These figures include everyone who completed the program
� including those who gained weight because they started underweight, and
those who gained �water weight� from discontinuing diuretic blood pressure
pills.
*Information is available at
www.drmcdougall.com
Homeostasis and Your Setpoint
Homeostasis is the process by which your body maintains
itself in a stable condition. Maintenance of this equilibrium within the
body is accomplished by internal mechanisms, such as regulations of
appetite, physical activity levels, energy expenditure, and hormones. This
stable condition has also been described as your biological setpoint.
Ideally this setpoint would result in you being trim, active, and healthy.
When it comes to body weight, however, over 2/3 of the US population have
their setpoint set too high. They are maintaining a stable condition,
through homeostasis, that is undesirable � both for appearance and health.
Trapped by this setpoint, every attempt at dieting ends in failure.
Maintaining Your Setpoint
The concept of setpoint has been established by
experiments that force people to temporarily change the amount they
eat.1,2 When people are asked to diet (eat fewer calories), they lose
weight, but once they return to unrestricted eating, they regain back to
their usual weight (back to their biologic setpoint). The same occurs when
people are forced to eat more than usual � they gain weight, but when
allowed to eat without restrictions, they return to their usual weight
(setpoint). Based on these observations you will feel out of control,
because regardless of how hard you try to �eat less� you will eventually
end up back at your fixed, predetermined, body weight. The concept of
setpoint has also helped people overcome guilt caused by failing to lose
weight � after all, it is really not their fault � their body is
established at an un-moveable setpoint.
Adjustments for Survival
Your body always makes the best adjustment possible in
order to survive and maintain a steady state (homeostasis), especially
under adverse conditions. For example, stress yourself with cigarette
smoking and appropriate changes result, such as mucous production and
coughing, in order to eliminate toxic pollutants from the lungs and an
increase in enzymatic activities to detoxify the poisons that enter the
bloodstream. These adaptions remain until the stress from the smoke is
removed � then the body readjusts to the new (and healthier) condition.
When your body is nourished with very rich foods,
adaptions are made. Diets high in fats force the body to a new, but stable
state, where the excess energy is stored in the abdomen, buttocks, and
thighs. This adaption might be desirable for people experiencing periods
of famine � that extra stored fat would allow them to survive during food
scarcity. However, in our society where food is always abundant, this new
setpoint forced by excess fat calories is detrimental.
Diet Composition Moves Setpoint
Your setpoint is determined by the composition of your
diet � in other words, the portions of the macronutrients � the fats,
carbohydrates, proteins, dietary fibers, and water. Dietary fats
(including vegetable oils) are the primary force for moving the setpoint
higher (toward obesity).3-5 Fat�s powerful effects occur because it is
very calorie dense (9 calories/gram); fat offers little satisfaction for
the hunger drive, and the body effortlessly stores fat. Higher amounts of
carbohydrate lower the setpoint because carbohydrate is less calorie dense
(4 calories/gram), carbohydrate is very satisfying to the appetite, and
excess is easily burned off, rather than stored. The amounts of protein,
fiber, and water in the foods have only minor influences on your setpoint.
Diet Composition Sets the Setpoint
|
|
Low
Setpoint |
Desirable Setpoint |
High
Setpoint |
|
Calories |
Low |
Moderate |
High |
|
Fat |
Low |
Low |
High |
|
Carbohydrate |
Low |
High |
Low |
|
Fiber |
High |
Moderate |
Low |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Main Foods |
Green & Yellow
Vegetables |
Starches |
Meats, Dairy,
Free Oils* |
*Free-oils are like olive oil, corn oil, flaxseed
oil, etc.
The McDougall Program Establishes an
Ideal Setpoint
Your goal is to establish a trim, active, and healthy
stable condition (setpoint). A natural, low-fat, plant-food-based diet � a
diet of unprocessed starches with green and yellow vegetables and fruits �
is the correct diet for the human body � and allows you to look, feel and
function your best.6 If you are now overweight, the McDougall diet and
moderate exercise will change your stable state (setpoint) from one of
being too fat, to one of being trim.
The setpoint also acts to cause people who are
underweight to gain on the McDougall Program. Two �starved appearing�
women attended our Santa Rosa Live-in Program recently. Their frail
condition was caused by a self-imposed diet focused mostly on very
low-calorie green and yellow vegetables with very few starchy vegetables
(rice, breads, potatoes, etc.). As a result, they achieved a state of
homeostasis characterized by being underweight. This is an expected
adaption which allows an improved chance for survival during times of food
scarcity � underweight people live on fewer calories.
When the composition of their diet was changed during
the live-in program to one based on higher calorie starches (rather than
very low-calorie green and yellow vegetables) their setpoints changed
appropriately. After seven days of consuming this new diet, they had each
gained 6 pounds. The exact same buffet of delicious foods caused weight
loss in our overweight participants. Therefore, whatever you weigh right
now, the principle of setpoint is so fundamental that changing the
composition of your diet always works for you � you can count on it,
without ever counting a calorie again.
Billions of People Prove Setpoint
Works for Everyone
You are not alone. The right food choices to maintain an
ideal stable state (setpoint) have been made by most of the people who
have ever walked on this planet. Even now, 60% of the world�s population
consumes foods with a composition that causes them to have a trim
setpoint. Notice that everyone is thin and looking young � even the
shopkeepers, teachers, homemakers, weavers, and government officials;
people who exercise very little. Examples of populations of trim people
living on starch-based diets include:
People from the Middle East eating platefuls of
chickpeas and rice.
Africans with diets of beans and grains.
The people in Peru living on potato-based diets.
New Guinea mountain people with 90% of their diet from
sweet potatoes.
The farmers in central Mexico living on corn tortillas,
beans, and rice.
Asians from China to Thailand thriving on rice-based
diets.
You need only look at the United States, Western Europe,
or any other place where a high-fat diet and fat people have become the
norm, to observe the effects rich foods have on setpoint.
References:
1) Tremblay A. Dietary fat and body weight set point. Nutr Rev. 2004
Jul;62(7 Pt 2):S75-7.
2) Keesey RE, Hirvonen MD. Body weight set-points: determination and
adjustment.
J Nutr. 1997 Sep;127(9):1875S-1883S.
3) Astrup A, Astrup A, Buemann B, Flint A, Raben A. Low-fat diets and
energy balance: how does the evidence stand in 2002? Proc Nutr Soc. 2002
May;61(2):299-309.
4) Peters JC. Dietary fat and body weight control. Lipids. 2003
Feb;38(2):123-7.
5) Schrauwen P, Westerterp KR. The role of high-fat diets and physical
activity in the regulation of body weight. Br J Nutr. 2000
Oct;84(4):417-27.
6) Hays NP, Starling RD, Liu X, Sullivan DH, Trappe TA, Fluckey JD,
Evans WJ. Effects of an ad libitum low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet on body
weight, body composition, and fat distribution in older men and women: a
randomized controlled trial. ~Arch Intern Med.
2004 Jan 26;164(2):210-7.
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