The brick wall that many of us have never heard of. Introducing the ‘set point’ or ‘weight point’ theory
The Holly Body Whisperer Challenge: Insight 3
At Holly Health, we’re running a 2 week body whisperer challenge, to kick start 2021 with a compilation of body and mind related insights. Each insight is accompanied by a mini challenge, something easy to do or think about, to put your new learning into action. Follow this account, to see when the next article is published.
There have been, and always will be conflicting messages around weight management. Something you may have heard is: ‘calories in, calories out is all you need to care about’. At Holly Health we counter this view. Weight management is far more nuanced than simply how many calories we consume. Scientific evidence shows that how our body uses and stores consumed calories can be affected by many things, including; how much exercise we’ve been doing, how tired or stressed we are, what is the chemical makeup of the calories, as well as how far we’ve deviated from the weight at which our body feels safe and stable. For this insight, we’re zooming into this concept of the safe and stable point, also known as set point or weight point theory. To summarise at a high level, set point theory suggest that our bodies seek to hover around a weight at which the body is used to, and is quite happy functioning. It’s thought that the biggest factor determining our set point is our environment and consumption during early years, when we’re a child or adolescent.
Our set point can change, but it won’t do so in an instant. When we try to significantly change our body weight in a short space of time (for example with an intensive diet), the body starts to think that something isn’t right. The deviation from the set point triggers chemical and biological processes (like hunger signals and metabolism changes), in order to revert back towards the initial safe and functional weight. Studies have also demonstrated that it’s easier to deviate upwards from a set point (i.e. to gain more weight) than it is to go downwards (and lose weight) — this is most likely because historically, starvation was a much bigger survival challenge than over consumption.
Given the modern environment, we’re more frequently challenged with reducing rather than increasing weight. So are we facing a losing battle? No — there is a solution. As mentioned, set point can change. Gradual overconsumption can gradually pull a set point upwards and similarly, gradual reduction in consumption, can pull a set point downwards. But the key word here is gradual. Studies suggest that for weight loss to be sustainable (without our bodies bouncing back), we should aim to lose no more than 5–7% of our total bodyweight within 6 months.
Your Mini Challenge:
This mini challenge is a simple reflection exercise….Think of a time in your life — it could be now, it could be years or decades ago — when you, or someone close to you, tried to make a change to your/their body weight or composition. Remember that experience. Were you/they trying to make fast or slow changes? And how did it go? Were you/they able to achieve the desired changes? And were the results maintained? Now that you know more about the set point theory, think about whether there’s anything you’d do differently in future. Does it make you feel differently about quick results diets?
Everyone’s different, and it’s not impossible to go through a fast, intense, change in weight, and then to sustain the results. But it is rare. This was demonstrated by an interesting follow up study from the ‘Biggest Loser’ TV program, in case you’d like to learn more.
Holly Health content, insights, and recommendations come from our excellent team of psychologists, nutritionists, and health coaches. Ultimately our goal is to support millions to create and sustain healthy lifestyle changes, for disease prevention and better quality of life. You can learn more (and join the beta service) at hollyhealth.io.