Resetting your set point weight after weight loss

[Anonymous]

Any experience with this? How long does it take?

[Anonymous]

There is no such thing, which is why the vast majority who lose weight, and doesn't matter if it's WW, Jenny Craig, Noom, Optifast or the new injectable meds, gain the weight back

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is no such thing, which is why the vast majority who lose weight, and doesn't matter if it's WW, Jenny Craig, Noom, Optifast or the new injectable meds, gain the weight back

Are you’d saying there’s no such thing as a set point weight or no such thing as resetting it?

[Anonymous]

no such thing as resetting it (NP)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:no such thing as resetting it (NP)

True.

Just get used to being hungry for life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no such thing, which is why the vast majority who lose weight, and doesn't matter if it's WW, Jenny Craig, Noom, Optifast or the new injectable meds, gain the weight back

Are you’d saying there’s no such thing as a set point weight or no such thing as resetting it?

I was told in a college class by a anesthesiology professor that it took 6 months to reset a set point.

But later told there's no such thing as resetting it because fat cells never die, they just shrink unless surgically removed.

[Anonymous]

I’m not sure I understand the question. It seems to suggest that your body naturally hovers around a certain weight regardless of what you are doing to or with your body. But it always matters what you are doing to or with your body.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no such thing, which is why the vast majority who lose weight, and doesn't matter if it's WW, Jenny Craig, Noom, Optifast or the new injectable meds, gain the weight back

Are you’d saying there’s no such thing as a set point weight or no such thing as resetting it?

I was told in a college class by a anesthesiology professor that it took 6 months to reset a set point.

But later told there's no such thing as resetting it because fat cells never die, they just shrink unless surgically removed.

So does that mean liposuction would make you feel less hungry??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure I understand the question. It seems to suggest that your body naturally hovers around a certain weight regardless of what you are doing to or with your body. But it always matters what you are doing to or with your body.

There is a theory that your body prefers being a certain weight and will do lots of things (increased fidgeting to burn calories or decreased fidgeting to gain weight, increased hunger signals to gain weight, etc.) to maintain it. Not sure how true that is but that is the theory.

What is known is that fat cells make you hungry. Gaining weight makes fat cells increase but losing weight only shrinks them. It doesn't get rid of them. So a person who used to be 160 lbs but is now 120 lbs would feel hungrier than a person who was always 120 lbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure I understand the question. It seems to suggest that your body naturally hovers around a certain weight regardless of what you are doing to or with your body. But it always matters what you are doing to or with your body.

There is a theory that your body prefers being a certain weight and will do lots of things (increased fidgeting to burn calories or decreased fidgeting to gain weight, increased hunger signals to gain weight, etc.) to maintain it. Not sure how true that is but that is the theory.

What is known is that fat cells make you hungry. Gaining weight makes fat cells increase but losing weight only shrinks them. It doesn't get rid of them. So a person who used to be 160 lbs but is now 120 lbs would feel hungrier than a person who was always 120 lbs.

Same poster, responding again. In other words, what your are doing to or with your body is the cause of your current weight, but the difficulty of doing that is related to your previous behavior/weight.

[Anonymous]

You can't "reset" it in some simple way. People don't understand the science of "set point" well -- it isn't that your body just "likes" 180lbs and wants to be that weight or something. The "set point" isn't that simple.

It's more that there are multiple hormones and aspects of metabolism that cue many relevant things -- like hunger and cravings and whether or not your body wants to hang onto fat -- and all of that factors into whether or not your body is happy with the weight you are. Whether or not your body thinks you are starving or overweight or just right. And your body can get this very, very wrong. Which is what we see with many instances of obesity.

For example, some medications such as certain psych meds (abilify comes to mind) and steroids (prednisone comes to mind) can cause your body to think it is far too thin ... and your metabolism will slow way down and your hormones will constantly tell you to eat to try to fix this imaginary starvation problem. Even if you weigh 350lbs, your body thinks you are far too small. I think of it almost as akin to autoimmune; your body shouldn't be telling your immune system to attack your own cells, but something has gone awry and it does. Your body is confused with obesity as well. Even though your body shouldn't be sending you every possible signal to eat, eat, eat, it does. Because your body thinks that your "set point" ... the size it should be to be healthy ... is much bigger. Your body is confused, and basically thinks it is starving, and you need to eat, so it bombards you with messages to do so and holds on to the fat you have for dear life. And these hormonal cues to eat -- and to eat anything with a lot of calories -- are virtually impossible to ignore long term. This is why GLP1 drugs are so effective; they counteract this. As humans we like to think of ourselves as making choices, but we operate on instinct more than people realize, and it is very very hard to counteract. Someone with a healthy set point has no idea what someone with obesity goes through, given the messages their body is sending them 24/7.

At any rate, you CAN change your metabolism. A bit anyway. Which can help. And you do that by strength training and building as much muscle as you can. It's settled science that muscle tissue burns more calories at rest than fat does. The rate at which muscle burns calories is not as dramatic as some say it is, and scientists disagree about this, but it is pretty settled that it is at least 3x the rate of fat. So if you work out and build a lot of muscle and lose a lot of fat, your metabolism will speed up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no such thing, which is why the vast majority who lose weight, and doesn't matter if it's WW, Jenny Craig, Noom, Optifast or the new injectable meds, gain the weight back

Are you’d saying there’s no such thing as a set point weight or no such thing as resetting it?

I was told in a college class by a anesthesiology professor that it took 6 months to reset a set point.

But later told there's no such thing as resetting it because fat cells never die, they just shrink unless surgically removed.

So does that mean liposuction would make you feel less hungry??

In theory, yes. In practice, no -- because it wouldn't remove enough cells to affect this.

[Anonymous]

Be vigilant and maybe over time...

[Anonymous]

This means also resetting your habits. You can't go back to your old habits.

Whatever you do to lose the weight, you have to consistently do to keep the weight off. Which is why it's always recommended to make slow, sustainable changes (not diets, etc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:no such thing as resetting it (NP)

True.

Just get used to being hungry for life.

Most people never experience real hunger. Real hunger starts days after you last meal. Perhaps even well over a week or two.
What most people refer to as hunger is just mental cravings. Those can be controlled or "reset" if one wants to call it that.