Why Your Weight Set Point Rises And How It Drives Weight Gain

Your defended weight range can gradually shift upward through hormonal, metabolic, environmental, and microbiome-driven changes that push the body toward higher weight.

Questions about why weight gain feels so effortless and weight loss feels so difficult come up constantly in both my clinic and research discussions. In the first two installments of this Forbes Health series, we explored the short-term appetite system that regulates hunger and fullness, followed by the long-term regulatory network that defends your natural weight range.

This third article tackles an even more pressing question for modern life: why the body’s defended weight range keeps rising over time. Many people assume weight gain is simply a matter of too many calories or too little discipline. In reality, biolog