Easy Come, Not-So-Easy Go?

Researchers who study weight control have discovered that people who gain weight easily find it hard to lose extra weight, but people who struggle to gain weight find it easy to lose excess weight. A slow, gradual weight gain will fool your body into thinking that your set point should be higher—and, in fact, that does reset your set point. For instance, a 20-pound weight gain over several decades moves you from silhouette 2 to 4. Then when you try to lose weight, your body defends that higher weight, making weight loss more difficult. On the flip side, a rapid, short-term weight gain doesn’t fool your body and therefore does not reset your set point. Your body will work to defend its lower, normal set point, and shedding those excess pounds will be relatively easy.

But just as it’s possible to reset your set point to a higher point, it’s also possible to lower it. The secret is to work with, not against, your body’s natural tendencies and lose weight slowly, one silhouette at a time.

Source: George L. Blackburn, M.D., Ph.D., "Break Through Your Set Point: How to Finally Lose the Weight You Want and Keep It Off," 2008