When it comes to weight problems, the brain is running the show.
Unfortunately, this fact hasn’t been fully recognized, appreciated, or honoured in most discussions about weight gain and fatness.
Let me break it down for you.
Your brain is the source of your behaviours related to when you eat, what you eat, how much you eat, the type of movement your body performs, and regulation of body weight, fat composition, and hormones.
Your brain is not always rational in how it tells you to eat, and past stress can make you eat more. Stress is not your brain’s friend, and often the parts of your brain wired for survival will guide you to eat calorie-dense foods, even if you’re not at risk for food scarcity.
When you gain weight, your brain uses all the tools in its arsenal to make sure your body fat and weight retain the extra pounds. Your brain evolved in a way that it doesn’t want you to lose too much fat because you might starve to death. But it can be overprotective and consequently hold on to that belly fat that you are trying to get rid of.
Your genes and your body’s feedback signal (stress response, heart rate, metabolism, etc.) have developed such that humans defend weight asymmetrically: we fight against weight loss much more than weight gain. Weight gain doesn’t threaten our ability to survive like weight loss could, so evolution makes it much easier to gain weight than to lose it.
The brain sets a stable body weight for every adult, called the body weight set point, based on genetics, hormones, behaviour, and environment.
The set point theory holds that your brain strongly regulates and defends your weight at a predetermined point based on your body’s feedback loops. So, when you exercise more, you crave more food, and the scale doesn’t budge, and when you eat less, you get hungrier.
The bottom line is that weight problems are complicated, and the brain plays a significant role.
When it comes to controlling our weight, our approach to eating can be irrational.
But when you learn that it’s your brain body talking and not a lack of willpower or knowledge, that the brain regulates the weight of your body then you can learn, too, how to work with your brain to achieve the body weight set point you desire.
The amount of fat in the body tends to be relatively stable and maintained within a narrow range, but with age, the tendency is for total body fat to rise, and in lockstep, for weight to increase. As your weight rises, so does your body weight set point (your brain-based control and regulation of a stable body weight).
The brain regions that regulate food consumption and energy use also monitor how much fat you have in your body and respond to changes by offsetting your food behaviors and metabolism. All of this happens without your conscious awareness or control.
That’s what makes lowering one’s set point such a struggle:
If you lose weight, your brain will tell your body to burn calories more slowly (i.e., lower your metabolic rate) and tell your mind to eat more. Your brain body adapts to weight gain and then resists weight loss.
Conversely, if you gain weight, you’ll most likely be less hungry and burn more calories because of the added weight, but insulin could be stuck in the fat-storing position, so you continue to pack on the pounds as your body aims for that higher set point (sometimes homeostasis is totally annoying).
A vital ecosystem exists between your genes, behaviour, hormones, and environment when it comes to your body weight set point.
*Do read the Disclaimer