Yep, you read that right.  Our bodies were created to adapt to our environment.  Ever notice that the 50 degree day in the middle of winter feels really warm, but a 50 degree summer day would freeze us all?  It’s the same with our calorie intake.  Our bodies get used to a steady calorie level and adjusts it’s speed of metabolism to maintain your body size at that level.  So sometimes, even though you are very careful with your food choices, your weight loss slows down or stops.

There’s a theory called the “Set-Point Theory.”  The thoery goes, your body sets itself at a certain weight, so if you eat a whole bunch one day, your body revvs up it’s metabolism to use up the extra calories and keep you at the same weight.  If you eat too little, the opposite happens.  It takes a steady pattern of calorie changes to get the body to actually gain or lose weight.  Once it does, it will reset it’s “point” at the new weight, but in order to do that you have to work hard to maintain it for awhile to convince your body that it’s a good place to be.

Image Credit: Ivan Vicencio

The trouble is your body may reset itself at a weight that’s higher than you want.  Your low calorie diet can slow your metabolism to a crawl if you aren’t careful and you will experience the dreaded plateu.  One way to prevent that is to boost your calorie level by 300 calories one day a week.  This revvs up your metabolism for the day and keeps your body guessing where to land.  But it’s important you choose well where those 300 calories go.  Adding 300 calories of white flour and sweets will add water weight to your body by the morning.  It’s not fat, but it will feel like it.  Choose whole grains, fruit, veggies, and lean proteins–even for your extra calorie day.

Another way to keep your metabolism pumping is to follow an interval exercise program like we talked about a few days ago.  Doing both will insure you keep losing weight at a reasonable rate.  You may have noticed that some popular weight loss programs, like Weight Watchers®, have included floating calories, or extra points for you to use sometime during the week.  Now you know why!

Naturally skinny people eat in a way to benefit from set-point theory without even thinkng about it.  I’ll explain how to think thin tomorrow.