3 Ways to Challenge Weight Loss Set Point and Drive Sustainable Change

Table of Contents

The Weight Loss Rollercoaster

You did it!

You put in the hard work and made harder sacrifices.

You’re genuinely proud of what you accomplished.

You look phenomenal, feel energetic, and it shows!

Your friends are asking for your secrets.

Even your doctor gives you incredible praise.

Then, what inevitably happens?

You step into a time warp and your hard work vanishes.

Worse, it leaves behind a little reminder of how you tried and fell short.

Frustration and defeat sets in when you try to slide into your high school jeans.

It seems that everybody has experienced this irony of life.

So what is happening here?

How does somebody regain weight while sticking to their diet and exercise?

Why do you have to padlock the cupboards and be imprisoned by a treadmill?

If you are searching for answers – Good.

There is hope.

Let’s transmute that hit to morale into a sustainable outcome.

Understanding Set Point Theory: Your Body’s Weight Thermostat

What is Set Point Theory?

It seems like set point theory has gained popularity.

Basically, set point theory tries to explain the body’s apparent desire to defend a certain weight.

Your body weight is regulated by feedback loops between the brain and different hormone signals.

This works like the thermostat in your house.

Set a comfortable temperature, then let the automatic systems take care of the rest.

So the thermostat has one purpose:

Maintain the set temperature.

Similarly, your body thermostat has one purpose:

To keep you alive.

Health Risks of Excess Weight

Your body is brilliantly designed to keep you alive.

There are a host of mechanisms that keep you healthy.

The irony is that your body might think it’s keeping you healthy even though you feel headaches, fatigue and exhaustion, or burning and tingling in your fingers and legs.

Your doctor knows that excess weight allows chronic issues to manifest which can lead to more complications including but not limited to:

High blood pressure
High cholesterol
Diabetes

These issues create a body-environment that raises cardiovascular disease risk. With higher risk, comes:

Heart attack
Stroke
Kidney failure
Neuropathy^1,2

So since we know we are not in our optimal health, where is the disconnect between our knowledge and our body?

Challenges in Maintaining Weight Loss

Lessons from the Biggest Loser

So why is weight loss harder than putting in the hard work?

If you remember the TV show “The Biggest Loser”, researchers followed the contestants for years after they finished the competition.

The surprise was that they lost more than their weight. They lost their metabolism.

What’s worse, their metabolism stayed low for years after the show.

The slower metabolism meant that these people burned fewer calories than another person with the same weight.

This phenomenon is known as adaptive thermogenesis.³

So this metabolic change made life very difficult for people to maintain their new lower weight.

The thermostat did not care if the new weight was “healthier”.

The thermostat understood the weight loss as a threat to survival.

So it turned the furnace off.

But that’s not all it can do to preserve your life.

Slow your metabolic rate
Make you hungrier
Make food taste better
Trigger cravings

Sound familiar?

The Importance of Slow, Steady Weight Loss

We are grateful for the smart design.

But getting to a healthy weight seems hopeless.

So why try?

Well, the key is to recognize the nature of your thermostat.

It’s not as simple as flipping a switch and turning a knob to your desired setting.

It’s a “smart” thermostat.

And we’ve all been frustrated by thermostats that think they’re smarter than us!

It can go up, down, or sideways.

You need to know how to program your thermostat to influence the change you want at the right time.

For example, a hibernating animal wants to slow down their metabolism for winter.

Winter is harsh, with little food available. So they want to fatten up and retain their weight for as long as possible to survive the season.

It seems the key is to achieve your new weight slowly.

What’s the right rate?

That depends on you.

A study of elite athletes showed that a weight loss rate of 0.7% per week, preserving lean body mass and maintaining muscle strength, was better than losing 1.4% per week.⁴

Another study of people with knee osteoarthritis showed improvement in their disability with a 0.25% weight loss per week for 20 weeks.⁵

If you go too fast, up or down, your body will sound the alarm.

Hormones will ensure you snap back to poor lifestyle habits because your body wants to maintain the paradigm that has kept you alive.

