You’ve started exercising regularly and have improved your diet. The scale starts moving in the right direction and you can see the changes in the mirror. But after some time, your weight loss plateaus. It leaves you wondering, “What am I doing wrong?”

You may be doing everything correctly, but you're battling something known as your body’s “set point.”

How does set point affect my weight loss?

Your set point is your body’s internal scale that normalizes at a certain weight and then fights to maintain that weight. Regardless of what that weight is, it becomes your set point.

It’s believed that some people’s internal scales are set at a higher weight than others due to genetics and long-term lifestyle factors.

For example:
If you weigh 300 pounds for an extended period of time, your body will adjust your metabolism and hunger levels to help you stay 300 pounds.

If you were once 300 pounds, and through diet and exercise, you work really hard and lower your weight to 250 pounds. Your body's set point will increase your hunger levels and slow your metabolism to help gain back the 50 pounds you lost.

Can surgery change my set point?

Unlike dieting or taking weight-loss medications, some types of bariatric surgery can change the body’s set point so it is permanently set at a lower level.

To better understand how metabolic and bariatric surgery can be used to reset your set point, watch this video:
 
Patients who have undergone bariatric surgery have been found to maintain their new, lower body weight for 20 years or more. The long-term weight loss has another added benefit: lower health risks for heart disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes.