Changing natural weight

Hujambo
Hujambo Posts: 27
edited February 8 in Health and Weight Loss
(edit: I made my post a little bit more clear)

Hi,

I read people saying that you can't change your natural weight, by which they mean the weight that your body is gravitating towards. They say that you surely can use weight, but you will go back to your natural weight eventually because of your genes. Even more, they say that if you lose weight, you raise your natural weight.

I don't believe this, for two reasons;

1. I don't like it. I invested 16.5 kg in this weight loss business, nobody should tell me that that's all for nothing. I know this is not a valid argument, but I think you probably get this; you probably lost weight too, or plan to, and you know how important it is to do this. To me, it has made me look so much better and just as important, I can go running, swimming and cycling again! I think I do about 5 hours of exercise per week now and I do not want to become heavy again and see my performance drop.

2. This conclusion sounds like a cop out, I mean I know it's hard for many people to lose weight, but I think that more often because they only focus on following a "diet" instead of changing their lifestyles then because of genes determining your natural weight. Saying that it's all nature and not nurture is not believable, people nowadays often don't have a healthy relationship with food.

3. I haven't seen any citations. What does science say about this?

I have heard the following, which I think comes from a study (not sure but I'll tell anyways); if you lost 30 kg and arrive at 70 kg (for example) and have a comparable body to somebody else who is also 70 kg, but has never been heavier, and you eat the the same meals, exactly enough for the second person to maintain their weight, then you will gain weight. They said that this effect lasts for many years.

I know for a fact that I can maintain my weight if I keep maintaining my healthy lifestyle and I will do that, but still my question; is this natural weight thing true?

Replies

  • DamianRendon
    DamianRendon Posts: 14
    what in gods name are you blabbering about
  • kellehbeans
    kellehbeans Posts: 838 Member
    what in gods name are you blabbering about

    TL;DR. But I second this from what I skimmed over.
  • Hujambo
    Hujambo Posts: 27
    Good point. I edited my post a bit, hope it's more clear.

    But simply said, I wonder if the body has a natural weight (as many people claim) that you can't change, that you will go back to even after losing weight.
  • Hujambo
    Hujambo Posts: 27
    By the way English is not my first language.
  • alisonlynn1976
    alisonlynn1976 Posts: 929 Member
    I know what you're talking about. I've seen research like that, and it's discouraging to read. However, the take-home message is not that it's *impossible* for people to lose weight and maintain the new weight, just that it's more difficult for them than it is for people who were never overweight in the first place. I do think that pointing to studies like that and saying, "Oh well, I'm destined to be fat!" and not even trying is a cop-out. Plenty of people can and do maintain long-term weight loss.
  • BeccaBollons
    BeccaBollons Posts: 652 Member
    I have heard this too, and after believing it for years, I realised its just not true!
    This is true: a person is 70 kg all the time, and they eat 2100 calories on average forever. Never gain more than 1-2 kg, never need to 'go on a diet'.
    Second person starts adult life at 70 kg, eats 2500 calories, after a while ends up at 80 kgs. Diets at 1600 calories, gets down to 65kgs (yay!), stops dieting, resumes eating 2500 calories, and then eventually ends up back at 80 kgs. And so the geat circle begins again.

    Its all about changing your mindset, and getting your body used to eating a balanced amount all the time, not periods of feast or famine.
  • cafeaulait7
    cafeaulait7 Posts: 2,459 Member
    I do think a person can trend towards a certain 'setpoint' weight. I have read animal studies on it that proved it in animals, but they were from special genetic lines, etc, so the relevance to humans is not a given ;)

    I have a weight that I have to literally (capital D) Diet and Exercise to budge, meaning small changes don't work, and it's like they get absorbed by my metabolism. This is over a lot of time, so I'm not talking impatience.

    Once I make the bigger changes, things go well, and then with my metabolism there I'm good to go. It's odd. But I never lose weight and keep it off after getting sick, either, so I do think it's a protective function to a certain extent.

    Anyway, it doesn't seem to be a problem for most people, but I can believe a few human genetic lines could work like the animal lines they studied. I've certainly heard of people who have to take tremendous pains to stay at a low weight.
  • casy84
    casy84 Posts: 290 Member
    It may be some truth to it. In my mind that's the weight you maintain without making any sacrifices(eat things you like). You use intuitive eating and that's the weight you'll be at without thinking about your food choices.
    I am lucky and mine is not in the overweight zone, but the thing is I like my body more when it weighs a bit less than my 'balance' weight. That's why I've accepted that I must watch what I eat or accept living at that weight. On the other side the more healthy stuff you eat, your taste in food changes and in time you may learn to eat right on intuition.
  • gigglesinthesun
    gigglesinthesun Posts: 860 Member
    I always assumed that someone's natural weight is the weight when your appetite matches your expenditure. I think if you are aware of calories and portion sizes I do believe you can minimise any regain, but it is something that I at least would need to keep an eye out for. Will I weigh all my food for the rest of my life? No, but I'll probably check once a week whether what I think constitutes a portion is really a portion.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member

    But simply said, I wonder if the body has a natural weight (as many people claim) that you can't change, that you will go back to even after losing weight.

    nope! if you work hard enough you can have the body you really want...
  • Fivepts
    Fivepts Posts: 517 Member
    bump
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