So remember:

“Slow and steady wins the race” because the race is actually your journey.

“Slow is smooth, smooth is fast”. (Cite this later with appropriate number scheme.)

We all want results NOW.

We all want more energy to show up for ourselves and the people we cherish.

So how do we do that in a sustainable way?

Working with Your Body, And Your Values

The Role of Personal Values

The real question is not:

How do I lose weight and feel great?

The vulnerable question underneath is:

What is driving you to address this challenge now?

People don’t want to lose weight for its own sake.

People become inspired with vision.

Vision animates our actions.

I knew a father who was very concerned about his diabetes and his weight management.

With a little talk, he clearly did not care about diabetes or weight.

He saw how a complication of diabetes (an infection of the leg which finally required amputation) impacted his friend and his family.

And he saw how that fate could affect his ability to be present for his wife and daughters.

He wanted to make sure he could support them and see his daughters grow up.

So whatever your value happens to be, just remember that you don’t need to know how to do something.

Everybody already knows how to eat healthier, or how to adjust their lifestyle so that their diet and exercise align.

We only look for information to optimize our knowledge and to tweak things just a little bit more, to be better than who we could have been.

Diet and Exercise: The Cornerstones

The Basics Everyone Knows

Everybody knows the cornerstones of health.

Not weight loss. Health.

If you eat right and move your body consistently, then feeling well and looking good follow almost by accident.

Everybody knows to include more whole foods and to reduce ultra-processed foods.⁶
Everybody knows to exercise regularly. Moderate physical activity is often recommended in the form of walking 30 to 45 minutes daily.⁷

Of course, there is a lot of conflicting information out there.

That’s ok.

Conflict does not necessarily equal wrong.

Again, we are looking for each body’s optimal balance.

So let’s figure out how you can coax your body into realignment.

Over time, you may realize that your body is doing the coaxing.

Let’s see how.

Influences on Set Point

Why Set Point Isn’t Set in Stone

So, if your set point is not set in stone, then what can influence your set point?

How do you create an environment that favors the outcome you envision?

How do you tend this garden?

Is it possible?

It seems like every time you try to keep off the lost weight, your body attracts the weight back even years later.

Diet vs. Exercise

Right off the bat, diet and exercise need to be addressed.

Heavy emphasis on the diet.

You cannot out-exercise a poor diet.

It’s simply too easy to consume more calories than you can burn.

So, consuming a diet low in highly processed foods is associated with better weight management, even if a diet high in processed foods might have the same amount of calories.

Furthermore, you need to align your diet with your medications.

For example,

People taking warfarin/coumadin should not be eating foods high in potassium.
People on certain diuretics may need to increase their potassium intake.

So, different medications can create opposing dietary requirements.

Hence, the needed advice to speak with your doctor before changing your diet or exercise.

The Calorie Debate

We’ve heard these sayings,

“A calorie is a calorie” and “calories in versus calories out”.

There is some truth to these catchy phrases.

However, we are not strictly machines.

We are self-directed machines with will.

A machine will keep running until it cannot function.

Our bodies are designed to keep running and choose how to use resources.

So, “a calorie is a calorie” because a calorie is a measurement of heat.

If you gave a car 2000 calories per day of whole foods instead of gasoline, would it run?

Why not?

Because the context of that calorie matters.

If you gave a car 2000 calories per day of 93 instead of 87 octane, would it run?

For a time, before it breaks down. Why?

Because the design of the car’s engine and the design of the gasoline need to be aligned for optimal performance.

Let’s come to a biological system.

If you gave a body 2000 calories per day of table sugar, candy, chocolate, processed carbohydrates, would that body run?

Yes, for a time before it breaks down. Why?

The body is not designed to handle sugar in this manner. The body requires sugars and fibers through whole foods like fruits and vegetables to regulate energy and perform well.⁸

If the body is confident in consistent and stable energy supplies, then the body does not need to raise red flags.

The body can let go of excess weight because it has access to clean and stable energy through good nutrition.

Preserving Lean Mass and Metabolic Rate

The other lever of your metabolic machine is physical activity to preserve lean muscle.

