Body wants to be a certain size?
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I mean, every species of animal has a range of sizes. There are big horses and small horses of the same breed. There are big fish and small fish of the same species. Phenotypical variety is a fact of nature. If it wasn't, evolution couldn't happen.
It's the same with humans. There are women who can reach 100 pounds easy. There are other women who would be unhealthy at 100 pounds.
I don't think you can lose weight indefinitely. Not if you want to be healthy. Eventually, you're going to be fighting nature. Everyone gets to a weight where if you go any farther it's not healthy. I believe that weight is different for everyone.
Not sure what I think about a set-point that occurs way before you're underweight (like my example where all the women in my family are 175), but size has such a huge genetic component, I don't think it's right to just discount that.
My maternal grandmother and mother looked quite a bit alike- height, build, hairstyle even. They were both obese and held their weight in the same areas. They didn't start out overweight but gained weight as adults. Their similar eating habits and sedentary lifestyles made them gain weight. I'm the same height and my weight goes on my body in the same pattern. My sister is taller and a different body shape. She has never been overweight.
There is a normal healthy weight range for people my height. I look and feel my best at the middle to top of that range. If I want to be that weight I need to eat and burnthe right calories or I will weigh more or less. Someone else with a different build but same height might feel better 10 lbs less than my ideal weight. I have been my ideal weight. It wasn't an unnatural struggle to be that weight. I eventually just ate too much to maintain that weight for my lowered activity level.
I can weigh 100 lbs though. I've done it. Genetics didn't prevent that. I am unwilling to do what I would need to be that weight though.0 -
Definitely feel this way, after finally losing about 85 lbs, my body has stalled at the size it is now. I've stayed the same size in clothes even though the weight fluctuates outside of my comfort zone. I guess when it comes to our bodies we are our worst enemy.0
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lemonlionheart wrote: »I know my appetite wants me to be at a certain size...
Seriously. If my appetite had its druthers, I'd be 400 pounds. I don't care what weight I am, I do not have an off switch. "Oh, no pie for me. I'm too full."
Said me never.
:laugh: Amen sister3 -
stevencloser wrote: »
This supports set point theory. Now you have a lower set point that you established. If I can lose 10 pounds and stay there long enough my body will accept it as a new set point.stevencloser wrote: »MissusMoon wrote: »thunder1982 wrote: »I get what you mean, I seem to bounce back up to the same weight approx 90kg, I've gone a few kgs over but never for long. Each time I get down to 80kg I stall and slide back up again.
I was doing a online nutritional type course and one lecture was talking about your set point, the weight your body naturally fluctuates to. It also said that fat cells deflate during weight loss but it will take approx 18mths of sustained weight loss before the body actually expels the excess cells so filling them back up is easy as opposed to having to make new cells. It did also say that you can change your set point but it takes effort. Looking back I havent been able to manage the 10kg weight loss longer than a 18mth period I have usually given up and fallen into bad habits by then so for me it does hold true, although with consistent effort and catching myself I have been able to manage to hold around 85kg over the last 18mths. Currently I am just over 85kg after a 2 week holiday and a week back of gorging myself with whatever is in sight. Time to get started again:)
This is very well debunked.
Will you please site the articles debunking this theory? I would like to know how the debunking was determined because there is a percentage of the population able to naturally maintain weight within a few pounds without calorie counting or outside weight management tools or programs.
Thank you!
Appetite and habits.
You're the weight you gravitate towards because the eating habits you learned since you were little make you eat in a certain range. If those habits change for some reason, your weight changes over the long term with them.
I used to be almost 90 kg, it was the weight I gravitated towards. Why? Because I was eating accordingly.
Nowadays I snack a lot less habitually and poof, suddenly I gravitate towards 70 no problem if I just eat normally without counting. Because the amounts I eat correspond to 70 kg at my activity level.
No that's not a setpoint, that's changing your eating habits. If I started eating more snacks, I'd gain weight again, and nothing in my body would be able to keep me from gaining. It is entirely up to what I choose to put in my mouth.
What I habitually put into my mouth is what determines my body's size, not the other way around.
^^^ This
My first impression upon reading this thread was that many of you probably don't use a food scale or overestimate the amount of calories you burn from exercise. If you weight isn't changing, try finding ways to better estimate the calories going in vs the calories going out (ie, no more bites of things here and there or weighing food instead of just measuring). That's most likely your problem, not a "set" weight.2 -
My body starts fighting me at 130 lbs or close to 20% body fat. It hates being in a deficit, and hates me for doing it. The weight barely comes off, I start being less active because I have less energy, which makes it even slower.
Really above a healthy weight range though, no problem.2 -
I believe it's not that your body has a "Certain size" but your lifestyle and eating habits lead to a certain size. Many families repeat the same 8-12 dinner meals, with breakfast/lunch relatively consistent. If your regular diet was in a calorie excess - you would gain weight but then stall when your calories in equalled your calories out - as bigger bodies burn more calories. (But not enough to go back down).2
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GuitarJerry wrote: »GuitarJerry wrote: »Set point theory was a theory and the research was never completed. It has been debunked. Why is this still floating around as fact? Lol.
Have you seen the amount of people who lose weight and gain it back? They wouldn't have if they had been patient enough to establish a new and lower set point and work to stay there until the body accepts it.
I do want to reestablish a new lower one! I think that exercise and recomp will help me now that I am close to maintenance and stuck within 10 pounds of goal.
The 1) amount you eat, and 2) activity level, determines your weight. Not your body. Your body is the result of your decisions, not the other way around.
Don't play victim. Take responsibility.
