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Why do people put on differing amounts of weight?

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Why do people put on differing amounts of weight?

#31

Post by vonmoltke »

mistermann wrote: post #26
tomp wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> then I was definitely eating 4000+ calories per day and not getting Fat I'm not sure about that... allegedly, research suggests that most people have the same BMR (basal metabollic rate), and that there is nothing like "fast metabolism" (i.e. people get rougly equal amounts of energy from food). What I was referring to above, and what the article referrs to (with Glicemic Index) is purely psychological - how much f…

> I'm still pretty sure that calories-in/calories-out theory is more-or-less correct. From where do you derive this certainty? There's plenty of anecdotal evidence indicating significant variance among individuals. Simply less efficient absorption of ingested calories would obviously make a huge difference, and I don't think there's any reason to think everyone absorbs calories with identical efficiency is there?

That issue does not affect the correctness of CICO, which is more or less thermodynamics. This issue just means that the CI for two people given the exact same portion of food is not necessarily the same.

Re: Why do people put on differing amounts of weight?

#33

Post by adrianN »

danieltillett wrote: post #19
gadders wrote: post #7

This happens in pigs and other livestock. Animals are specifically bred for their Feed Conversion Efficiency ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_conversion_ratio ). I don't see why something similar couldn't happen in people as well.

Peasants have been bred by the nobility for thousands of years for improved feed efficiency. Modern humans have become much better at turning the terrible diet the average peasant had into human labor.

So you're saying chubby people are descendants of peasants, whereas skinny people have noble blood? /s

Re: Why do people put on differing amounts of weight?

#34

Post by MrJagil »

I have a very high metabolism. Some envy me, others find me too skinny. What troubles me though, is that I don't have weight as a heuristic in regards to my health. I sometimes worry, as everything else is quite ambiguous. Energy levels depend on sunlight, sleep and so on. How often I fall sick is equally dependant too many variables for it to be a reliable indicator.

I would love for something like this to be reliable/easy/cheap so I have something I can turn to when I feel uneasy about my health.

Re: Why do people put on differing amounts of weight?

#36

Post by npsimons »

tomp wrote: post #17
ksec wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the saying, everybody is different applies here. I still remember the days when I could eat 3 - 4 pound of beef, along side with mesh potato, or 12 inch Pizza, or whole bucket ( 10pcs ) KFC, per meal! And these meals would come with Coke as well. in Tea time i will eat Ice Cream, eat lots of yogurt etc. I dont do lots of sports, may be once a week maximum. Otherwise I just sit down playing World of Warcraft o…

> then I was definitely eating 4000+ calories per day and not getting Fat I'm not sure about that... allegedly, research suggests that most people have the same BMR (basal metabollic rate), and that there is nothing like "fast metabolism" (i.e. people get rougly equal amounts of energy from food). What I was referring to above, and what the article referrs to (with Glicemic Index) is purely psychological - how much f…

> I'm still pretty sure that calories-in/calories-out theory is more-or-less correct.

Unless someone has overturned the laws of thermodynamics, it is correct. CICO rules over all, and it's simple but not easy to lose weight, due as you put it to psychological factors.

As for the research about most people having the same metabolic rate, here's a link: http://examine.com/faq/does-metabolism-vary-between-two-peop...

TL;DR - almost all people of the same height and weight will be within 200-300Kcal of each other BMR wise. There are some outliers, but not enough to cover all the people claiming to be special snowflakes. And even if someone does have a "slow metabolism", that changes nothing: they still had to overeat to get fat. Mass doesn't come from nowhere.

Re: Why do people put on differing amounts of weight?

#38

Post by npsimons »

ars wrote: post #2

This is pretty astonishing research, not so much for the results, as for the methodology. Doing research on what people eat is VERY hard, it's very hard to get accurate data. Pairing people and having them eat identically is brilliant. I hope it's also scalable for longer term studies. By pairing people they are likely to give much more accurate reports about what they actually eat, and it allows direct comparisons.

> Doing research on what people eat is VERY hard, it's very hard to get accurate data.

AKA, don't bother with any studies with self-reported data. No one wants to admit it's their fault they got fat, but it always is.

Re: Why do people put on differing amounts of weight?

#39

Post by onion2k »

npsimons wrote: post #38
ars wrote: post #2

This is pretty astonishing research, not so much for the results, as for the methodology. Doing research on what people eat is VERY hard, it's very hard to get accurate data. Pairing people and having them eat identically is brilliant. I hope it's also scalable for longer term studies. By pairing people they are likely to give much more accurate reports about what they actually eat, and it allows direct comparisons.

> Doing research on what people eat is VERY hard, it's very hard to get accurate data. AKA, don't bother with any studies with self-reported data. No one wants to admit it's their fault they got fat, but it always is.

No one wants to admit it's their fault they got fat, but it always is.

If that were the case then studies to find out why two people can eat the same thing and do the same amount of exercise yet one of them can end up fatter than the other wouldn't be necessary. It seems to be the case that, all external factors being equal, how fat you are can be determined by something outside of your control (genetics, gut microbes, etc). To that end, someone could be fat without it being their fault.

Re: Why do people put on differing amounts of weight?

#40

Post by randlet »

onion2k wrote: post #39
npsimons wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Doing research on what people eat is VERY hard, it's very hard to get accurate data. AKA, don't bother with any studies with self-reported data. No one wants to admit it's their fault they got fat, but it always is.

No one wants to admit it's their fault they got fat, but it always is. If that were the case then studies to find out why two people can eat the same thing and do the same amount of exercise yet one of them can end up fatter than the other wouldn't be necessary. It seems to be the case that, all external factors being equal, how fat you are can be determined by something outside of your control (genetics, gut microbe…

It's tough to hear but no matter what your genetics or internal flora are, being overweight is still your fault. It may not be "fair" that someone puts on less weight than someone else eating the same diet, but ultimately you're the one responsible for maintaining your own weight (by controlling what you put in your mouth) no matter what the state of your gut microbes.

edit: not picking on you Onion2k...I end up commenting a lot on these stories because it really irks me when so many articles and people are looking for something external to blame for their weight problem. You may or may not be able to change your metabolism but you absolutely can change the number of calories you're consuming.

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