weight set points??

[IronCitGrl]

Is it true that your body has its own "set point" or a weight that your body is most comfortable at?? I ask this because I seemed to be ok being a jeans size 6. I still had to work hard in the gym and watch what I ate but I seemed to have decent progress reaching that size. But when I became a jeans size 4 I was miserable! I looked really good but I was so unhappy. I felt like I was constantly starving even on a 1700 calorie diet and constantly obsessed with food. Just thinking about that time makes me feel a headache coming on, extreme exhaustion and irritability! I only maintained this size for 2-3 months. So does that mean my body just doesn't want to be that small? I am only 5'5" so it doesn't seem THAT small. I mean there are some women my height who are a size 0! Can you really FORCE your body to do something it doesn't want to do? Am I genetically predispositioned to only be a size 4 for a couple of miserable months?

[IronCitGrl]

49 views and no answers?

[shesprints]

What's your bf%? Do you know? That will largely determine the healthy weight your body can maintain.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2990627/

It's more of a range than a single weight--there are upper and lower limits.

There's also been research that says that for women, hormonal and menstrual health depends upon a set body fat %, maybe related to the % at which you began menstruating. (I think the average is 17%, according to some articles I've seen).

[TigerAngelLeigh]

You can force your body to be leaner/smaller/more muscular/whatever, but that doesn't mean it will be easy or comfortable - as you have discovered. But that doesn't mean you can't train your body and mind to adapt to your new shape. It may take constant, minor adjustments to make your diet and exercise work in harmony with your new body, but chances are you will make it eventually.

I don't know your stats, but 1700 calories sounds pretty low for an active person to maintain their weight. If you are gaining on 1800+ calories, maybe consider bulking and building muscle to raise your metabolism before lowering your body weight gradually to minimise muscle loss when you're losing fat.

If you're hungry, try to eat a lot of low GI foods. I've been doing this recently (and as you can tell from my stats, I've been used to eating a lot over the past 5 years) and it's made my life so much easier. Eating sufficient protein also helps me feel fuller for longer: a vegetable omelette instead of a sandwich for lunch, homemade protein bars instead of salty/sugary snacks, a casein shake to curb evening snacking... Experiment and see what works for you.

For me, my mind has been the most difficult aspect of weightloss to change. It's taken me a long time to accept that I need to change my lifestyle forever, rather than do a drastic diet as a quick fix only to end up overeating. I recommend On Eating by Susie Orbach to help foster a healthy attitude towards food. It also has fantastic strategies for breaking food's control over you. I don't know how big an issue food is for you, especially as a restrictive diet automatically makes people become more obsessed with food, but it's definitely worth exploring and could help you find some perspective on how to balance the way you want to eat with the body you want to have.

Finally, I would point out that a few months is not a long time. It's hard to adjust to a new body and lifestyle. You may need to pay more attention to how you eat for a year or more, until it feels more natural. Maybe you need to be more active, so you can eat enough to feel satisfied. Maybe you need to gradually reduce your portion sizes to get used to not eating so much. Maybe you need to focus on other areas of your life for a while, so that food and body size aren't such a big deal. It's going to take a lot of trial and error, but once you figure out your priorities and how you can adapt, it will get easier.

[bizarrosaurus]

I have found that I always linger around the same weight, give or take a few pounds. It's the most healthy weight for me personally, and even though I could gain 20lbs and still not be "fat" or even chubby, it wouldn't feel good to me because I'm naturally slim and have always been that way. Someone else of my height might feel very weak or unhappy at my weight, genetics play a part in this too. I'm sure you could train your body into being a size 4, but what's the point if you're feeling miserable?

[Miranda]

there's something to 'set' points. i don't think they come in jeans sizes though

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...report=classic

Set points, settling points and some alternative models: theoretical options to understand how genes and environments combine to regulate body adiposity

Abstract

The close correspondence between energy intake and expenditure over prolonged time periods, coupled with an apparent protection of the level of body adiposity in the face of perturbations of energy balance, has led to the idea that body fatness is regulated via mechanisms that control intake and energy expenditure. Two models have dominated the discussion of how this regulation might take place. The set point model is rooted in physiology, genetics and molecular biology, and suggests that there is an active feedback mechanism linking adipose tissue (stored energy) to intake and expenditure via a set point, presumably encoded in the brain. This model is consistent with many of the biological aspects of energy balance, but struggles to explain the many significant environmental and social influences on obesity, food intake and physical activity. More importantly, the set point model does not effectively explain the ‘obesity epidemic’ – the large increase in body weight and adiposity of a large proportion of individuals in many countries since the 1980s. An alternative model, called the settling point model, is based on the idea that there is passive feedback between the size of the body stores and aspects of expenditure. This model accommodates many of the social and environmental characteristics of energy balance, but struggles to explain some of the biological and genetic aspects. The shortcomings of these two models reflect their failure to address the gene-by-environment interactions that dominate the regulation of body weight. We discuss two additional models – the general intake model and the dual intervention point model – that address this issue and might offer better ways to understand how body fatness is controlled.

outside extreme low levels of leanness (contest-lean FBBs for example), the idea of a 'rigid' set point is not exactly accurate. if the body returned to a certain weight no matter what, no-one would ever successfully lose weight/fat. no-one would ever become fat/obese, either

your body seeks homeostasis and acutely strives to achieve energy balance. that's why dieting sucks. but maintenance isn't overfeeding (ie getting fatter).

'settling' point would be more accurate. weight loss or gain in humans has a lot more to do with lifestyle imo. if you want to lose fat and maintain the loss for long term, you need to make sustainable lifestyle changes, not 'diet'. if your weight creeps back up after dieting, it's likely that you simply went back to your old habits that made you fat in the first place.

another variant that you see in fitness nuts would be a person who successfully diets down using rigid methods and develops an unhealthy attitude toward eating/exercise. or they equate constant dieting with maintenance. of course neither is sustainable. i mean, if you think the only way to be 'lean' is to starve yourself and/or do a shtload of exercise, you have a problem.

[IronCitGrl]

another variant that you see in fitness nuts would be a person who successfully diets down using rigid methods and develops an unhealthy attitude toward eating/exercise. or they equate constant dieting with maintenance. of course neither is sustainable. i mean, if you think the only way to be 'lean' is to starve yourself and/or do a shtload of exercise, you have a problem.

I think I may have had issues with this. I would barely go back up to maintenance for very long I was constantly trying to lose. I have no idea what my bf% was probably not even that low. I really had no accurate way of measuring it. I was 5'5" (well I still am I guess ) and probably around 135 which could mean anything I guess but that is low for me. I ate 1700 calories when trying to lose NOT maintain and I was always trying to lose maybe that was the problem.