I don’t know
how I got access to this paper, but it is worth reading. Very interesting.
TLDR
Mouse experiments showed no weight loss from psilocybin, and no impact on the Hypothalamus (Which is where the body set point resides) However, mouse studies also showed no effect on Alcoholism either. Finally, there were long term changes in the prefrontal cortex. a relationship between obesity and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex has been established so while the drug is unlikely to have a direct impact on the set point via the hypothalamus, it is likely to change the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that is associated with obesity.
The papers take was that the negative results pointed not to dead end, but for human trails.
Noom is having a roughly 8% success rate with people monitoring their calories and getting more comfortable with themselves. That is a very high success rate. I would venture the Weight Watchers app is similarly successful.
The problem with other approaches is the weight is gained back later very often.
Set point is being questioned as set point range now. Really the partial success of Noom is bending the set point theory. The theory is an abstract complex notion of what is happening. If some people lose the weight permanently the theory is rubbish.
I have lost the 50 lbs for a year now. Plus gone into the gym to put back on the muscle I would have lost two years ago while not adding to my scale weight. I am now understanding more free of reading the Noom app materials how to continue the next 30 lbs of weight I need to lose. Basically feeling good and enjoying food while managing the content and calories brings together weight loss.
Exercising heavily while trying to lose weight is often a recipe for creating hunger. At least with me that was true. The dire need to do something is not a great way to ease into
“feeling good and enjoying food while managing the content and calories”. If you use Noom or any app with a forum take with plenty of salt the reports by fellow app users of their constant need to overwork their exercise for weight loss. Their efforts are extremely problematic. We are not kids.
The papers take was that the negative results pointed not to a dead end, but for human trails
Well, the authors would say that, wouldn’t they? Which is a bit rich seeing as even when rodent research throws up spectacular results for drugs/interventions being studied, these results are oftentimes (more often than not?) unreproducible in human trials.
…take with plenty of salt the reports by fellow app users of their constant need to overwork their exercise for weight loss
Well, depending upon what you mean, this might be true…i.e. needing to increase exercise or reduce food intake even more…to maintain a continued weight loss.
A numbers of reasons but one is that bigger bodies expend more energy than smaller bodies at rest so the same individual trying to maintain the same energy deficit as they lose weight, so will need to make compensatory changes for this, the closer they get to goal weight. Plenty of reproducible data from metabolic ward studies on this metabolic adaptation…where study subjects are monitored under controlled conditions to the nth degree.
Another slightly less easy to demonstrate example of metabolic adaptation is the reduction in BMR that’s seems to occur over and above what can be accounted for by loss of metabolically active body tissue. Such that it’s hypothesised that after significant weight loss the newly svelte dieter will have a lower BMR than if they’d never gained weight in the first place. Obviously, something of a guesstimate and it’s only in the range of 5-10% or so…statistically significant but that’s about it