Body wants to be a certain size?
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Well I think there have been some valid points made both for and against the concept..personally I believe it's a thing, but a very little thing, and is 90% mental as opposed to physical.5
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Your current weight is a direct result of the calories you consume. If you eat at a level in which you are content and your weight stays that same, but you want to lose weight, you could add exercise to the mix. It would allow you to continue to eat the way you are and lose weight and transform your body in the process. Of course it'll take longer without adjusting your diet, but it'll still happen. Doesn't have to be a lot of exercise, just remember 1 lb a week is roughly 3500 calories. So over the course of say 5 days, if you could add in 700 calories of exercise you could lose a pound a week. A lot of people have trouble burning 500 calories a day using exercise, so if that's the case, and you still want to lose 1 lb a week, you'll need to adjust your diet to match the missing calories. But going forward.. once the diet is over, if you want to keep the weight off and eat at your previous levels, you are going to have to find a way to keep up that exercise to sustain your weight at that level of maintenance. All of this is what we learn using MFP and other calorie trackers/counters/diaries. Start thinking of things in the terms of weeks/months rather than days and you'll get a picture of what you can expect going forward. If the weight loss has stopped for a long period of time, your body is getting exactly the amount of calories it needs to sustain your current weight. If that seems not to be the case, then take a good look at your logging because there's an error somewhere.
I am now eating at a level at which I think I want to maintain going forward. Problem with that is it means burning 800 calories a day 6 days a week. That's a problem for me, one that I want to solve before I can stop logging food and counting calories. Because I'm not sure I can maintain this level of activity forever. I have no doubt I'll solve it, but it's still going to take time, and probably another year or more even though I'm now at maintenance.2 -
When you're a normal weight and trying to go down more? Maybe. I'm often hungry and often struggling maintaining my 135 pounds (but it also have to do with eating habits).
When obese? Definitely not.1 -
Do I believe that the hypothalamus strives to maintain homeostasis of hormones and blood pH and blood sugar? yes. Fat cells release hormones, just like every other cell. When the blood passes through the hypothalamus (and other stuff elsewhere) this can trigger other processes elsewhere in the body depending on the concentration of hormones and other messengers. It seems to me that the hypothalamus just wants to keep everything the way it is. Every time you plateau for a couple month-ish, I think the body says "ok, this is the new norm." Unless you change your body composition (by adding or losing muscle, for instance) or move more (or less) or eat differently, I think in a healthy human the body will try to stay at that spot. But, it's not like it's a destiny thing that can't be overcome (within reasonable parameters). Social norms and expectations will put you in a particular frame regarding what you think dinner "should" be and how much activity is "normal." If you keep doing what is "normal" and what you think people "should" eat, then sure, that will be a set point based on your average intake and activity. Change your intake, habits, activity, body composition.... BAM, new "set point," if you want to call it that. Metabolically healthy individuals can gain and lose weight depending on their deficits and surplus energy consumption. The body has tons of mechanisms to maintain the current weight. But really they're mainly just messages you can consciously ignore, should you choose. Just like folks can ignore the feeling of fullness and keep eating (to a point), one can ignore the feeling of hunger (to a point).5
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I don't think there are "set points" per se, buuuut... In gaining and losing weight over the course of four pregnancies I have noticed that certain weight points are harder for me to get past. They tend to correspond to weights that I spent considerable time at (at least a year) earlier in life. For me it's 180, 165, and 150. I'll lose steadily until I get to those points, then it takes about 6-8 weeks of discipline and patience to see the scale budge again. Once I get below those numbers, by at least 3-4 lbs, weight loss seems to resume more easily (no more bouncing around losing and gaining the same pound or two). Is it a "set point", or simply coincidence (all four times, lol) that I happen to experience diet fatigue and end up "cheating" more often at those weight levels? IDK. I do know that with consistency and time I do get past those points (I'm at 142 now, and thinking I'd like to stop losing weight, but my body wants to keep going!). So even if it is a "set point", they aren't insurmountable obstacles.3
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I've never been obese, and was in normal BMI until the last 10 years. My body tries to naturally maintain. But when I got into overweight BMI it tried to maintain there also. I've lost 10 pounds and am working to lose the last 10 to get securely into normal BMI. It is difficult.0
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I don't know. I gain and lose the same stinking 4 pounds over and over.1
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Tlflag. That is encouraging0
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I think it's just so much easier to lose weight when you're starting off coming from a place where you don't make an effort to watch how much you eat and are not active at all. Then you reach a point where you're doing the right things--counting calories and being physically active--and there aren't any more easy things to change or if there are, they are changes that make only slight differences in the short term and you have to (im)patiently wait to see their long term effects. That's when it can seem that your body doesn't want to make changes when in reality it's just that the changes come much more slowly.7
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thunder1982 wrote: »...
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...
Oh joy! I did not know that the body consumed fat cells at some point! I love this. I had heard that they stuck around wanting to be refilled! Great news!0 -
Tlflag. That is encouraging
Keep logging, keep tracking, be patient. Sometimes it seems like I have to "convince" my body that I'm serious :P But once I get past those points I usually get a "whoosh" then weight loss resumes at the expected rate. Until the next "set point" anyway, lol. Good luck!!
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tlflag1620 wrote: »Tlflag. That is encouraging
Keep logging, keep tracking, be patient. Sometimes it seems like I have to "convince" my body that I'm serious :P But once I get past those points I usually get a "whoosh" then weight loss resumes at the expected rate. Until the next "set point" anyway, lol. Good luck!!
Thank you! I'm going to double my efforts.0 -
When I get to where I want to be--- I'll be thanking my "set point". I don't care if people think it's a "myth". Maybe some people over-rode theirs so much it doesn't function for them?1
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When I get to where I want to be--- I'll be thanking my "set point". I don't care if people think it's a "myth". Maybe some people over-rode theirs so much it doesn't function for them?
Do you mind explaining what you mean by this? If I'm reading it right, you're saying you do believe in a set point and that some people are just able to override theirs and lose more weight while others aren't?1 -
I have actually been looking into this "set point" thing lately. Pretty fascinating Google read lol. It seems as though the body will fight to stay at a certain weight. Even going as far as to make you hungrier and more tired (so you won't move around as much). After losing 44lbs and being stuck at 178 for weeks I found this quite intriguing...until I realized I was stuffing my face with Oreos while reading it. I think the excessive Oreos are the cause of my "set point".12
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When I get to where I want to be--- I'll be thanking my "set point". I don't care if people think it's a "myth". Maybe some people over-rode theirs so much it doesn't function for them?
Do you mind explaining what you mean by this? If I'm reading it right, you're saying you do believe in a set point and that some people are just able to override theirs and lose more weight while others aren't?
No. I'm saying that perhaps people who don't believe on set points don't understand about them because they don't have a functioning system due to overriding theirs.0 -
I'm going to try to lower my set point.0
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kissedbythesunshine wrote: »I have actually been looking into this "set point" thing lately. Pretty fascinating Google read lol. It seems as though the body will fight to stay at a certain weight. Even going as far as to make you hungrier and more tired (so you won't move around as much). After losing 44lbs and being stuck at 178 for weeks I found this quite intriguing...until I realized I was stuffing my face with Oreos while reading it. I think the excessive Oreos are the cause of my "set point".
This. Exactly this. Your 'set points' will be set by your eating habits.
My 'set point' has been 133-134 pounds, but it's because I'm not willing to give up my daily 200ish calories of treats to get lower.4 -
no it doesn't. your body does what you tell it to. Lower your cals and move and your body size will shrink.
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