The idea that every body has a natural “set point” weight that they’ll always bounce back to which makes weight loss pointless. Is this a real thing?? It seems to unlikely to me and I don’t think it’s ever been proven yet anti-diet influencers on Instagram are alway posting about it. Thoughts?
Yes and no
There are lots of studies showing that if you give rats/ mice free access to food they will maintain a stable weight. Add a running wheel so they get more exercise, they eat more. Switch to low calorie food, they eat more. And if you either force feed them (IVs of sugar) or withhold food they will gain or lose weight. BUT when the manipulation stops the animal’s weight returns to normal.
And also, we know that there are parts of the brain that act as “set points” because if researchers ablate them (in lab animals) you get animals that either over eat or under eat. Some humans have strokes/ injuries that lead to similar deficits.
That’s the biological evidence for set points.
Having said all that, modern humans have very different social lives than lab animals, and what humans eat is determined not just by what our bodies need, but by sensory input & activating neural circuits that override the controls. (fabulous looking desert can make you eat even after a full meal), being with friends or in certain settings will lead overeating. In short— the normal signals that we (our brains/ bodies) should be listening to can be ignored. Part of the idea of time restricted eating is to learn how to perceive those signals again.
My understanding is that it’s still a theory being tested, so hardly settled science.
And even if it’s true it would just mean that it’s just harder for some folks to loss, gain, or maintain weight, but not impossible.
Hell, we accept these kinds of genetic differences in lots of other places. I’ll never be as strong as an Olympic power lifter, but there’s a big spectrum between not putting effort in and genetic lottery.
It seems that it’s maybe less of a set point, than a spectrum of where people tend to end up. And genetics plays a role.
https://newsroom.uvahealth.com/2021/09/20/uva-discovers-genes-that-cause-obesity/