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Old 08-14-07, 03:50 PM
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uncadan8
Dwindling Roadie
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Lansdale, PA
Posts: 210

Bikes: Cannondale Caad8 R1000, '80's Cannondale (The Beast), Diamondback Topanga Hardtail MTB

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Set Points

Originally Posted by The Historian
Balderdash. "Set point" is fat acceptance BS. Your body wants to maintain the weight its currently at. Nothing more than that.



Your own life experience refutes the "set point" BS. If set points existed, you wouldn't have been able to drop from 320 to 180. As for not remaining at 180, that's your choice.

Incidentally, congratulations on the weight loss.
I believe a clarification of "set point" is in order here. The term is not "fat acceptance BS" as far as I can tell. It is used within the fitness industry to describe a period where your current metabolism resists further change. This may actually be the body's way of telling us that progress is too quick. Some people refer to these periods as plateaus. "Set point BS" would be when someone uses lack of progress in weight loss as a sign that they have reached an ideal weight. At which point, I agree, they are full of BS.

The difficulty is in determining what the cause of the lack of progress is. It may be a return to bad habits in eating, but it can also be caused by no increase in volume, intensity, or both in exercise. The fact of the matter is that we get into ruts very easily. Careful attention to the training journal is just as important as careful attention to the food journal. Simply getting out to ride may not do you as much good now as it did six months ago, especially if the intensities of the rides are the same. The body is an incredibly adaptable machine and needs to be pushed just a little bit on a regular basis.

So the take-home point here is that you have to stick with the good eating and hard training for the long haul. Things like weight loss pills (to get back to the main topic) are useful tools (yes, I have used them with success with no ill physical effects or mental trauma) when used at appropriate times. They can also become a crutch to those who are looking for the quick fix and are unwilling to develop the necessary life changes to see success in fat loss.
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