Preserving muscle preserves your metabolic rate.^9,10

We want to work with our bodies so that our body understands how to balance physical activity with the nutrition it receives.

Combining our nutrition with our muscle use helps keep our metabolic rate stable.

But what about our hormones?

Hormonal Influences

This can be a double-edged sword.

Medications can support and substitute for hormones.

GLP-1
1. It can help you feel full longer.
2. Can paralyze the digestive tract
Thyroid
1. It can help relieve brain fog, fatigue, and weight gain.
2. Can create hyperactivity, anxiety, and excessive weight loss.
Birth control
1. It can help regulate menstrual cycles, relieve PMS, and clear skin.
2. It can lead to high blood pressure, blood clots, and breast cancer.
Insulin
1. It can help bring blood glucose levels to the normal range and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, leading to heart attack and stroke.
2. Can lead to dangerously low blood glucose levels requiring hospitalization.

These are just a few hormones and their possible pros and cons.

Again, the key is balance.

Again, any change to the diet or exercise can upset this balance.

Therefore, you certainly want to speak with your doctor to determine your baseline and what is best for you.

So, where are you starting?

What conditions come to light that need your awareness?

Assuming you have your doctor’s approval, you can make changes to your diet and exercise which will support your hormones.

In turn, your hormones will support you

Your body has been trying to find the best possible balance to maintain your health and life in an optimal way.

Furthermore, your body is not simply maintaining the status quo.

Your body is interested in self-refinement.

Something your body does with a good night’s sleep.

Sleep and Food Choices

Speaking of hormones, cortisol becomes dysregulated with the lack of sleep.

In turn, unbalanced cortisol levels can lead to problems.

I know that when I don’t get much sleep, I gravitate towards ultra-processed foods.

The break room calls my name by teasing me with cookies, sweets, and coffee.

Not necessarily because I have a rumble in my tummy, but because I need a quick pick-me-up.

Why?

Because I am asking my brain to perform without full recovery.

In situations of sleep deprivation, ghrelin goes up and leptin goes down.^11,12

When your hunger signals are off kilter, you crave high-calorie foods with easy access to your bloodstream.

You need a quick energy boost, just to get you through the next moment.

That’s not stable.

What else throws you off balance?

Stress and Reward-Based Eating

If you’re chronically stressed out, elevated cortisol levels can make things worse.¹³

All that sugary, ultra-processed food that you just had might make you feel good momentarily.

However, your body changes under stress. So it won’t use that energy effectively. So it gets stored as fat.¹⁴

Just like with lack of sleep—which is a form of stress—chronic stress can also give that break room a suggestive voice.

Calling your name to make you focus on reward-based eating that makes you feel good for that fleeting moment.

It’s a perpetual cycle that just feeds into itself.

So this is why regulating blood sugar, regulating energy levels, managing sleep and stress, maintaining a good diet, and staying physically active help everything come into alignment and balance.

Even if one of these areas is a little bit unbalanced, the others can still compensate and keep you on track.

So if you’ve been following good nutrition and exercising regularly, those cookies won’t call your name (as loudly) if you didn’t sleep well last night.

We know all this, so what makes weight loss so hard?

The Challenge of Shifting Set Point

Why It’s Hard to Change Your Set Point

There are a few things that make balance challenging:

You don’t know all the balances on the scale
You don’t know how to use the scale (I’m not talking about the bathroom scale here)
The scale changes over time, so that it has different needs from moment to moment
The scale doesn’t know if it’s accurately assessing its own needs

We already know what the balances are:

Good nutrition
Physical activity
Low stress
Good sleep
Hydration

There is nothing new here.

We already know what works.

So, how do we pick up the scale and place it on a lower table that is healthier for us?

The Path Forward: Strategies for Working With Your Body, Not Against It

The Importance of Strategy Over Tips and Tricks

So, what are some strategies to shift that set point so that our bodies, our minds, our hearts, and our values are aligned in such a way that healthy living flows naturally?

This is where we move beyond tips and tricks of diet and exercise.

Let’s talk strategy.

