A perception of lack.
Homeostasis is stronger than you are. Period. Until it’s not.
Let me explain.
Buzz words abound surrounding the notion that the body (and its weight) likes to hold on to equilibrium. You may have heard about “Set Point Theory” or “metabolic adaptation” in your travels. Basically these all describe what happens as your body tries to maintain balance. And, it’s also the reason calories in does NOT equal calories out.
Most who embark on a weight loss journey for any reason usually start by restricting something. In the 80’s it was fat. (Hint: Fat in food does not equal fat on the body. Never did, never will.) In the 90’s it became more about calories. Fitness magazines and dietitians drew up 1500 calorie meal plans because (*trigger warning for sarcasm ahead*) we all know that everyone is the same size, we all work out the same, every woman chases kids around, and every man lays bricks or cuts trees for a living so we must all need 2000 calories to thrive. Or so the government said. If we drop 500 calories per day, that’s 1 lb per week. In about 3 years you weigh zero (yes, 0) pounds. Congratulations, you have disappeared.
But it’s past 4 years now and the non-existent you is back on the treadmill, too hungry not to eat, but maintaining at 1200. (I know you lied, and it’s really only 950, but you round up to be on the dieting safe side. I did too.)
WTF?
Homeostasis is stronger than you are, more determined than your longest lasting diet protocol (even keto and intermittent fasting from the first couple millennial decades, both of the which defied all dietary logic from prior generations), and definitely smarter than the government.
Why? You may perceive you need to be a size 6, that abs look great and you want a set of them (like… yesterday!), or that the baby pooch was quite the statement for 9 months but now it’s time for a new look. But your body doesn’t really care what you think. It doesn’t ask for your opinion, and doesn’t feel the need to request permission to carry on with its daily duties: keep human safe, keep human warm, keep human eating, keep human pooping, keep human thinking (this may be up for debate depending on your political affiliation ;) ), keep human making more humans… and its list of upkeep goes on. You get my point.
What governs it then if you have little say?
Perception.
Of what? A lack of ability to perform its duties well with a given amount and type of fuel.
And it has a triage chart, with everything listed from keeping a heart beat and breathing operational at the top, all the way down to growing beautiful thick hair and making “mini-me’s” at the bottom.
When the brain perceives danger or stress, from life or from a lack of sustenance, it goes into conservation and preservation mode. It slows, it stores, it prepares. That’s how it survives. That’s how YOU survive. Without homeostasis, we wouldn’t survive.
We can all agree this was essential eras so long ago we aren’t really sure what humans looked like at that point- just that they had to work really hard to get food and might not eat for a few days. But face it, we’ve all done some pretty stupid shi* trying to get ready for bikini season or “repairing” from the holiday season with reduculous New Year’s resolutions, and I’m kinda glad my body had more of a grip on my health than I did!
So what’s the problem, and why do some people actually need (not perceive the need) to loose weight (or gain weight)? It’s because homeostasis is way stronger than you could ever be, yes, until it’s not. When stress gets out of hand, the dieting has gone on too long, you’ve abused yourself in the gym to where it just couldn’t keep up, or you didn’t give it the essentials it needed to do these basic tasks and instead gave it stuff that really shouldn’t be called food, the system can seem to be broken. But even then, til it just simply cannot complete even the top rung chores on its daily list, it is still only adapted.
What this can look like:
You don’t fuel well enough, so the body uses amino acids for fuel. These come from muscle tissue- yeah, the body will use its own muscle if it needs to!
You only eat 1200 calories (we’ve discussed the validity of this number already ;) ), but you still have “fluff” on your stomach. Besides hormonal imbalances that can arise from imbalances in nutrition and lifestyle choices, the body will slow it’s metabolic rate down and increase fat storage, knowing there’s gonna be more food shortages in the future. ***you taught it this***
Your thyroid is sluggish, and you may actually have hypothyroidism. Even on medication and with your numbers looking “normal”, in states of stress or undernourishment inactive t4 does not convert to active t3, and in more severe cases doesn’t even enter the cells! No wonder you feel slow and tired even on your medication! (Your body is smarter than your doctor btw.)
You run, you lift, you track with chronometer, and you even dropped your cheat days, but nothing is happening. Have you checked out your work stress lately though? And that trauma work you promised yourself you’d work through with a therapist one day… how’s that going? Yup- the body keeps the score. (Also the title of an awesome read btw.)
You restrict during the day, then ravenously make up for it at night, a new days starts and so does another cycle. Restrict, Binge, (Possibly) Purge or Exercise, repeat.
Mind-Body Nutrition and Dynamic Eating Psychology Coaching looks at all of this.
What you eat- to be sure it’s a Goldilocks quantity, balanced in nutrients you need to function best, and the best quality you can give a body that’s fought for you all these years!
how you eat- are you anxious about what you are eating? Feeling guilty or overwhelmed?
Life away from the table- is your brain perceiving threat in your world?
Homeostasis is always there, doing it’s best for you. Learn to work with it instead of fighting a battle you’ll never win.
Let me help you give your body some homeostatic slack!
