Your body's "set point"

Need2Exerc1se

stevencloser wrote: »

If there was a set point, it should work both ways, no? Meaning if you gain weight, your body would try to get you back down to whatever your setpoint is. Funny how that seems to happen to no one.

I think it does happen. My body seems happiest around 150 - 155 lbs. For most of my young adult life I was lower than that but I had to constantly think about it. Watch what I eat. Diet frequently.

But it's pretty easy to maintain at 150 -155 lbs. Not that I don't need to think about it. I do, especially in Winter when I tend to be more sedentary, but it's not a constant fight. If I get more than about 10 lbs over that I start to feel it. I feel fat and cumbersome. And it's pretty easy to get back down to 150ish. Losing to lower than 150 is more of a battle.

BarbieAS

I don't have the chops to weigh in on the science of this, but here's my n=1 input:

I've gained and lost significant weight a few times - up about 90lbs during the first 2 years of college, stayed there for about 2 years - let's call that "Weight X." Lost about 80lbs during grad school (without TOO much effort, honestly), kept it off for a bit, then got married and gained about 35lbs of happy fat, and then got pregnant and gained another 55 more as of the day I gave birth (that includes baby and all, so not all fat, obvs). After baby was born, lost a little, gained a little back, and settled again at Weight X - yes, same number. Stayed there til I got pregnant with my 2nd child 18 months after my 1st was born. Gained only 18lbs that time, lost a little after baby was born, gained a little back, and AGAIN settled at Weight X for about 9 months until I came to MFP to lose again. Yes, I'm sure I fluctuated around Weight X by a couple of pounds during those periods, but I'm 100% serious when I say that my weight on the day I started WW in college, the day I got pregnant with my daughter, and the day I started MFP are all the same.

It has been an epic struggle to lose and get back down to that a healthy range; I'm only about 25lbs down over the past 4 years despite relatively consistent efforts. My metabolism (as confirmed by medical RMR testing) is toast, about 25-30% lower than it "should" be based on traditional calculations, and the longer I try to lose the harder it gets to make any progress at all. Maybe it's just bad luck. Maybe it's genes and getting older. Maybe there's a medical issue that 4 years of testing and doctor's visits hasn't been able to identify. Or, maybe there's a biological process at work to limit my weight loss because my body "wants" me to weigh Weight X. Again, I don't have a deep understanding of the science, but from a non-scientist's perspective it certainly seems feasible.

(Edited to add: The first time I gained weight, I do NOT mean to make it seem that I believe that was a function of any sort of set point thing. I gained weight in college due to poor eating habits, too much booze, and depression/binge eating. It was only after I initially reached that point [and leveled off; probably just because my weight finally caught up with my typical intake such that I wasn't eating in a surplus anymore] that my natural metabolism and eating habits seem to drive me back to that same weight.)