Set point theory

[Menora]

I know this is a theory however I am interested in it as it does match my own experience

does anyone have any opinions on it to share?

the theory is that your body finds weights that it likes to be, and this is what can cause a long plateau. It’s often why people give up and become disheartened as it feels like everything you do is not working.

the theory is that your body needs to readjust to its new set point in time.

Myself as an example on a machine that calculates your mass I have lost a total of 10% of my body fat and gained 2% muscle mass. I’ve lost 16kg and have 12kg more to lose.

However my weight now is a weight I have always historically got stuck at and I am stuck now. I’m trying to eat in a calorie deficit but I seem to be eating just enough to maintain and if I cut my calories more, I am really hungry.

The theory would be that I maintain this for some time and then my body will readjust to its new BMR. Perhaps I slowly increase my muscle mass and my TDEE would change and I would go back to losing weight.

has this been true for anyone else?

There is a lot of theory to suggest that maintaining got a couple of months helps

Thanks! Correcting my OP i have gained 2kg of muscle not 2% 🤣

You should run a maintenance phase ideally as long as the diet itself and only look to lose 10% of your weight in each dieting phase.

Diet fatigue builds up which makes hunger hormones go a bit of out whack, you can still body recomp at maintenance level calories so keep doing your weights and exercise. Your scale weight might not budge but how you look will.

Hello! Never heard of this before. I find if I am in a consistent calorie deficit I will lose fat over a period of time - I do see scale fluctuations inbetween though caused by water retention and cycle.

What calories are you on? Are you weighing everything you eat and drink to make sure you are recording calories properly? This needs to include alcohol and oil used in cooking.

If yes, you could try dropping your calories but eating more protein to avoid the hunger. If you aim for 1250 calories a day (including drinks) but with a minimum of 100g of protein it should stop the hunger and I’d expect you will lose at least 1 lb per week (providing no medical conditions).

Well done on your weight loss so far 👏🏼 16kg is blooming amazing!!

I've read up about set point theory and I can't help thinking it often overcomplicates things.

Our BMR is much higher when we're heavier - our bodies have to work harder just to function. As we lose weight, the amount of calories we 'need' gets lower. Age and height also affects BMR.

So as an example, when I was 11st (I'm mid 30s), my Fitbit* told me I burned around about 1750-1800 calories a day if I had a lazy weekend binging Netflix and not moving much.

I've now dropped to around 9st and now that lazy day figure is less than 1400 calories.

My DM, who is 8st, 3 inches shorter than me and mid 60s burns around 900 calories a day if she has a lazy day.

It stands to reason that the amount of leeway we have for a calorie deficit shrinks as we lose weight. It's not really possible to drop weight at the same rate as when we started losing, otherwise we'd eat hardly anything at all!

But it also stands to reason that after a good start that motivated us, seeing the diet 'stop working' makes us want to throw in the towel.

I found accepting this logic quite helpful, that the weight loss curve if it was on a graph would have a steeper drop at the beginning and level off at the end. I exercise more but don't eat those calories back to try and widen the gap between what I eat and what my body is using.

*I know Fitbit figures aren't that accurate, but the difference 2 stone has made is clear even if it's not exact.

I think that this is true because my BMI was 28.5 for many weeks. I kept exercising, persevered, and it eventually started to go down. Slooooowly.

I’m wondering if it’s the body’s evolutionary method of hanging on to fat having recognised that the food has become scarcer, but I don’t know. If several of us have noticed it, it must be a thing.

I have read about this theory in a book - Why We Eat (Too Much) by Dr Andrew Jenkins, and think it has some credibility. I think that it goes some way towards explaining yo-yo dieting, but I also think that putting lost weight back on is also probably a lot to do with lifestyle and eating habits that creep back once the initial loss period is over.

I do know that from personal expericnce that if I eat more than usual one day I feel less hungry the next day, but it is easy to ignore those feelings and eat my normal amount out of habit. Conversely, if I do more exercise than normal one day I will want to eat more the next day.

