Your body works in ways you won’t believe, and you should understand how it works before you lose weight successfully. There are a variety of reasons you can’t lose weight, although one main reason stands out the most – metabolic setpoint.
Your brain’s interactions with your gut hormones exist in a balanced state. The explanation of why it is so hard to lose weight is that it is a phenomenon called the set-point theory. It’s a fascinating topic that says when you do lose weight, you are changing the equilibrium of your body’s hormonal axis. Your body fights against these changes and wants to bring you back to the previous state by making you eat more and burn less fat.
Metabolic Thermostat
Your metabolic setpoint or thermostat is your natural weight and biological blueprint – the weight your body is most comfortable at. The brain and hormones majorly affect our weight management, like our blood pressure.
Our body adapts to the increased fat levels and elevated weight and sets it as a new set-point or a new normal. The longer you are overweight, the more ingrained and stubborn the set point becomes. Any slight weight fluctuations, your body enforces a pre-determined weight through constant communication between your brain and hormones.
Everyone’s neurohormonal functions work differently, so there is no standard approach to determine your set point. Fortunately, there are different methods for accomplishing a metabolic reset.
How Your Body Creates New Set Points
New habits or lifestyle changes can create new set points. Think of it like a pendulum, you lose weight and aren’t able to maintain it, so your body swings back into gaining weight, making the cycle continue.
There are ways to maintain steady weight loss, making your set-point change gradually without creating neurohormonal changes to your metabolism or hunger.
What’s a Healthy Amount of Weight Loss
Losing weight slowly and consistently can be the most efficient way to create a new set point. If you lose one pound or less every week, then you’re most likely not losing enough weight for your brain to ‘notice’.
Therefore, you are slowly changing your body’s set-point. The biggest problem is the second this weight loss stops – your body may react to gaining more weight than you originally started. Like we said, your set point is like a pendulum, swinging back and forth yet staying consistent in a specific weight range.
Consistency is the key. Just as quickly as you lower your body’s set point, it’s even easier to increase your set point.
How to Manipulate Your Set-Point
To manipulate your set point, you need to be aware of your individual set point. This means that you need to know exactly how much you can lose before your brain gets alarmed and slows down your metabolism, and increases your hunger.
For most people, a set point can be anywhere between 5 to 20 pounds. This is the range where the body does not resist minor changes.
The reason you need to know your set point is so that you can manipulate it. Once you lose your specific “set point” weight, you need to maintain that exact weight for a few days until your body adapts to this set point. It can sometimes take up to a week or two. Once your body adjusts to its new set-point, you continue your weight loss strategy until you lose that specific set-point weight again, continuing the cycle.
How Your Set-Point Can Change Automatically
In some cases, your set-point can change automatically. A rapid change to your hormone balance can create a new set point over a short period. This can happen from stress, happiness, grief, depression, or basically, anything either really good or really bad that overcompensates your brain to stop focusing on and maintaining your set point.
Some hormonal changes can make you lose more weight than your set point balance can maintain. This is never recommended to induce by yourself. Your body can stabilize your weight even when you eat nothing or exercise a ton (when weight loss should happen).
If you exhaust more weight than your metabolism can handle, you can manipulate your set-point to lose weight.
Weight Loss Surgery Resets Your Set Point
Weight loss surgery is the surest way to not only manipulate your set-point but completely reset it. In the United States, the eligibility requirement to undergo weight loss surgery is having over a 35 BMI (body mass index). In Mexico, the eligibility is typically a 30 BMI or over.
Fighting obesity with pharmacotherapy, diet & exercise alone is not an effective long-term solution. Bariatric procedures, such as sleeve gastrectomy, are proven, rapid and permanent solution.
Many different procedures are highly effective, such as gastric sleeve surgery, gastric bypass surgery, and mini gastric bypass surgery. Weight loss surgery has never been safer than it is now. There are many experienced, qualified bariatric surgeons who are board certified in bariatric and metabolic surgery.
If you are interested in a safe, affordable weight loss surgery in Mexico – call Mexico Bariatric Center®.
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