60% of the developed world adult population are overweight. 98% of people attempting weight loss take it too fast and so fail to lose weight permanently due to triggering their body’s famine response. Reducing food intake to just below that needed to satisfy your bodies energy demands while keeping your hunger forces, as driven by Ghrelin and Leptin hormones, manageable is the key. Mission Thin Possible have a unique approach to this which is based on the latest medical research that is critical for permanent weight loss success.

• Ghrelin is a hormone generated by the stomach when it is empty.
• Leptin is a hormone generated by your fat cells as they fill with fat.
• Ghrelin tells you to go find food. Leptin tells you don’t need more food.
• Ghrelin I’m empty drive minus the Leptin I’m full drive gives you your “hunger”.

Fat is stored in the body in adipose cells or fat cells. If we eat food at a higher rate than our fat cells can absorb, our body will increase the capacity of our existing cells and  create even more fat storage cells. By this process we establish our body weight set point.

For more than 60% of us our set point is at an unhealthy overweight level. If we lower this set point we can add 5,10 or even more years to our life expectancy.

If we lose weight too fast, our bodies fat cells never produce enough leptin to take away our hunger. Most people who have struggled with weight loss have experienced the misery of insatiable hunger that Low Leptin hormone levels create. Low leptin levels also slow down our metabolism and make us feel tired and low on energy. This is known as the “famine effect”.

Studies in overeating have shown that 2 billion additional fat storage cells could be produced in as little as 2 months and existing fat cells are enlarged. This total bias of our body to get fatter and fighting against us getting thinner is normal and has been the result for the majority of us in our modern “food is plentiful” world.

Many of us have joined the millions who have lost weight short term via a fast weight loss fad exercise and/or diet program, only to put the weight back on, and then some. What we all learn eventually is that achieving permanent weight loss must be done slowly by changing our lifestyles permanently.

For decades’ scientists have been looking for a method of how to reset our bodyweight set point quickly or making losing weight easy with a magic pill. None have yet been found.

MTP hypothesis for bodyweight reset.

Mission Thin Possible is a program is based on resetting our bodyweight set point by growing a completely new fat storage system with a lower capacity. That initially sounds pretty radical but it is not.

Scientists have established through carbon dating of cells that:

• We replace our fat storage by growing new fat cells in 5-10 years.
• Fat cells get bigger with age storing more and more fat through their lifespan if we overfeed.
• If we excessively overfeed we produce even more fat cells.
• If we marginally underfeed and slowly lose weight, we can replace the larger cells as they die with smaller fat cells.
• Evidence is mounting that we may even be able to reduce the number of fat cells we have by not replacing all the cells that die, or replacing them with energy producing amber adipose cells instead of white fat storage cells.
• The size and distribution of fat cells is similar in characteristic for us all as shown in this figure.

MTP estimates a range of weight loss rate that if followed should allow clients to reset their bodyweight set point naturally as old large cells die and new smaller fat cells replace them. This requires us to keep our food intake just less than we need.

If we lose weight too slowly or take breaks in our weight reduction our new small fat cells increase in size and we will not achieve the desired bodyweight reset.

Below is the resulting MTP target for a typically average overweight middle age woman. The object is to reduce food intake so as to lose weight at a rate between the red and yellow curves.

The rate loss rate in Yellow is the fastest that will allow for modification of bodyweight set point due to new fat cell replacement.

Throughout the MTP Program the goal is to:

• Target a small defined incremental weight loss each week
• Never give our body the opportunity to create additional fat storage cells
• Ensure that our new fat storage cells stay small in size.
• Turn some of our white fat cells into brown or amber energy producing cells.
• Introduce lifestyle change step by step to produce this result.

Although some may be able to resist the hunger and lose weight faster, for most it will take 4 -5 years of modified healthy living to achieve a healthy weight, and even longer 6-8 years to achieve a WHO recommended weight for your gender, height and age.

The MTP program is not a diet but a new healthier way of life that is not extreme and can easily become a new normal for anyone.