h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Each of us has a SET POINT, a bodyweight/bodyfat homeostatic baseline.
the farther we deviate from it, either up or down, the more our bodies fight it to bring us back to our set point.
so, when we gain too much weight, our appetite goes down.
and, when we lose weight, we get hungry all the time.
we cannot change this set point. it has been genetically determined.
however, we can work to maintain a relatively stable state within a certain range around this set point without inordinate difficulty and/or hardship.
you cannot maintain a constant level of caloric intake and/or exercise forever without your body composition plateau-ing. your body adapts.

cycling your diet and exercise is the best way to do it.

i can go into extreme detail if anyone's interested

just post a request!

peteY out!

Cycling is the best way to do it

Thanks to riding every day I can drink beer, eat pizza, sit in fornt of the coputer all evening without going to the gym - and still stay slim.

well, i don't know if you are still checking the site or not but i hope that, in the past year, you've learned more about "set point theory". the operative word in that is theory. i do happen to support set point but there are many more factors that your posting omitted. if asked i'd be more than happy to elaborate but i don't plan to write a novella to an empty audience.

Actually, the set point theory has now sort of been revised to a settling point theory which acknolwedges the influence of the food consumption and the activity level. If you eat at a fairly consistet level and maintain a certain specific level of activity (however low or high) this will lead to a settling of your weight at a specific level. This is much more scientifically acceptable than the "set-poipnt" theory, which was never truly formalised by any specific scientist.

But like the previous poster, I have no idea if anyone is still checking this site/thread.

Appetite goes down when you overweight?! What?! I think quite opposite actually- it increases to maintain new, bigger body weight.
I don't believe in set point, I think fat level (of healthy person) depends mainly of lifestyle (diet and amount of activity) and if that changes, weight changes as well.