SETPOINT AND THE FAMINE EFFECT ARE A REALITY. HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO

I've talked before about weight loss and the misconceptions that make it quite difficult to lose weight and keep it off in the long run.
For example, the old-fashioned "eat less and exercise more" explanation.

In theory, it's true that you need to be in an energy deficit to lose weight, and it works in the short term. But then your brain starts to recognize the energy deficit and puts a spanner in the works of your efforts.

One of Denmark's leading obesity researchers Jens Meldgaard Bruun agrees that the "eat less than you burn" theory does NOT hold in real life:

"This is a very important message to get across because many people - including doctors - believe that weight loss is about physics, i.e. the amount of calories you take in versus the amount of calories you burn. And then they don't believe patients when they say they're making a real effort but find that weight loss stalls. But the patients may well be right. The brain will always try to defend body weight by increasing energy intake and reducing metabolism. Weight loss is not physics, it's physiology, and there are some very difficult physiological barriers that people have to overcome"

A renowned American obesity researcher and his team have published a new study that puts some concrete numbers to the so-called "starvation" mechanism - and here's the main reason why the lost pounds creep back on:

CHANGES IN YOUR BODY'S APPETITE REGULATION.

For every kilo you lose, your appetite increases by 100 kcal.

The hormonal signals are so much stronger than your willpower that even if you feel just as focused as before, you will unconsciously eat more.

(If you try to control yourself by weighing your food and counting calories, your metabolism will adjust at the other end - this means that the functions and activities that require extra calories will be reduced to save energy).

"As weight loss begins, your appetite rises above where it was when you started your diet, and it gets harder and harder. So you could say that even if you put the same amount of effort into your diet program, your calorie intake creeps upwards," says Kevin Hall.

The two effects - a lower, more efficient metabolism and a higher appetite - have been known for a long time and constitute what some researchers refer to as the 'famine effect', where the body begins to fight dieting in the belief that it is in a starvation situation. However, it has never before been quantified how much appetite increases when weight loss occurs.

"Willpower is something that more and more people are realizing is a very limited resource that can only be accessed for very short periods. When people are trying to change their weight from whatever their normal value is - what's called the 'setpoint level' - they're up against these changes in appetite and energy expenditure that can be very difficult to overcome. What's not clear, however, is what determines your setpoint - the weight level your body subconsciously fights to defend. And whether we can change that setpoint," says the obesity researcher.

The setpoint level is the weight that the body and its complex hormonal systems automatically maintain, which means that we can normally eat without neurotically counting calories and still end up at roughly the same weight we started with over a given year.

Consultant physician Jens Christian Holm, head of the unit for obese children and adolescents in Holbæk - with an impressive track record in lasting weight loss - describes the mechanisms behind fat mass regulation and how fat mass actively protects itself, while he distances himself from methods that involve under-eating and instead recommends a holistic lifestyle approach to create lasting results.

IS IT ALL SO HOPELESS IF WEIGHT LOSS IS WHAT YOU'RE AFTER?

The message in the article is probably not super conducive to motivation. But that does NOT mean you should wave goodbye to the dream of a slimmer figure.

It means you can put away the old-fashioned model with peace of mind. The article confirms that you are NOT a failure because you have such a hard time keeping the weight off after losing it and not gaining it back.

What fails... is your strategy!
It's hard to land in Kolding when you've taken the train to Aalborg!

So what do you do if you want a slimmer silhouette? And if losing a few kilos is a necessity for your health?

HOW TO SHIFT YOUR SETPOINT.

I can say that after years of experience from over 6,000 women who have been through online and live programs with me and my team - and have succeeded in achieving a completely new mirror image and a set of habits that they stick to after 2-3-4 years - we are most successful with the following strategy:

WE SHIFT THE FOCUS FROM WEIGHT LOSS TO REMODELLING (REDUCE FAT MASS/INCREASE MUSCLE MASS)

It's so much easier to create sustainable results and mold the new figure that you can easily stick to when you don't overly alter your weight setpoint, which your brain tries to hold on to for dear life. Going down a clothing size without:

• having to fight for it
• it needs to become a life project
• being afraid of bulging out again

Sound appealing?
Read on...

