Set Point Theory

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I was mindlessly scrolling through Instagram when I stumbled across a post that really resonated with me.

It was short, sweet, and to the point; “If we all ate the same meals and had the same workouts, we would

still all have different bodies.” That sounds so obvious, right? You’re probably thinking, duh…I already

knew that. Yet, I always hear people say things like, “I would be happy if I had a body like so and so’s,”

or “tell me your workout routine and what you eat in a day so I can look like you.”

         Unfortunately, biology doesn’t work that way. We can only change our bodies naturally to a

certain extent. There is something called the set point theory. This is the weight range that your body

prefers the most. So let’s say there is this woman named Linda who is 28 years old and weighs

135 lbs. for the past three years. She decides she wants to go on a diet and lose ten pounds. After a

couple months, she loses weight and goes back to eating regularly again. Eventually, she regains those

ten pounds over time, and she weights her original 135 lbs. again. That’s how our set point works. It is

the weight that is the most constant and stable for your body when you aren’t dieting and simply eating

the way that is normal for you. So just because one way works for someone does not mean it will result

in the same way for everyone else.




-NM

 

Mirror Mirror Eating Disorder Help. (2020, June 30). Set Point Theory - Mirror. Retrieved August 31, 2020, from https://mirror-mirror.org/recovery/set-point-theory

Comments

  1. SPSeptember 28, 2020 at 2:50 PM

    Hi Nicky! Thank you for sharing this! I think social media has really become a problem when it comes to body image. People have the tendency of comparing themselves with others. Great post!
    -SP

    ReplyDelete

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