Sounds crazy right!!??
Biodiversity is what makes our planet alluring!
We are all unique and beautiful, we have different colors of eyes, different skin colors, different hair types, different heights and we are also meant to have different body sizes!!! Healthy bodies will always come in a range of shapes and sizes!
The truth is that genetics plays the greatest role in determining our size.
Within each of our brains lies an incredibly powerful mechanism to control our weight. The healthy weight that our body aims for is called set point weight, which is governed by a section of the hypothalamus that sends signals to manipulate our eating, activity habits and metabolic efficiency. A certain amount of body fat suits our particular body and brain, and it likes to stay in that range.
Our body fat sends constant signals to the control center that regulates our set point; our brain pulls together these fat stores messages and responds by cueing body processes to maintain our set point.
When we try to control our weight consciously by dieting and following food rules, we disrupt our body’s internal regulation signals. This leads to a troubled relationship with food, body hatred, and metabolic responses to inadequate nourishment and stress.
Most dieters at the beginning of their diet will experience weight loss, which is most of the times, followed by a drive to eat leading to weight regain, guilt and despair that will be accompanied with a feeling of lack of will power.
Truth is that is not a thing of willingness.
To manage our set point, our body may respond to the energy deficit that dieting creates by turning on physiological processes designed to conserve weight, meaning that our body will make intense hunger signals and will makes us feel less energetic which results in escalating weights and poorer health. It is a normal and predictable physiological reaction to what the body perceives as starvation, it’s just our body trying to protect us!
So how can we know which is our set point weight?
· It is the weight that we normally maintain when we eat to appetite: we respond to our inner signals of hunger and fullness
· The weight we return to between diets (which sneaks up the more we diet)
· The weight we maintain when we don’t fixate on our weight, food habits and exercise.
Our set point is unique to our body, and no measure (like BMI or ideal body weight charts) can determine our set point. We may be in a thin body, or in a fat body, or somewhere in between.
Our sizes DO NOT REPRESENT in any way our health… We can be fat and healthy or thin and unhealthy. It´s time to stop weight stigma and start to appreciate the beauty of diversity.
Gina Salame EDRD
Facebook page: @GinaSalameNutri