Genetics and Set-Point Weight Ranges
It’s so fun to hear people comment on the resemblance my son has to my husband.
Most everyone says, “holy cow!! He looks exactly like Casey!” Occasionally someone will say, “aw, Sarah, he looks so much like you!”
Truth is that he looks just like Casey, with a pop of my eyes and my eyelashes 💁🏻.
Who do you genetically resemble? Can you pinpoint who you got your favorite traits from and even those least favorite traits?
Our smiles, eyes, dimples, and freckles are parts that we typically quite easily attribute to our genetic gene pool. Even if we don’t like those parts of ourselves, most of us settle in and accept that genetically, they’re ours. We’ve inherited them and they’re here to stay. That is a part of body acceptance.
Somehow when it comes to body size and shape, our thinking takes a sharp left-hand turn.
Hoping, believing, striving to somehow outsmart our genetics. We’re taught to believe that if we’re unhappy with our weight, we can alter it if we just eat clean enough and work out hard enough. This is where body acceptance ceases to exist.
The truth is that research continually shows that body weight is vastly a result of genetics.
In one study, 80% of adult identical twins who were raised in separate environments turned out to be within the same weight range. This shows that genetics, over environment and behaviors, has the biggest impact on body weight.
Why is this important when it comes to genetics and body acceptance?
Because every body has a natural set point weight range.
This is the weight range where your body naturally settles when you’re eating in response to hunger and fullness and moving your body in ways that feel good.
The body is smart. It wants to be where it is genetically comfortable. It wants to maintain its natural weight range, despite our cognitive and cultural desires to be a different weight, or body shape and size.
And, the body will fight to do just that.
This is such an important concept to begin to understand when recovering from disordered eating in Pennsylvania.
Because we tend to blame and shame ourselves for lack of willpower, and our inability to maintain rigid eating and exercise routines.
But really, our body’s natural defense is to remain at ease. To save us from starvation. To fight to operate where it feels most comfortable.
So, what happens when we fight our body’s natural set-point by dieting?
Studies have shown that ongoing attempts at dieting actually increase our natural weight set-point range. Which explains why many people who are struggling with dieting cycles share that in hindsight, they wish that they were able to accept their weight in their pre-dieting days.
Because most self-identified dieters weigh more after years of trying to control their weight through diet and exercise than they did when they first set out.
When you attempt to change your natural weight through restriction/dieting, your body kicks into high gear to protect itself from starving. To do so, it feeds off of fat AND muscle.
Here’s the thing…
Muscle is the part of your body that contributes the most to your metabolic capacity- the rate your body burns, utilizes, and stores energy (or calories). And, when your body feeds off of your muscle (when you’re in a period of starvation ie dieting), you end up with less muscle mass thus lowering your metabolic capacity (how much energy/how many calories your body burns.
The body also defends against future periods of starvation (diets) by instructing fat cells to store more even fat. And by sending your stomach, mouth, and mind intense hunger signals (which explains the insatiable appetite people feel post-diet).
Yes, each time you diet, your body adapts by burning fewer calories and storing more fat.
So, when you exit the diet, or when the diet comes crashing down around you, you actually have less muscle and a lowered metabolic rate, resulting in a very likely outcome of piling on more weight
Preservation, (ie staying alive) is the name of the body’s game.
This isn’t good or bad like our culture talks about. It simply is.
Remember, the body is smart. It wants peace. It wants ease. The body is literally trying to save itself and find some sense of homeostasis.
What’s the way out and how do we begin to develop body acceptance?
Stop dieting. Your body will not find ease when it’s constantly fighting to survive.
Grieve.
Yes, grieve the body or the weight that you’ve spent years trying to achieve or maintain. Grieve the time, money, sacrifices, and energy you’ve poured toward it. Begin to grieve the illusion that you’ve been taught and told- that you can control the body. Detach from outcomes, knowing that one of three things will happen when you begin to accept that efforts to control the body have not and will likely not work; you will lose weight, gain weight or stay the same.
additionally when it comes to body acceptance…
Begin trusting that your body knows what it wants and what it needs is hard work.
Trusting that your body will work alongside you to figure out how to handle hunger, fullness, cravings, and movement is even harder. But, it’s healing work.
Finally, let yourself off the hook. There is no failure here- your body has had your back, doing exactly what it was designed to do all along.
🧡,
Begin achieving Body Acceptance One Step at A Time
If accepting your body as it is, is challenging, we’re ready to support you at Reclaim Therapy in Pennsylvania. You will work with a caring and thoughtful therapist who gets you. To get started, follow these simple steps to get in touch with an eating disorder therapist:
Meet with a skilled body image therapist.
Start feeling more comfortable in your own skin.
We’re trauma therapists and eating disorder therapists in Pennsylvania.
Our team at Reclaim Therapy in Pennsylvania specializes in treating disordered eating and providing treatment for binge eating through an intuitive eating lens. We also provide online therapy in Pennsylvania for grief and loss, body image, and trauma.