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I think you're misunderstanding. There is no "natural set point." The set point moves up and down based on hormones, genes, diet, environment, medication, etc.

I think you're misunderstanding. There is no "natural set point." The set point moves up and down based on hormones, genes, diet, environment, medication, etc. And the very act of gaining weight causes your body's set point to move up, because of how weight gain affects your hormones. Unfortunately the set point is pretty sticky, and once it moves up, it does not like to move back down, in part because for most of animal history, weight loss is a sign of starvation. Today, there are a bunch of factors that have combined to move people's set points higher than they should be: calorie-dense diets, sedentary lifestyles, plastics, drugs like antidepressants and lithium compounds in the water supply, and who knows what else. No one is arguing that the "natural" set point is 300 pounds or whatever. The point is that there is no natural set point because it's a function of many different variables.

Izkata 4y ago
> And the very act of gaining weight causes your body's set point to move up, because of how weight gain affects your hormones. Unfortunately the set point is pretty sticky, and once it moves up, it does not like to move back down, in part because for most of animal history, weight loss is a sign of starvation. Kind of, but increasing doesn't go indefinitely either. People have multiple "set points", not one moveable one, long known among people intentionally increasing their weight as "plateaus".
vladf 4y ago
What is a set point not influenced by? The way you framed it, it seems to take everything into account. In that case, why wouldn't "your current weight" not just be your set point?
- hammock 4y ago
  He didn’t explain the concept of a set point very well. Your body’s set point is a weight that it wants to go back to. The set point can change, but not without great effort. Small efforts will simply result in temporary weight gain/loss and eventual reversion to the set point weight. Great efforts (long term changes in diet and lifestyle, not just a 7 day juice fast) are required to re-set your set point higher or lower. Think of a hamster crawling up a giant mixing bowl or something, set on a particular spot on the kitchen floor. The hamster can walk forwards up the side of the bowl, but the bowl has not moved and since the sides of the bowl are very steep, the hamster will slide back down to the middle of the bowl where he started. If he wants to get to a different part of the kitchen, he will have to really slam his body against the side of the bowl, or work hard in a different way, to “nudge” the whole bowl across the floor so it’s now sitting at a different “set point”

Izkata 4y ago

> And the very act of gaining weight causes your body's set point to move up, because of how weight gain affects your hormones. Unfortunately the set point is pretty sticky, and once it moves up, it does not like to move back down, in part because for most of animal history, weight loss is a sign of starvation. Kind of, but increasing doesn't go indefinitely either. People have multiple "set points", not one moveable one, long known among people intentionally increasing their weight as "plateaus".

vladf 4y ago

What is a set point not influenced by? The way you framed it, it seems to take everything into account. In that case, why wouldn't "your current weight" not just be your set point?

hammock 4y ago
He didn’t explain the concept of a set point very well. Your body’s set point is a weight that it wants to go back to. The set point can change, but not without great effort. Small efforts will simply result in temporary weight gain/loss and eventual reversion to the set point weight. Great efforts (long term changes in diet and lifestyle, not just a 7 day juice fast) are required to re-set your set point higher or lower. Think of a hamster crawling up a giant mixing bowl or something, set on a particular spot on the kitchen floor. The hamster can walk forwards up the side of the bowl, but the bowl has not moved and since the sides of the bowl are very steep, the hamster will slide back down to the middle of the bowl where he started. If he wants to get to a different part of the kitchen, he will have to really slam his body against the side of the bowl, or work hard in a different way, to “nudge” the whole bowl across the floor so it’s now sitting at a different “set point”