Level #1: The 5 Pillars of Metabolic Health

Pillar 1: Sleep – Upon Which Your Metabolism Rests

Week 1 Focus: Establish a consistent bedtime routine
Week 3 Upgrade: Optimize your sleep environment

If you sleep poorly, then your hunger hormones will go wild.

Pillar 2: Hydration – The Solution for Health

Week 1 Focus: Drink water when you get out of bed and before meals.
Week 3 Upgrade: Track your hydration level by the color of your urine.

I had to think about where to put hydration in this list. Water is a vital part of life. Your DNA literally changes according to your hydration status.

If the essence of life can be affected by water levels, then it’s no surprise that your metabolism can be affected.

Water plays a role in all chemical reactions by:

Allowing other chemical reactions to take place inside it,
And actually taking part in some reactions itself.

Pillar 3: Movement – Your Metabolic Engine

Week 1 Focus: Take a daily 15 minute walk.
Week 3 Upgrade: Walk at least 30 to 45 minutes per day or add some light resistance exercises.

Movement preserves muscle mass, improves insulin sensitivity, and naturally regulates appetite.

Pillar 4: Nutrition – Fuel for Life

Week 1 Focus: Add one serving of vegetables to each meal or bring a vegetable snack.
Week 3 Upgrade: Replace one processed snack with a whole food option. My favorites include walnuts, cashews, apples, and bananas.

The focus is not calories. The focus is on nutrition. With better nourishment comes better appetite control and a more empowered feeling of control.

Pillar 5: Stress Management – Your Hidden Power of Transmutation

Week 1 Focus: Practice 5 minutes of deep breathing daily
Week 3 Upgrade: Develop a consistent stress-reduction practice. I use meditation, Qigong, and journaling. I reserve nature walks for when it’s nice outside or I don’t risk allergies.

The point here is to practice it through thick and thin. Why?

Because trying to do it when you’re already stressed never works. We give up too fast.

Starting practice with less stress and building momentum helps push through tough times.

When you can create that space, you can harness the power of stress and redirect it by channeling it towards your goals.

Level #2: Mindset – Rewiring Your Mental Operating System

Step 1: The Data Detective Approach

The number on that scale is only one data point. The number on your calorie counter is only one data point. Feeling tired is only one data point.

Doctors value data points AND trends.

So, become curious about patterns:

What does your energy level do throughout the day? The week? The month?
How does your sleep quality affect your mood? What do you need to change to enhance sleep quality?
What are your hunger and satiety signals really telling you? What can you do to test them? What if you are dehydrated? Or bored?
How do different foods make you feel?
Which activities tend to energize you? What drains your energy? Who?

We want to transition from a weight loss mindset to “What is my body teaching me?”

Step 2: The Experiment Mindset

What do you do if something doesn’t work?

You tinker with it for as long as it takes to achieve the result you want.

“What happens if I try this for two weeks?”
“What if I try this approach instead?”
“How does my body respond if I tweak this part of my diet?”
“What can I learn from this setback?”
“How can I use this setback as a launch pad?”

People fall into the trap of failure when something doesn’t work.

Think of failure as a guardrail on your path to success. It can keep you on the road and help you stay on course to your destination.

Step 3: The Long-Game Perspective

Remember:

Your body did not change overnight, nor will it.

Lasting change will take time.

However, making a decision does not need to take that long.

Embrace the process:

Focus on your vision.
Take one small step at a time.
See setbacks as lessons.
View progress as lessons learned.
Know that consistency matters more than intensity.

We don’t need quick fixes.

We need simple systems that we can repeat.

Repeating simple systems will lead to evolution.

How do we ensure evolution occurs in the right direction?

Level #3: Values and Vision – Your North Star for Lasting Change

Connecting to Your Deeper Why

Remember that father from earlier?

He had a well-rounded vision to secure his health.

He saw what would happen if he did not take action.
He also saw what he wanted to manifest.

Visions are tricky.

It’s nice to fantasize a little bit. Just remember to do it in both directions.

