WEIGHT SET-POINT

THEORY:
IS ONE TRULY CAPABLE OF CONTROLLING THEIR WEIGHT?
LAURA BAUMAN, MA, PLPC, NCC
 OBJECTIVES

o Gain an understanding of weight set-point theory

o Develop knowledge on the impact of both dieting and overeating
o Discover the implications of weight set-point theory
o Learn how to discover one’s own set weight range
(MacLean, et. al., 2011)
“Biological pressures emerge after weight loss to impart a
more prominent influence on the process of weight regain.
It is the dieting and the deviation from the ‘steady-state’
weight that awakens the body's defense system. The
biological response is persistent, saturated with
redundancies, and well-focused on the objective of
restoring the body's depleted energy reserves.”
- MacLean et al., 2011
MINNESOTA STARVATION EXPERIMENT (1944)

oPart 1: Restriction/ dieting phase

- Participants were given a starvation diet of ~1,500 calories per day
- Participants began to exhibit compromised psychological features and developed an obsession with food,
becoming preoccupied with cookbooks, recipes, making food, and experiencing increased thoughts about food
- Participants reported intensified cravings and secret binges on large quantities of food
oPart 2: Participants allowed to eat as desired
- Following the restriction phase, participants were allotted 8-weeks to eat as desired
- Participants reported intensified hunger and cravings, with multiple conveying that they were still hungry after
extremely large meals
- Participants’ average consumption was 4,400 to 10,000 calories/ day
- Participants gained weight rapidly

(Kalm & Semba, 2005; McCray, 2017; Tribole, 2014)

MINNESOTA STARVATION EXPERIMENT (1944)

oPart 3: 8-month follow-up

- 8-months following, participants’ body weights were higher than their pre-dieting weights
- Body fat stores raised an average of 40% from their pre-dieting levels

o Weights and fat stores eventually returned to pre-experiment levels but took an average of 11.5 months
across participants, indicating that the body stays at a higher weight following a period of dieting so to
guard for future food restriction.

(Kalm & Semba, 2005; McCray, 2017; Tribole, 2014)

VERMONT PRISON STUDY (1964)

o Participants were overfed for 3 months (approx. 5,000-10,000 calories/ day)

o Weight initially gained quickly, but became increasingly difficult as time progressed, requiring
recurrently more calories to maintain these high weights
o Participants exhibited significant increases in metabolism, body temperature, and heartrate
o Following the study, participants’ body weights returned to their previous, lower weights

(Salans, Horton, & Sims, 1971)

PARABIOSIS RATS STUDY

o In this particular study, pairs of rats were joined surgically to share a joint blood supply
o Once joined, lesions were made in the ventromedial hypothalamus of one rat in each
pair to induce obesity
o As the obesity-induced rats exhibited an increased appetite for food and gained weight
rapidly, the adjoined rats exhibited significant decreases in food intake and began
losing weight
o It was discovered that the obesity-induced rats’ blood supplies signaled satiety, thus
decreasing hunger in the adjoined rat
o Additional techniques were also used to induce obesity in one rat of a parabiosed pair,
with adjoined rats consistently eating less and losing weight after this occurred

(Harris, 2014)
OTHER SIGNIFICANT STUDIES

oAdoption Studies
– Data results from adoption studies consistently show that weights of adopted children correlate with their
biological parents rather than those of adoptive parents, indicating that weight is influenced significantly more
by biology than by diet
oTwin Studies
– A significant study of twins included sets of identical twins separated for 100 days; one isolated and given no
access to foods other than those provided by investigators, while the other was overfed
– Body weights and fat stores were evaluated following the study and the results revealed a closer association in
body weight and visceral fat within each twin pair than among twin pairs

(Bouchard, 1997; Classen & Thompson, 2016; Sorensen et al., 1998; Stunkard et al., 1990)
DIETING’S
INFLUENCE ON
WEIGHT
SET-POINT
o Decrease in metabolism
o Reduced ambition to exercise & reduction in calories utilized during exercise
o Increased motivation to eat
o Reduction in satiety
o Decrease in lean body tissue; increase in fat stores
o Decreased levels of leptin (the hormone that triggers fullness)
o Lower caloric requirement becomes a burden that one must compensate for to remain at the reduced weight

