Sunday, February 20, 2011

Homeostasis: The Body Fights Back

One of the things I learned first and best about biology is homeostasis.  This is defined by Wikipedia as "the property of a system, ... that regulates its internal environment and tends to maintain a stable, constant condition". It further goes on to describe this as possible through "multiple dynamic equilibrium adjustment and regulation mechanisms".


This has been popularized in the diet press as "set points".  Whatever I do to try to lose weight, my body will fight it. It wants to stay the weight it is.  Once I get into a losing trend, it's easier to maintain that trend.  But, getting off the current set point is very hard.  So I thought I was in a losing trend, and I relaxed what I was doing. "Aha!"  exclaimed my body.  "This is the new normal!"  And so it has been:


The horizontal grid lines here are two pounds apart.
Three weeks where the average has been the same, despite four pounds worth of variation within the period.  


I need to blow through this plateau and get back into a losing state.  How?  Back to basics.  Track, baby track, as Kim would say.  Not just track, but make better choices in the food department. Focus on keeping those carbs down. No treats. Sadly, meat-based meals.  Lots of leafy greens allowed, but only small portions of other vegetables, fruits, and nuts.  Keep drinking water.


And, the other half of the equation:  exercise.  Except for the gym and a single weekly walk, I haven't been moving much.  I leave the gym and go to work or home where I stay huddled up and working.  Got to raise the base activity level every single day.  


So I'm off to the great outdoors, right here and now.  GTG. TTFN. SYL.

3 comments:

KCF said...

yes, one of the things I've learned by so carefully tracking my food and weight is all about these set points AND the periods you are losing weight. I kept those holiday 3 on FOREVER with just a bit of overeating and under-exercising. I mean it's not like I was eating a box of donuts every day, jeez.

But now that the needle is moving a bit, it's moving. It's like once my body decides to lose, it's ready. The key here is to keep prompting it with good days logged in.

Nan S said...

We've got to persuade our bodies that we really mean it when we move more and eat less. It's like you have to sneak up on yourself and make sure you haven't scared your body into hunkering down to survive the famine.

Anonymous said...

snort, famine

that's really funny in a way like I'd laugh if it didn't make me want to throw myself out a window

agree, agree, agree

Liz