So here are some thoughts to consider:

Positive Reflections

Being healthier would allow you to…
Feeling more energetic can help you to…
Your ideal relationship with your body looks like…

Honest Self-awareness

Staying the same helps me to…
Not doing anything would lead to…
Feeling the same would allow me to…
Which would lead to…

For example, my vision is:

“I feel energized, present, and free. I’m grounded in well-being, deeply connected to the people I love and the work I do, and I’m excited to meet a better me daily.”

Creating Your Personal Mission Statement

Once you have your vision, craft a personal statement.

A statement can be simple.

It connects your health goals to your deeper purpose.

For example, mine states:

“I choose to nourish my body through mindful eating, movement, and learning — so I can fully engage with the people and pursuits I love, and continue growing into the best version of myself.”

If an opportunity presents itself and it aligns with the mission, then it is accepted.

The Vision-Action Bridge

Once your vision is clear, every choice becomes easier:

“Does this food choice support my vision of being energetic for my kids or am I doing it for likes on social media?”
“Will skipping this workout help me achieve my goal of hiking that mountain or showing up in a powerful way with my friend who needs me?”
“What is this stress response telling me? Am I aligned with my vision of being calm and present?”

The key is not to make the right choices every time.

As you can see, the right choice is often hard to tell.

Instead, the key is to start asking the right questions.

The “right” questions are determined by your vision and mission.

They should shift from external motivations like looking good or pleasing others to internal motivations like living in alignment with your values.

For example, my story shifts like this:

My old story:

“I need to do more in order to impress other people so that I can be a more attractive candidate for programs, because this is the only way I can achieve my dreams of helping people.”

Questions I struggled with:

But how can I continue to help people if I’m burned out, depressed, and anxious about a future that seems out of my control despite all my efforts?
How can I be present and engaging when I’ve withdrawn and closed off from everybody?
How can I be present with myself when I’m drained and exhausted?

Small questions towards reclaiming myself:

What small step can I take to allow myself rest?
How does rest allow me to recuperate the energy I’ve lost?
What can I do to protect my energy so that I give it room to grow?
What can I do to begin channeling it in a way that serves me so that I may live my vision more fully?

My new story:

“I choose to care for my energy as an act of self-respect, not self-defense. I know that protecting my well-being is the only way I can truly serve others, live with integrity, and fulfill the vision that matters to me.”

What does this have to do with weight loss?

When you are over-extended, you lose sight of what truly matters.

When you lose sight of what truly matters, then lessons are learned as failures.

Here’s one common lesson people often miss.

“Where focus goes, energy flows”

We circle back around to what weight loss means to you.

We can talk about the best exercise strategy.

We can nitpick your diet to make it perfect for your unique metabolism.

We can harp over the perfect rate of weight loss so that your body doesn’t cling to a set point like clingwrap sticks to everything – persistently and when you least want it to.

But we cannot focus on weight loss itself.

We must focus on our vision and mission.

What does it mean to live in alignment with our values?
What will that look like?

From there, our daily decisions work with our body.

Our body starts to align with meeting that vision.

You need to do one thing…

Consistency and Long-Term Mindset

We talked about this before.

Adopt a long-term mindset to be aligned with your vision.

Alignment with our body’s natural process demands consistent effort.

You’ve heard it before:

Show up
Put in the work
Hone your skills
Refine your craft
Do it with intention

What intention?

To be a little better.

To live in better alignment with your values.

Because after all, that’s all that really matters.

Not the weight loss. What does weight loss mean to you?

What would being 10, 20, 50, 100 pounds lighter mean to you?

Does it mean playing with your kids?

Does it mean going on a hiking adventure with friends?

Does it mean living a long and happy life with your partner?

What can you do a little bit better today to reach your goals which are really your values?

Figure out your values, how a different weight will help you achieve them, and the rest will take care of itself.

Your body composition will take care of itself as you make small experimental tweaks to your nutrition and exercise regimen.

This slow and natural approach frees your mind to think about other things:

What you will do with your able body and your time.
Spend time with family
Play with kids
Go out to brunch with your parents or friends
Take a walk in the park to de-stress and unwind while listening to gentle sounds of a creek or birds singing