It’s a really interesting theory, especially the body hanging onto fat. I am clearly not gaining fat so I am not over eating, but I am no longer in the larger deficit I once was - this didn’t happen overnight so I have gone from still being able to lose weight 3kg ago to now being in a plateau. My BMR will not have changed THAT much, it’s less than 50 calories. To go lower to get back into a deficit I need to recreate a new deficit but it’s harder to do that as I’m hungrier and not yet used to eating less than I was. Hence I hit a set point. I will get used to eating slightly less and it will move again (I hope)

As I understand it, your body’s hunger hormones - of which there are several - start
to protest after a while on a “diet”. So it’s biology that is driving you to put the weight back on, not just weakness of will.

I read that doing Noom.

I lost a stone but am sort of stuck there!

To try and lose more will be difficult because of the hunger aspect- I already eat about 1400 calories a day and it’s hard to go much lower.

The solution I read Noom offers is to slowly trick the body’s hormones during this time

• less refined food
• more bulky food that fills up the stomach (salad, soup)
• more protein
• more physical activity

I am trying this over the next 6 months see what happens. I am prepared to accept current set point if no further progress. But if I could lose one more stone that would be good. Slowly slowly catchee monkey.

I gained back the weight I lost simply by stopping exercise & starting to eat crap again. I can’t believe I did it, but here we are. What has interested me is that I’m not a naturally fat person. I’m eating extra food that I don’t need. I can clearly see the fat deposits on my body. If I stand in natural light & look u the mirror I can see a bank of fat on my stomach. Saddlebags on my thighs, bulk on my bum cheeks & fat pads on my upper arms. And fat around my chin / neck. It’s surplus fat. I wouldn’t say it’s a set point, as my body is not comfortable with it (out of breath / can’t bend) but I will very likely stay like this if I don’t take on diet / lifestyle changes. It’s how so many people just drift into unhealthy eating habits. My slim self is inside fighting to get out. I think a lot of people feel this way & that fat acceptance doesn’t always help…

I agree @Gowlett - it’s never easy.. The effort it takes to maintain - never mind lose - is boring and repetitive.

On the set point theory, I believe in this. Not only do I lose in steps, I gain in steps too. I cam remember my shock when my wait hit 10st3lb then 10st7lb and so on.. Then I get over the shock and perhaps relax into it with inevitable results.

The way down is just the same.. I settle at a point that actually I’m quite pleased about but then push through it to go lower again in increments.

I do have a weight below which isn’t worth it for me: I can’t enjoy a drink, any meals out or need to do extreme exercise which I haven’t time for. Knowing that point is the hard part.

Please excuse the spellings above! I blame Storm Ciaran.

PS. I did do Noom and found it really good at “chipping away” the pounds, healthily and fairly effortlessly even. I could see habits and ‘thought distortions’ I never realised I had. I am fairly happy at my new weight. I went from 14 to 13 stone a year ago and have stayed there.

But a further “shift” of 13 st to a 12 st “set point” will take more effort and more hunger cues - even if (I believe) it’s only temporary till the body’s hunger hormones settle down and I think this can take months. I’ve restarted Noom to help me try and do that, but I’m not sure how possible that is ansnim still a bit of an foodie as well. Especially as disability means I can’t really exercise. I shall have to see!

If you are hungry then change the foods you are eating. This is a good example of how less food can be more filling.
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGJEq56Qj/

I used to think the reason I couldn’t lose weight was because of set point, then I blamed my hypothyroidism for years.
Turns out I was just eating too many calories. I do wish I’d figured how how to lose weight when I was younger so I wouldn’t have spent so many years unhappy. I also wouldn’t now have this crinkly tummy and empty breast from finally losing the weight.

@Moderateorgoodoccasionallyverypoor

I do track all my food and I am not eating the wrong things. I have changed my exercise routine to see if this helps. I am just stuck in a plateau. I don’t eat most of those things in the first half of the tiktok tbh. I eat mostly lean whole foods and proteins, veg and limit carbs.