Resetting the Set-point for Weight Loss
By SusanEditor's Note by Barbara Lock, MD
December 16, 2009
I have read in various magazines that some people believe when we are losing weight, and yet we eat much more food on one day per week, we are actually “re-setting” the body’s metabolism that day -- and in doing so, increasing the speed of weight loss.
I realize in retrospect that I, too, may have been eating more on one day per week during the two months I was losing weight – though I did not intentionally do this. Nor did I plan to do this. So I am wondering: Does research support this idea of a body “re-set” when we eat more on one day per week?
With respect to my experience, it just so happened that one day per week I would usually go out to eat. And, although I knew strategies for not overeating, I sometimes chose to order food I would not have normally eaten that week. This certainly happened over Thanksgiving week when I at more food than I should have and yet still lost four pounds. It also happened in the other weeks, as I ate out at various restaurants.
I know that the weight loss organization I have joined always tells you to get right back on the program if you know you went off plan -- and I did that each time. The result was that I never had two consecutive days of eating more than I planned; only one day, each week. And, again, each week I ended up with a larger than expected weight loss. Consequently, does research recognize a weekly “re-set” of the body’s metabolism, when one consumes more food one day per week, as another secret to weight loss?
MedPie.com responds: there is a principle in biology and other natural systems called homeostasis, which refers to the concept that the system will tend to regulate itself to maintain sameness, all other things being equal. This is true for a person's energy balance. If a person eats less, the body's reaction to maintain sameness will be to reduce activity so as not to loose weight. If a person exercises more, the body's reaction to maintain sameness will be to eat more. But it also works the other way: if a person eats more, the body's reaction to maintain sameness will be to increase activity.
Sometimes this increase (or decrease) in activity may be difficult to identify: people may fidgit more or less, find themselves with unexpected engery to do an extra load of laundry or rake the leaves, or no energy to even get up and put away the dishes; the change in energy expenditure does not have to be in the form of a designated exercise.
This maintenance of sameness is thought to hinge on a set-point or several set-points for functions or hormones in the body. The four most likely hormones that affect weight homeostasis are insulin (and blood sugar), leptin (and levels of fat), ghrelin (which stimulates hunger) and amylin (which affects levels of satiation). All three almost certainly work together to affect appetite and energy expenditure, and more may exist.
Homeostasis, remember, is the maintenance of sameness in a system assuming no significant changes in the system. A person who changes their own biology by making it a habit to exercise every single day, and almost always eating healthfully will change their set point to relfect their new levels of energy inputs and expenditures. This is what happened to Susan when she ate extra once a week: by continuing exercise and usually sticking to her diet, she "reminded" her body that she was operating at a new set point for energy intake and expenditure, and her weight loss continued.
Taking a cue from Susan's experience, we sought to answer the question: Do patients who are assigned a diet higher in calories than their usual diet plus exercise to those who are maintained on their usual diet plus exercise experience an increase in weight loss? We found no studies that answered this question, and we're not surprised.
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