(Kissileff et al., 2012; Kizer, 2018; MacLean et al., 2011; Redman et al.,
2009; Rosenbaum & Liebel, 2013; Shaw, 2012; Stotz, 2019)
 DIETING’S INFLUENCE ON
WEIGHT SET-POINT (CONT.)

o Hypothalamus undergoes extensive changes promoting weight regain

o State of burning fewer calories persists throughout weight regain, rising back to normal levels only after the
lost weight has been regained or surpassed
o Considerable rise in body fat percentage, as the body prepares for future famine
o 2013 study on metabolic responses to weight change confirmed that maintaining a 10% decrease in body
weight resulted in a 20–25% decrease in 24–hour energy expenditure, as well as a 30% decrease in calories
used during exercise (Rosenbaum & Liebel, 2013)
o Studies following weight-reduced individuals over the long-term indicate that 80–90% return to previous
weights (Hall & Kahan, 2018)

(Hall & Kahan, 2018; Kissileff et al., 2012; Kizer, 2018; MacLean et al., 2011;
Redman et al., 2009; Rosenbaum & Liebel, 2013; Shaw, 2012; Stotz, 2019)
HOW DO I FIND MY SET
WEIGHT RANGE?
o Learn to recognize your own hunger & fullness cues; able to eat when
hungry and stop when full & satiated

o Honor your cravings, while at the same time listening to your body

o Honor your body with the foods and movement it needs

o Instead of enforcing your own ideas, listen to your body, allowing it to “Your ideal body weight is
determine food decisions whatever weight you reach
when you are mindfully
o Accept that body weight does not require your logical intervention
nourishing yourself with food
and movement that you
o Aim for consuming a variety of foods
actually enjoy, and fully
o Withhold from restricting any macronutrients engaging in your life.” –
Jennifer Rollin MSW, LCSW-
C
SIGNS THAT YOU HAVE REACHED “You can only estimate that you are at set
point if you have been eating “normally”
YOUR SET WEIGHT RANGE and participating in moderate exercise
for about a year. It is estimated that it
takes that long, free of dieting, to allow
o Your weight has remained stable for a consistent your metabolism and weight to return to
amount of time without any immense effort towards what is normal for you.”
keeping it so - Donna Ciliska, RN, PhD

o You feel properly energized

o Your bodily processes are all running as they should

(given that there is not medical condition that would affect
something otherwise)

o You are not experiencing heavy survival drives to

binge on large amounts of food

o You are attuned to hunger and fullness signals

and maintaining regular movement
KEY TAKEAWAYS

o Each individual contains a unique weight set-point at which the body is

programmed to function optimally, predetermined by several factors and
regulated by mechanisms in the brain
o The body defies shifting from this range as indicated by significant metabolic
and neurobiological adjustments following either weight loss or gain
o The brain holds an unwavering and impeccable grasp of the body’s needs
o Logically intervening with body weight serves only to alarm the body’s
survival mechanisms; listening to one’s body is the answer.
 “Accept your genetic blueprint. Just as a
person with a shoe size of eight would not
expect realistically to squeeze into a size six,
it is equally futile (and uncomfortable) to
have a similar expectation about body size.”
― Evelyn Tribole
THANK YOU!!
SOURCES
• Bouchard & Tremblay (1997). Genetic influences on the response of body fat and fat distribution to positive and
negative energy balances in human identical twins
• Classen & Thompson (2016). Genes and the intergenerational transmission of BMI and obesity
• Hall & Kahan (2018).
• Harris (2014). Contribution made by parabiosis to the understanding of energy balance regulation
• MacLean et al. (2011). Biology's response to dieting: the impetus for weight regain
• Kalm & Semba (2005). They starved so that others be better fed: remembering Ancel Keys and the Minnesota
experiment
• Salans, Horton, & Sims (1971). Experimental obesity in man: cellular character of the adipose tissue
• Redman et al. (2009). Metabolic and behavioral compensations in response to caloric restriction: implications for the
maintenance of weight loss
• Rosenbaum & Liebel (2013). Adaptive thermogenesis in humans
• Sorensen et al. (1998). Adoption study of environmental modifications of the genetic influences on obesity
• Stunkard et al. (1990). The body-mass index of twins who have been reared apart