Our Science
We know that there is more to weight loss than simply eating better and working out – there is a science in achieving sustainable results.
Improve Your Metabolic Health
Through years of research and development, and with the belief that sustainable weight loss can only be achieved by focusing on an individual’s metabolic health, we have developed a program like no other.
Metabolic health is the state of having an ideal make up of biological factors that can be adjusted and controlled without medication. That includes factors such as blood sugar, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and blood pressure – all of which also relate to a person’s risk for certain disease states.
Determine Your Set Point
Over time our bodies develop a Set Point. This Set Point is essentially the weight (plus or minus a few pounds) your body has come to determine as your normal weight. This is where your body “wants” to stay – often making it the culprit of your body resisting sustainable weight loss.
So what determines your Set Point? Scientific research in the past several years indicates that, our body’s Set Point is determined by several things: internal regulators, such as insulin, leptin, cortisol and other hormones; genetics; gut bacteria; and lifestyle. All of these factors influence the fat burning, storage, and release mechanisms in the body – and ultimately determine our Set Point.
Because our Set Point is such a big factor in weight loss, and a major cause of your body either hitting a plateau or not being able to keep the weight off, it’s essential to lower your Set Point to achieve sustained weight loss.
Change Your Set Point
The Sensable Health Program is focused on helping you change your Set Point, resulting in weight loss that you can maintain. How do we do that?
Sensable Health starts out by better understanding your metabolic health and behavioral factors related to your Set Point. There are four life Domains that directly influence the hormones that regulate your metabolism and your Set Point.
Stress – how much do you experience and how you manage it.
Nutrition – what and how much you eat
Sleep – the amount of sleep you get, especially time spent in deep sleep
Activity – types, levels, and duration of physical exercise
While we often approach the management and control of these four areas of our life individually, the fact is, these Domains actually influence each other a great deal every day. When you are stressed, it affects your sleep. When you are tired, it affects your physical activity. When you don’t exercise, it affects your body craving the right foods. You get the idea!
Most people want to lose a lot of weight right away. However significant weight loss will require you to make lifestyle adjustments, and the time for your body to get used to those. Just as it took years to develop your Set Point, it will take time and patience to make a sustained change to it. It truly takes lifestyle adjustments, and your body getting used to those, which will take several months to accomplish.
In fact, losing weight too quickly will actually trigger the hormones related to your Set Point to push you in the other direction!
Changing your Set Point is not easy and requires healthier behaviors in each of the four Domains. Your Personalized Health Plan will enable you to capitalize on small changes to begin influencing the internal mechanisms that regulate your Set Point…and getting your internal biology to start working for you rather than against you.
Want more information about Set Point?
Why can’t I change my set point with a quick diet?
When you lose weight too rapidly, your metabolic rate slows down, your appetite is increased from an increase in the hormone ghrelin, and your body burns fewer calories and stores these calories as fat cells.
Thus, you actually gain more weight from eating the same foods as before. Because your metabolism slows down, it takes more exercise to maintain the same weight as you have had before. You may notice that when you lose weight too quickly, you have to increase your time and level of exercise just to keep the weight from creeping back up – and / or eat less food. Fighting against your Set Point makes it difficult for you to keep the effects of rapid weight loss over time. This is probably the reason that 80% of people who lose at least 10% of their body weight will regain it within one year. In other words, if you don’t lose weight in a manner that also lowers your body’s Set Point, any weight loss will typically be temporary and unsustainable.
What metabolic factors can affect my set point?
INSULIN The way your insulin works to store or burn fat as energy is drastically affected when you lose weight, as any excess carbohydrates are stored as fat. This will slowly drive your weight back up to the level that your Set Point has determined is right for you. Insulin is also indirectly influenced by both sleep and stress. For example, chronic, unmanaged stress as well as poor sleep can disrupt cortisol regulation – which in turn can increase blood sugar and insulin levels.
LEPTIN You have probably noticed that when you lose a lot of weight, you are hungrier. This is because the body lowers a hormone, leptin, which causes you to feel full and increases a hormone (ghrelin) which makes you feel hungry and even crave sweets to satisfy this hunger. It is worth noting that lack of sleep – or poor sleep – also effects leptin and ghrelin levels, causing you to crave sugar and starchy foods.
CORTISOL Under conditions of chronic stress and/or sleep deprivation, cortisol levels go up and stay elevated causing higher sugar levels. The elevated cortisol levels not only raise insulin levels, but change its effectiveness to drive sugar into cells. This effect is called insulin resistance and is a major factor in causing weight gain.
INFLAMMATION Chronic and systemic inflammation (sometimes called meta inflammation) can also affect your Set Point by impacting the hormones highlighted above – as well as others that play a key role in weight loss and control – such as estrogen and progesterone, to name two. This type of inflammation can be caused by poor diet (e.g. too much sugar or pro-inflammatory foods), unmanaged or chronic stress, poor sleep, or even over exercising. During the Sensable Health program we work with you to identify and address potential causes of inflammation, thereby helping you to lower your Set Point.
Focus on the Four Domains
As stated above, the best way to change your Set Point is to focus on the Four interconnected Domains:
Stress
Effectively recognizing and managing your stress is vital to changing your Set Point and maintaining sustainable weight loss. Chronic or unmanaged stress can wreak havoc with the production, regulation, and balance of cortisol, negatively impact thyroid function and sex hormones, and increase overall levels of inflammation. The Sensable Health program will help you to recognize when you are feeling stress sooner – making it easier to deal with; help you develop skills to more effectively deal with everyday stress when it occurs; and help you to become more resilient.
Nutrition
The type, quality, and timing of the foods and beverages you consume each day have a significant impact on critical weight control, Set Point hormones, and biological factors, including blood sugar, insulin levels, and various inflammatory markers. The Sensable Health program focuses on helping you understand and get the right mix of macro and micronutrients for your individual biological and behavioral needs – optimizing the production, regulation, and balance of hormones critical to weight loss and maintenance. It also supplies you with tools and materials for in-home meal planning and preparation, as well as helpful guides and resources for restaurant and take-out meals.
Sleep
It is important to get adequate amounts of sleep, especially time in deep restful stages 3 and 4 sleep. This will help increase your leptin levels, making you feel full and satiated when eating, and reduce your ghrelin, one of the hormones that increases hunger. Good quality sleep also plays a role in regulating blood sugar, improving insulin function, and reducing overall inflammation. The Sensable Health program helps you to establish an optimal sleep environment, and provides resources to help promote relaxation and deeper, more restorative sleep.
Activity
Engaging in the right amounts and intensity levels of activity for your individual needs can help modulate cortisol levels throughout the day, reduce general stress and inflammation, and increase the production of ‘feel good’ hormones like serotonin and endorphins. All of this works toward improving overall mood and energy levels. The Sensable Health program helps you to optimize your exercise routines, including cardio, strength, stretching, and gentle movement.
Get Started with Sensable Health Today
Sensable Health will help you lose weight in a manner that will also lower and reset your Set Point – thus enabling long-term, sustained weight loss, and better health. We do this by improving your overall health and addressing all four Domains, reducing inflammation, and by taking a slower and more sustainable approach to weight loss. When you lose weight in a slow but steady and sustainable manner, your body is less likely to fight back with its built-in protective Set Point mechanisms.
In this program, it may take you longer to reach your goal weight than other programs, but you are so much more likely to maintain that goal weight once you get there, and to reap all of the health benefits associated with it. Through a custom Personalized Health Plan developed just for you, this program is not just designed to help you lose weight, but to ultimately live a longer, healthier life.