I would look for studies on ghrelin (the hunger hormone) - lose weight it goes up, gain weight it goes down - that's the set point behaviour. The phenomena of

I would look for studies on ghrelin (the hunger hormone) - lose weight it goes up, gain weight it goes down - that's the set point behaviour. The phenomena of an ever increasing set point I believe is down to periods of willful over-indulgence that overruns the power of our hormonal homeostasis to recover from so it settles higher than it started when pushed too hard. Christmas, holidays, times of stress, home-baking passions (my downfall), liquid calories and ultra calorie dense eating-for-leisure that don't stimulate our sense of fullness early enough to stop. The cruelty is that it's a hell of a lot easier to eat when not hungry than to push a plate away when jonesing for it, so it keeps going up.