Energy balance
Body weight and adiposity settle at a level determined by environmental factors (intake) and passive physical constraints (expenditure proportional to mass), without an active defended set point.
Your weight settles where your environment allows it to. If you live in an environment with high-calorie food and low physical activity, your weight will settle higher. To change your weight, you must change the environmental inputs (food availability, portion sizes) and outputs (physical activity), as your body passively adjusts expenditure to match the new mass.
An alternative model, called the settling point model, is based on the idea that there is passive feedback between the size of the body stores and aspects of expenditure.
Why this rating
Supported by mathematical modeling and observations of environmental drivers (portion sizes, activity levels), though it struggles to explain rapid weight regain after dieting.
Source
Set points, settling points and some alternative models: theoretical options to understand how genes and environments combine to regulate body adiposity
John R. Speakman et al. · Disease Models & Mechanisms · 2011
DOI 10.1242/dmm.008698
More from this paper
- Gene-by-environment interactions are the primary drivers of body weight regulation, and neither the set point nor settling point models fully explain obesity without considering these interactions.Strong
- Body fatness is regulated by an active biological feedback system (set point) involving signals like leptin that defend a target level of adiposity by modulating intake and expenditure.Good
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