Understanding and Accepting Your Set Point Weight

If you’re recovering from disordered eating, your set point weight, or natural weight, may settle at a higher number than you expect — and that’s okay. 

To start, what is set point weight?

There is a theory that posits that each body naturally settles at a specific set point. There are a variety of systems and factors at play to determine your natural body weight, and your body will defend itself to stay at this specific weight. Have you noticed that your weight typically fluctuates — even by several pounds — around an average number? That number is your set point weight.

Below, Elaina Efird, RDN, CD, CEDRD, CSSD shares a case study of an individual who gave up chronic dieting for good and learned to accept her set point weight.

This 55-year-old female patient is 5 feet, 4 inches and weighed 150 pounds at her first visit to The Kahm Clinic. She had been battling her weight for many years, believing that she “should” be a lower number. At one point, she reached 140 pounds, but it required very disordered eating behaviors, including excessive calorie restriction, obsessive calorie tracking, and compulsive exercise. She recognized that she couldn’t sustain this weight. 

In fact, even 150 pounds was difficult for her to maintain. “She was exercising for 90 to 120 minutes, five to seven days a week,” Elaina says. “She was also restricting her intake to 1,000 to 1,200 calories per day. She couldn’t understand how she could do anything more, even though she felt this pressure to be below 150 pounds.”

At her first appointment, we completed her metabolic testing. Given her age and body type/size, she should’ve been burning 1,317 calories per day. Instead, her metabolic rate was only 1,001 calories per day. Additionally, her protein metabolism was 9.8 percent higher than normal, while her fat utilization was lower than normal.

As Elaina explains, “When your metabolism comes down, it’s because it’s compensating for being under fueled. It doesn’t want to burn more than it’s being given.” In this case, the body was breaking down too much lean mass, which causes long-term damage.

Our goal, then, was to improve her metabolic rate and determine her set point weight. 

To do so, we increased her calorie intake and decreased her exercise. It was simply too detrimental to the body for her to continue her current routine of restriction and exercise. For calories, we suggested 2,000 to 2,200 calories per day, and for exercise, we pulled her back to about an hour per day. 

We re-did her metabolic test about six months later, and her results were immensely improved. Her metabolic rate increased to 2,003 calories per day — more than double her initial results! Plus, both her protein and fat metabolism were within the normal range. 

It’s important to note that she actually gained weight during this time period. At the six-month testing, she weighed 165 pounds, and six months after that, she was 164.8 pounds, which means her body maintained this weight. This number, then, is her set point weight.

Her metabolic rate also stabilized at 2,003 calories per day during this time period. “This tells me that her body is happy and healthy at this weight,” Elaina shares. “She was no longer battling to stay at a lower number, and her relationship to food was so much better.”

Her lab results were also normal, showing that everything was functioning internally as it should. At The Kahm Clinic, our focus is healing our patients from the inside out — and we achieved that goal with this success story!

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