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The Body’s “Fat Thermostat” Part 1

Weight Loss is about controlling the Body Set Weight, not the Calories

Dr. Jason Fung
7 min readJan 18, 2024

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How much body fat we carry is controlled through a homeostatic mechanism and is not simply the result of how many calories we eat and burn in a day.

Many ‘experts’ believe that hormones have little role in determining the amount of body fat we carry, and that is really is just as simple as the calories we eat versus the amount of exercise we do. Many decades of research shows that this is false. Body fat is closely regulated up or down, and successful weight loss is about understanding this fat thermometer and what controls it up or down rather than obsessing about calories.

What is a homeostatic mechanism?

Homeostasis is a mechanism to maintain internal equilibrium against changing and varied external conditions.

For example, our body temperature is set at 37 Celsius. If we live in the Sahara desert, where it is very hot, we activate cooling mechanisms to maintain a steady body temperature. If we live in the North Pole, where it is very cold, we activate heating mechanisms. Either way, despite widely varying conditions, we maintain internal stability through homeostasis. Our bodies have mechanisms to sense the changing conditions and then make…

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Dr. Jason Fung
Dr. Jason Fung

Written by Dr. Jason Fung

Nephrologist. New York Times best selling author. Interest in type 2 diabetes reversal and intermittent fasting. Founder www.TheFastingMethod.com.

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