There's nothing wrong with seeing it this way...it's really no different than saying you need to work at maintaining your ideal weight until it becomes natural/habit. Semantics.2 -
eveandqsmom wrote: »GuitarJerry wrote: »GuitarJerry wrote: »Set point theory was a theory and the research was never completed. It has been debunked. Why is this still floating around as fact? Lol.
Have you seen the amount of people who lose weight and gain it back? They wouldn't have if they had been patient enough to establish a new and lower set point and work to stay there until the body accepts it.
I do want to reestablish a new lower one! I think that exercise and recomp will help me now that I am close to maintenance and stuck within 10 pounds of goal.
The 1) amount you eat, and 2) activity level, determines your weight. Not your body. Your body is the result of your decisions, not the other way around.
Don't play victim. Take responsibility.
There's nothing wrong with seeing it this way...it's really no different than saying you need to work at maintaining your ideal weight until it becomes natural/habit. Semantics.
Exactly. I work really hard to work to maintain a lower weight until the new weight becomes natural. I'm certainly not a victim of a setpoint. I lose weight and work hard to establish it. Eventually the body does give in. People seem to misinterpret.0 -
GuitarJerry wrote: »GuitarJerry wrote: »Set point theory was a theory and the research was never completed. It has been debunked. Why is this still floating around as fact? Lol.
Have you seen the amount of people who lose weight and gain it back? They wouldn't have if they had been patient enough to establish a new and lower set point and work to stay there until the body accepts it.
I do want to reestablish a new lower one! I think that exercise and recomp will help me now that I am close to maintenance and stuck within 10 pounds of goal.
The 1) amount you eat, and 2) activity level, determines your weight. Not your body. Your body is the result of your decisions, not the other way around.
Don't play victim. Take responsibility.
Look I'm not saying my body is why I was so overweight, and I dang well know that the 100lb I've lost is my doing, not by body.
But for arguments sake, you can very simply regulate the amount of food you eat..but your body has a fair amount control over the activity level you are..if you're in a somewhat aggressive deficit, you're not going to be as energetic, and who knows what your body might be doing to conserve calories?
Does anyone actually know if your body decreases rmr in, say, a 500 calorie deficit? Have there been any reliable studies pertaining the metabolic effect on very regulated deficits?0 -
arditarose wrote: »My body starts fighting me at 130 lbs or close to 20% body fat. It hates being in a deficit, and hates me for doing it. The weight barely comes off, I start being less active because I have less energy, which makes it even slower.
Really above a healthy weight range though, no problem.
yes this0 -
Noreenmarie1234 wrote: »arditarose wrote: »My body starts fighting me at 130 lbs or close to 20% body fat. It hates being in a deficit, and hates me for doing it. The weight barely comes off, I start being less active because I have less energy, which makes it even slower.
Really above a healthy weight range though, no problem.
yes this
Me too, Only for me it is at a higher threshold of 25% BMI. I And I do need to lose more because I am still too heavy. It does feel like a tug of war with me fighting to lose weight, and my body fights to stabilize and stay put.0 -
Totally get it. But really need to put in the hard work, eat right and everything else. Plus doing strength training will really help show a difference.0
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I'm wondering if the thing Dan is experiencing is the effect of too large of a deficit when you don't have excess fat to support a deficit.
There's studies about how X numbers of pounds of fat can support X number of calories of deficit before revolting and down regulating energy and drastically increasing hunger signals. If that's the case, to continue to lose weight without urges to binge requires smaller and smaller deficits as your excess fat decreases.0 -
Totally get it. But really need to put in the hard work, eat right and everything else. Plus doing strength training will really help show a difference.
I'm going to have to do some harder workouts and push through. Eventually I'm going to win! It is tempting for me to give up when the body plateaus, but it is worth it to finally get to goal and not give up.0 -
Do you ever feel this way? Seems like my body doesn't gain weight easily after this point where I'm at (235lb), and it certainly doesn't lose weight easily..
I realize this is fairly irrational, and you'll definitely lose weight if you maintain a caloric deficit, but I'm just wondering if anyone else ever feels this way
It is hard, but don't give up! It will come off with perseverance. I do understand how difficult it is while being in a stall when the scale doesn't budge for a while.0 -
I'm wondering if the thing Dan is experiencing is the effect of too large of a deficit when you don't have excess fat to support a deficit.
There's studies about how X numbers of pounds of fat can support X number of calories of deficit before revolting and down regulating energy and drastically increasing hunger signals. If that's the case, to continue to lose weight without urges to binge requires smaller and smaller deficits as your excess fat decreases.
That makes sense. I've seen some people recommending dropping down to 0.5 pound loss per week goal as one gets closer to goal. Plus it is helping prepare for maintenance by getting the body prepared for keeping the weight off that was previously lost.
Dan, congrats losing 100 pounds. Even if you aren't gaining or losing it is a victory for you to be keeping the weight off! But I do think you will jog this stall and will lose again soon with determination.0 -
I'm wondering if the thing Dan is experiencing is the effect of too large of a deficit when you don't have excess fat to support a deficit.
There's studies about how X numbers of pounds of fat can support X number of calories of deficit before revolting and down regulating energy and drastically increasing hunger signals. If that's the case, to continue to lose weight without urges to binge requires smaller and smaller deficits as your excess fat decreases.
Yeah it's my experience too and why I haven't been able to get to my goal weight. I get very hungry every time I get under 133 pounds. So annoying.
That's why I said somewhere earlier that I don't necessarily think that the theory is BS - I just highly doubt it's the case when someone is obese or overweight (unless obviously they have a lot of muscles).0
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