Set point??

Do you believe there's a particular weight that is your own body's comfortable 'set point'?

Like the weight that your particular body settles at?

The reason I ask is because after DD1 was born, I lost a bit of weight and then it just sort of hovered around that point (over the So-Called "healthy" weight range) for 10 years regardless of my diet & exercise in any given week/month/year. It's like that's the weight my body was happy at.

Does any one else have any Set Point ideas and in particular whether you can 're-set' this weight - either up or down?

I studied a little into this when I was doing psychology (a very long time ago).

I've stayed at my 'set point' since I was 16, so I tend to agree with it. I don't know whether you can reset the set point though, I'll ahve to revisit my essays.

There are very definitely "plateu" points that can be VERY hard to get past (for both psychological and physical reasons). It is also extremely possible to get past these points by focusing on what exactly is causing you to settle at a particular point and trying to resolve it. It is Hard work, but can definitely be done.

Misty, the plateau point idea presumes that there is a general downward trend that then flattens out (and i understand issues of body working more efficiently at lower weights & requiring fewer calories etc) ...that's different to your body maintaining at a particular weight for years.

In my case, if I look at my weight-gain over a number of years, it has not been associated with a long time trend of eating badly & not exercising...rather my weight has been stable until significant biological 'events' have taken place - ie each of my pregnancies, treatment with steroids, period of unusual physical inactivity...then there has been a sudden gain which has leveled out when the biological event has ceased. I'm figuring this would be a FANTASTIC survival mechanism if you lived in an environment of food scarcity & probably biologically entrenched.

Did anyone see that show on SBS last Tues night about Why aren't thin people fat? They got all these lean volunteers then fed them twice the daily number of calories & limited their physical activity for four weeks then watched what happened. Most had a small-moderate weight gain, a couple self-limited because they physically could not force that number of calories down, and the really interesting one gained weight but absolutely no fat - just converted it immediately to muscle - despite the limit on physical activity.

There is so much we don't understand about why our bodies behave like this!

People can and do plateau for years, if they don't pinpoint what is stopping them from going under that weight. Sometimes there is a physical reason. But in my experience as a weight watchers leader, these prolonged plateau's are generally more likely to be caused by psychological barriers - They generally have a very deepseeded belief that they simply CAN NOT loose anymore weight and so they don't - the mid is a very powerful thing. They might have a fear about getting under this weight. They may just be complacent (they are relatively happy with where they are and so loose that motivation to change things up). They might not be willing to change things up, expecting what has worked for the first 30kg will work for the last 5kg, when their bodies need a shakeup, because it has become much more efficent. Sometimes it is habit - they have repeatedly got to and maintained that particular weight, and give up on the idea that they might be anything less.

Of my members who have gotten past this "last plateau", some have gone on to maintain their new weight fot years, others have made a conscious decision to regain that bit of weight up to the original plateau point, because they were happier with how they looked and felt at that higher weight, and felt it would be easier to maintain.