levels of GLP-1 and PYY, which inhibit appetite, increased while ghrelin, a hunger-related hormone, increased immediately after weight loss but returned to normal levels."

    "The increase in ghrelin was directly related to the body thinking it required more food to maintain it's previous weight, researchers said, but the other two hormones increased over time as the body accepted the participants new base weight."

    Very interesting! I like the thought that, just like quitting smoking, it's hard initially but gets easier over time. Thanks for this :-)
  • mom23mangos
    mom23mangos Posts: 3,070 Member
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    Total believer in a body's set point. At least for some people. My body has a very strong set point. I maintained at that level effortlessly from 13-35. It was a struggle to move it either direction. Only way it would go down was if I had food poisoning or a terrible stomach virus. I had to work for 2 months to gain a couple of pounds in order to get pregnant the second time around. With first child, was back to set point 2 weeks after giving birth. With second, it didn't happen until weaning. At 35, I started having very sedentary desk jobs and boredom eating high calorie snacks all day. I had no concept of food logging. Looking back now, if I logged a typical day I probably ate between 3-5k calories a day. In all that time, it's amazing I only gained 15lbs. That's how strong a pull my set weight is for my body. I do think it can shift however with prolonged time at a different weight.
  • richardgavel
    richardgavel Posts: 1,001 Member
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    RoxieDawn wrote: »
    And I continue to debate is there really a body's set point? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2990627/

    edited: to say I do not believe that the body has one or "a" set point. There may be evidence but I am not in the know that there are factual studies that prove that any one body has a typical or "one" set point especially after weight loss.

    I don't think this suggests a set-point. Rather that after weight loss, appetite hormones take a while to adjust from prior level to new level. You're not fighting a set-point that's fixed for all time, just your prior appetite.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    Stupid article. I truly hate the set point theory. I'm so happy my body can't think :D I think of weight management as environment, habit and attitude modification. Entering maintenance felt strange. No more adrenaline rush of seeing a lower number every week. Happy, but also anticlimactic. So this is it? Just... do the same... for the rest of my life?

    If I eat like a normal person, I will stay at a normal weight. If I stop doing that, I will become fat again. Of course I can't expect to stuff myself senseless and keep a normal weight. But I eat better now and am less hungry than when I gained, so I don't see why I would stop.

    (The logistics of healthy eating turned out to actually be less of an effort than my junk based diet was. Not just because of the cognitive dissonance and trying to hide and spread my purchases; I literally never could get enough. I used to think convenience food was convenient :# I'm not completely used to my current way of eating: I keep wondering if there's something I forgot, but no - I got everything I need.)
  • Pawsforme
    Pawsforme Posts: 645 Member
    edited April 2016
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    richardgavel wrote: »
    I don't think this suggests a set-point. Rather that after weight loss, appetite hormones take a while to adjust from prior level to new level. You're not fighting a set-point that's fixed for all time, just your prior appetite.

    Agreed. I think the better analogy is to pregnancy -- after nine months of disrupted hormones it takes awhile for them to return to normal. It's not a stretch for me to believe the same thing might happen following a significant weight loss.

    I really don't see the article as having much at all to do with set point. Although I don't have any firm beliefs about that, I don't find the theory particularly hard to believe. Homeostasis is certainly a thing, so it's not a stretch for me to believe the body may try to maintain within a certain weight range.

  • GiddyupTim
    GiddyupTim Posts: 2,819 Member
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    blackcoffeeandcherrypie wrote: »
    "Over the course of the year, the researchers found the levels of GLP-1 and PYY, which inhibit appetite, increased while ghrelin, a hunger-related hormone, increased immediately after weight loss but returned to normal levels."

    "The increase in ghrelin was directly related to the body thinking it required more food to maintain it's previous weight, researchers said, but the other two hormones increased over time as the body accepted the participants new base weight."

    Very interesting! I like the thought that, just like quitting smoking, it's hard initially but gets easier over time. Thanks for this :-)

    I so agree with liking the idea that weight loss/maintenance may get easier over time. I am not sure all the evidence bears that out. But I hope so.
  • BurnWithBarn2015
    BurnWithBarn2015 Posts: 1,026 Member
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    richardgavel wrote: »
    RoxieDawn wrote: »
    And I continue to debate is there really a body's set point? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2990627/

    edited: to say I do not believe that the body has one or "a" set point. There may be evidence but I am not in the know that there are factual studies that prove that any one body has a typical or "one" set point especially after weight loss.

    I don't think this suggests a set-point. Rather that after weight loss, appetite hormones take a while to adjust from prior level to new level. You're not fighting a set-point that's fixed for all time, just your prior appetite.