STRENGTH TRAINING AND HIGHER METABOLISM

Staying around your equilibrium intake (i.e. eating so that you maintain your weight - without imposing special restrictions) - and even a little more on days when you strength train (almost impossible to remodel, shape and tighten without it!) - allows you to rebuild the muscle mass you've lost over the years with inactivity and/or stress; and then build a little extra to get a bigger engine so you have something to fall back on with age, stress or illness.

Muscles are where you burn fat and carbohydrates, and that extra muscle mass is extremely valuable to you on several levels.

Not so much because it contributes to a slightly higher resting metabolic rate (how much you burn just by being alive).

But because larger/stronger muscle mass can generate more force per time, so you achieve a higher metabolic rate during (especially full-body) training - and thus also a higher afterburn.

In addition, greater/stronger muscle mass will help make everyday movement feel less strenuous and therefore easier to do, which is of great importance as NEPA (non-exercise physical activity) accounts for a fairly large proportion of our total metabolism.

So, when you strength train with steady progression - working to get stronger and stronger - you give your body enough reason to build muscle and burn excess fat.

However, to be able to strength train intensely enough and rebuild the muscles that you naturally break down during training, your body also needs enough energy (calories).

That means no calorie restriction - and therefore no blown appetite fuses - please.

WHAT ABOUT THE LAST 5 to 10 Pounds?

The vast majority of women have much less muscle mass than they think (often due to periods of calorie restriction/overtraining/stress/inactivity/aging) - which is typically perceived as a lack of tightness and translates to "I just need to lose these last 5-10 pounds".

But the tighter mirror image you're looking for will only appear once you've gained 5-10 pounds! Or at least kept your weight at a reasonably high equilibrium intake.

Back when my first book was published in 2014, I wrote about the benefits of focusing on maintaining weight at a higher equilibrium intake - and remodeling your shape while staying close to your setpoint.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THAT EXTRA 20 pounds OR MORE?

What if you're characterized as "overweight"...
- and need to lose weight to become healthier and get rid of the ailments caused by being overweight?

Then the first step is still to increase your metabolism - so you can eat more without gaining weight. From there, you can introduce short periods of slight deficit (intermittent fasting can be quite effective), followed by longer periods of normal food intake. But I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you probably don't need to lose the number of kilos you have in mind to achieve the mirror image you're aiming for.

Because...
If you do it correctly, you will also build muscle and burn fat, which means that in one year you can build 5kg of muscle and lose 10kg of fat, which on the scales will only correspond to 5kg lost, but in the pictures it will look like you have lost 15.

Again, you will deviate much less from your setpoint - and thus have an easier time maintaining your results.

And it's also easier - and much more psyche-friendly - to follow a plan when you can eat your fill in some proper portions of food, and not have to restrict yourself every single time you have to decide on food. Which happens about 272 times a day. Wouldn't it be nice to free up all that thinking for something else?

AT EVEN GREATER EXCESS WEIGHT...

Then it just takes some time to shift your setpoint in a way that doesn't result in yoyo weight. It requires periods of weight loss to be replaced by periods where the weight is stationary.

Both so your brain can get used to your new setpoint - and so you can practice the habits and routines that will enable you to maintain your results.

It's no small thing to get your weight to stand still when the trend over the last few years may have been that it's been steadily increasing! It's a huge milestone!!!

BUT IT'S A PSYCHOLOGICAL GAME WITHOUT EQUAL

Because we are bombarded with messages from every media outlet about how many kilos you should lose - and how fast it can happen.

And also because a large number of professionals stubbornly cling to the old weight loss paradigm, even though they see time and time again that this model fails as soon as people return from a trial setting to their normal lives, everyday demands, and the prevailing food culture (which is also mentioned in the article).

And because we're impatient creatures who have been raised in a performance culture, stagnation is almost a dirty word.

(But what about before/after and after/after?)

• I'm working on creating a greater degree of body awareness that makes it easier for you to navigate the body's various signals and act on them - so you don't get so far away from your setpoint (typically by letting yourself be controlled by, for example, the number on the scale and calorie formulas) that you get hit even harder when your brain realizes what the hell you're doing.
• And last but not least - I work hard to help you lose fat and build muscle instead. 

In other words...

If you're tired of beating your head against the wall trying to overcome your physiology and the world's outdated view of weight loss, sign up to my newsletter to make sure you're notified when we open up new courses and programs.