Does anyone feel like their body has a "set" weight?

Yup - but it's changed over the years depending on what I ate and did

Teens - 120-130 lbs
Early 20s, before the medication that caused the gain - 125-140
20s after meds - 170-200 (170 with more activity but not watching food)
Weight loss in 30s - 124, maintained for 4 years, logging for most but not all of it, maintaining activity level*
Late 30s, kind-of watching food intake (not counting, though), with no activity bc of injury - 140-145.

*Here, I also tried to be consistent about food quality, though.

I always had a seemingly-set-weight of about 125-130, didn't gain a pound over that in my whole life until I got beyond 24 y/o. Trying to get back to there for the long run

I don't think there is such a thing as a set weight. I maintained at 250lbs for a long period of my life without calorie counting or extra exercise. I also maintained at about 180lbs for approximately 8-9 months after my son was born with minimal food logging. Now I'm just about 155lbs and the days where I just eat when I am hungry, I find myself eating to my current maintenance calories which certainly isn't going to be getting me back up to 250lbs+. Your body will adjust.

This is interesting. I think it might be the case for me, I cannot seem to lose very easily as my body wants to be this weight and yes 5 years ago that set weight was about 20lbs lighter and 5 years before than 20lbs lighter again.

I don't think, that "set weight" exists, "only" you have to reconfigure your body. You have to find the right foods, and exercises after the diet to teach your body for the new general body weight. Don't give up!

ninerbuff wrote: »

jezahb wrote: »

I am not saying people can't go beyond their "set" weight or below it, just that without work/attention that is where the body seems to return to.

Well no because the reality is that people who go on diets and regain, go well past their previous weight they started from on a regular basis. Lose 10, gain 15. Not an uncommon story.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

But actually, yes.
There is a metabolic effect that creates what seems to be a set weight. Consider it a marble in a trough, you can get the marble out, but close to the trough it seems to fall back.

Homeostasis results from small increases in metabolism and activity when calories are available. Or reduced activity if calories drop a little.

That set point effect isn't fixed or even a significant barrier to weight loss/gain. But the effect is there.

No. I think it's more to do with eating habits , as you seem to alude to. I think it goes more like this:

- If I eat xyz cals = X weight (watching my diet and eating at maintaence or below)
- If I eat xyb cals= Z weight (not watching my diet and eating to prefered pattern/ food choices/ amounts)

I think anyone (without medical conditions) has the ability to be whatever weight they want - but the main issue is whether they can live with whatever it takes to get to maintain that weight. I have a friend who has decided that as much as she would love to be a size UK10 she would be more miserable if she could'nt have a cake EVERY time she got a coffee. She can maintain a UK size16 living this way though, so she has made the compromise and is happy with it. Good for her.

jezahb wrote: »

I am asking because my body always seems to go back to the same place if I am not counting calories. If I just let go, relax and don't go crazy but also don't diet, I always ALWAYS go back to around the same weight (within 5 lbs). Even if I diet and lose weight, as soon as I let up I will slowly gain until my body gets back to that weight. Luckily it doesn't seem to want to go over that amount, my natural appetite is pretty small (my issue is more the choices I make for WHAT to eat not how much) so I would have to actively try to go over this "set" weight. Anyone else feel like their bodies just have a weight they want to be at?

No, I'm the one controlling things

ninerbuff wrote: »

A "set" weight would mean you can't gain or lose. I can promise anyone if they eat more than they need, they'll gain weight and vice versa.
What's actually happening is people are eating to where they don't feel stuffed or hungry and stay at a certain weight for a long time. Basically for most this would be close to maintenance. CICO is still very relevant.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

So would you say it's more likely a "paychogically" set weight than anything else? I tend to plateau and follow the plan within 100-200 calories and might go down a pound or two, but if I just let it go and go over, I gain weight like always. So we plateau when we feel comfortable enough with what we are eating and with out activity level? I've has this argument with others eho say it's age. I mean it is but I think it's more likely lifestyle changes related to age that we don't notice and not just age itself.

well it HAD a set weight because that was what i was eating at LOLOLOL

It's a set weight determined by your habits. Nothing more. Then yes, everyone will have a weight they'll naturally stay around by eating the same way... but if they start eating more, they'll gain, and if they start eating less, they'll lose. I was stuck at 200 pounds for years, for example, but eventually the weight started creeping up again.

I have noticed though that every time I get under 133 pounds, I get way hungrier. Frustrating as hell and it's made it impossible to maintain under that so far. But I could easily gain weight if i wasn't careful, so I don't really think it's a set weight either... just the weight my body seems to be the most comfortable at I guess (infuriating as so many women my height seems to easily be able to go down to 125 or below).

My "set weight," if you will, is 270 lbs, but the way I get there is that I gaze all day on calorie dense foods. Between my activity level and the amount I eat if I don't pay attention, 270 is the point at which I stop without gaining additional weight. Currently, my weight is 217. This week, I've been eating less than I intended and exercising more than usual. If I were to keep this up, my "set weight" would be about 190.

There are a few people who have a medical condition that causes them to feel like they must eat more than they should. For the rest of us, other conditions are the primary reason we weigh what we weigh.

haibu wrote: »

I think it's a habit thing, based on what I generally eat on a day-to-day basis and my avg activity level....so, if I'm not being super strict, I always seem to settle on ~130. I guess that's the amount of calories my brain/body just wants to eat, so unless I consciously override that, that's where I end up.

I also seem to do a seasonal thing where by March, end of winter, I'm around 135 and then by the end of the summer, I'm about 125. Again, I think it's just eating habits (starting with Thanksgiving-Halloween-Holidays-New Years season and then ending with a summer spent riding my bike everywhere, being active outside and eating lighter summer fare). This has been my pattern for close to a decade.

This year, I want to try to maintain that "natural" summer loss.

That sounds a lot like me. This winter, I decided I was going to ride my bicycle through the winter months. I didn't quite make it, because I ran over a dog an injured myself, but I discovered that there are things to enjoy about riding in the cold. I think I would've been able to maintain a deficit, even if I hadn't continued riding, but riding helped.