    This for me totally

    no problems or hunger ( except for a couple days) when i was losing weight, now months at maintaining the "hungry" days or having a huge appetite is a bigger fight.
    I also read up about the ghrelin hormone which seems to be the cause and try to get as much zinc ( through food) as i can...if it helps???? It is better yes.

    We will see in the long run for now maintaining goes good.
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
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    I dunno if there's a set point for maintenance at your goal weight, but I've always found it much easier to maintain than to lose. When I take little breaks from weight Loss cause life happens, even if I don't log, which I just did for like over a month, I didn't lose or gain anything. I don't gain slowly over time. I do my getting fat all at once, very rapidly, in response to life conditions. The first big gain was high school, from sudden increase in sedentary behaviors that I didn't have in JH, second was changing from an all day standing job to a desk job, third was pregnancy and childbirth. All the weight I've ever gained was sudden rapid increases, which eventually leveled off and then maintained for a LONG time.

    I dunno about a set point. That seems a little counter-intuitive considering the wide variety of ways individual people gain/lose/maintain weight. Not to mention the evolutionary prerogative to eat all the things all the time in order to survive long enough to reproduce. The studies that talk about this set point seem diametrically opposed to those that show overweight people are just doing what our species was naturally designed to do, albeit in a radically unnatural environment. Just me thinking out loud...
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    edited April 2016
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    3 years at maintenance here :) and its pretty much a breeze :smile:
    I weigh regularly, am very active and keep an eye on portion sizes but I hardly even log my foods now. Its become second nature to eat like a thin person imo. I never thought that would be possible, but old habits can be replaced with new lasting habits :smile:
    (In saying that I do go to bed hungry a lot of nights but I know I've had enough food and I don't give in to what my head/tummy thinks it wants)
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
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    blackcoffeeandcherrypie wrote: »
    "Over the course of the year, the researchers found the levels of GLP-1 and PYY, which inhibit appetite, increased while ghrelin, a hunger-related hormone, increased immediately after weight loss but returned to normal levels."

    "The increase in ghrelin was directly related to the body thinking it required more food to maintain it's previous weight, researchers said, but the other two hormones increased over time as the body accepted the participants new base weight."

    ^^ agree with this :smile:
  • 5stringjeff
    5stringjeff Posts: 790 Member
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    Very interesting. Thanks for posting this, OP!
  • RobD520
    RobD520 Posts: 420 Member
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    kommodevaran wrote: »
    Stupid article. I truly hate the set point theory. I'm so happy my body can't think :D I think of weight management as environment, habit and attitude modification. Entering maintenance felt strange. No more adrenaline rush of seeing a lower number every week. Happy, but also anticlimactic. So this is it? Just... do the same... for the rest of my life?

    If I eat like a normal person, I will stay at a normal weight. If I stop doing that, I will become fat again. Of course I can't expect to stuff myself senseless and keep a normal weight. But I eat better now and am less hungry than when I gained, so I don't see why I would stop.

    (The logistics of healthy eating turned out to actually be less of an effort than my junk based diet was. Not just because of the cognitive dissonance and trying to hide and spread my purchases; I literally never could get enough. I used to think convenience food was convenient :# I'm not completely used to my current way of eating: I keep wondering if there's something I forgot, but no - I got everything I need.)

    I do not see the idea of "set point" as the most important point in this article as an earlier poster stated. The finding that people do better after maintaining for a year, and the reasons behind it are helpful IMO.
  • goldthistime
    goldthistime Posts: 3,214 Member
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    In the Danish study cited in this article the subjects remained under the supervision of the researchers for a period of a year. This "voice of authority" scenario has been shown in previous studies to improve the success rate of maintainers. Still, I have read similar studies where hunger hormone levels have improved after a long period of time after a diet. It's nice to be hopeful :smile: .

    For most of my life I have gained weight during "projects" (a year or less in length) and then lost it again for several years, only to regain it during the next project or stressful period. I spent more time being slim than overweight. Until peri-menopause, but that's a different story.

    In other words, my MO for dealing with stress was a much bigger factor than hunger hormones. Learned behaviours seem to be the bogeyman for me.
  • CoachJen71
    CoachJen71 Posts: 1,200 Member
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    RunRutheeRun wrote: »
    (In saying that I do go to bed hungry a lot of nights but I know I've had enough food and I don't give in to what my head/tummy thinks it wants)

    For me, planning a Greek yogurt snack with bedtime pills helps me with that feeling. (I don't like going to bed hungry. It can trigger panic, or conversely a perverse pride in not feeding myself. So it's better for me to plan on a bedtime snack. :) )

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