When you go outside on a hot summer day, your body temperature heats up above the normal range. Receptors in your brain detect the change in body temperature. The brain activates nerve cells that send messages to sweat glands, causing the body temperature to fall as the sweat evaporates from the skin.

When body temperature rises, a center in the brain initiates physiological changes to decrease the body temperature. this is an example of negative feedback.

hypothalamus

Spending time outside in very hot weather can increase a person’s body temperature, as can being in a hot indoor environment for extended periods. Wearing too many layers in either situation can also lead to an increase in body temperature.

A setpoint is “the [temperature] point at which a thermostat has been set”. Many thermostats have 2 setpoints, a heating setpoint a and cooling setpoint. Going over temperature setpoints may seem elementary, but setpoints are very important to us at the ECO.

According to ENERGY STAR, setting your thermostat to 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) when you’re home is the ideal balance of comfort and energy efficiency.

Getting the setback temperature right for your home can take a while and might require a bit of experimenting, but a good starting point is 60 degrees. The average home needs approximately 1 hour to warm up from 60 degrees to 70 degrees, so you should adjust your program accordingly.

A negative feedback system has three basic components: a sensor, control center and an effector.

The set point model relies on the concept of a genetic preset weight range that’s controlled by biological signals. The set point theory suggests that your weight may go up or down temporarily but will ultimately return to its normal set range. The signaling system helps maintain weight.

After you maintain your new, lower weight for 6 months, you can repeat the cycle and reset your set point again by losing another 10%. Through small, gradual changes in your daily habits, you’ll be able to stay at that new, lower weight for the rest of your life.

Body weight tends to fluctuate by a few pounds. It depends on the foods you are eating, and hormones can also have a major effect on how much water your body retains (especially in women). Also, it is possible to gain muscle at the same time as you lose fat.

If you’re losing inches but maintaining your weight and you regularly strength train, you may actually be losing fat and gaining muscle. The process of gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time is called body recomposition. Most scales don’t differentiate between the amounts of body fat and muscle you have.

Mostly, losing weight is an internal process. You will first lose hard fat that surrounds your organs like liver, kidneys and then you will start to lose soft fat like waistline and thigh fat. The fat loss from around the organs makes you leaner and stronger.

Is losing inches better than losing weight? In a way, yes it is. Factors such as genetic makeup, gender, and age all determine your body weight (10). While we all believe that the number on the scale reflects how well we are doing on our weight loss journey, not all weight loss is fat.

As you’ve seen, the maximum healthy weight loss pace is up to 2 pounds per week, while your first inch needs about 8 pounds loss. So, it is possible to lose an inch in four weeks.