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Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

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Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#731
post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counting calories is still very useful, because you learn what's "worth it". For example there are protein bars that are supposedly healthy, but they have 150-250 kcal per 50g bar. On the other hand there are these watery ice creams that have about 65 kcal per piece and feel just as indulgent if not more. Other things that are very much "not worth it" on the enjoyement/kcal scale is bread and other pastries. 2 buns w…

> these watery ice creams that have about 65 kcal per piece and feel just as indulgent if not more. that shows why it’s easier for some than for others :)

[deleted]

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#732

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few years back I lost 30 lbs over the course of a year using Lose It. I didn't make any major dietary changes other than reducing total caloric intake. I found that ballpark estimating calories for restaurant food was fairly easy and close enough. I never weighed my food. I even went over my caloric budget fairly often and would just make up for it the next day. Overall, it was surprisingly simple to lose the weigh…

I dunno, me and the wife realised that certain foods are simply not worth the calorie count. Really nice curry vs Pizza? The curry wins on taste, nutrition and calories. Chocolate bar vs chocolate-chip brioche? If I'm honest, id prefer the brioche (warmed a little, with a cup of decent coffee). It also affected ingredient choices: if I'm gonna make an Indian dish like palak paneer, I find it impossible to get low-fat…

Absolutely. Preventing overeating was likely the biggest contributor to my weight loss. I stopped going back for seconds every time. The next biggest was probably eating higher quality foods, similar to your examples. My memory is fuzzy on this detail, but I believe the times I ended up hungry were largely the days on which I'd had an especially calorie dense meal, like pizza, earlier in the day, so my calorie allowance was smaller come dinner time. However, pizza being my favorite food, I'm unlikely to give it up. Rather, I try to make it the last meal of the day. I found that I was able to resist the late-night munchies easier than mid-day hunger pangs.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#733
post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course, eating less is the ideal solution if you can muster the willpower to actually do it - but that's a big "if" for many people...

Just do keto diet or carnivore then. Will be a lot easier. You have to give up the cake.

I came here for this.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#734
post #727
post #719

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was only referring to the accepted fundamental truths about all human physiology CICO is fundamental to human physiology in the same way that "people become indebted because they spend more money than they earn" is fundamental to economics: true, but utterly useless for actually addressing poverty or obesity. An attractive red herring and a dangerous one. (It's even worse than that: at least we can measure income…

I completely agree with you about poverty and obesity. Those are systemic problems and are going to take something else to escape. Choices are removed for people who get stuck in those black holes, and its true that saying “use a budget” isn’t helpful after those happen. It might be helpful long before, but the forces are too strong for people who are spiraling down or stuck there. So, I hear you and I think you’re r…

> CICO is more useful for people who are stable and fine, not under the poverty line and not obese, but just a little unhappy with their weight.

Yeah. Calorie counting can be useful for normal weight people, like budgeting can be for financially secure people.

Looks like we are in violent agreement. :)

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#735
post #36

This is very depressing. I find it incredibly difficult to lose weight dieting. And now it's telling me I just wasted all this money on a treadmill (and the effort it took to get it down into the basement).

If you find dieting difficult because you get hungry, look at the keto diet, which reduces hunger.

When you eat carbs your body turns them to sugar because that's all it can do with it. Then your pancreas notices there is too much sugar in your body and tells it to store it in the fat cells for later use as energy. When the sugar is cleared out of your body, you become hungry again. This process only takes a couple of hours which is why people who eat carbs get hungry between meals.

Instead, eat healthy fats. They don't cause your sugar levels to spike so they don't cause you to have that sugar crash and hungry feeling. You can remain feeling full for 8 hours on fat.

Of course you also need proteins so make sure you get enough. Proteins do cause your sugar levels to go up some, but no where near as much as carbs do so they don't cause a crash either.

This video of Dr. Sarah Hallberg explains this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da1vvigy5tQ

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#736

Holy Jesus, that first chart tells a tale. The range of dense dots is from 60% to 130% almost throughout working life. Some of us are burning 2x what others are burning. Oh, man, dude. That's wicked variation after adjusting for non-fat mass .

I always wonder how much of what we consume is actually absorbed, specially when factoring gut microbiome and non-soluble fibers.

This leads me to believe that obesity isn't an excess consumption of calories through food, but variation between people in how efficient or inefficient their digestive absorption is. Obese people don't need less food, they need a molecular knob to turn down the absorption of nutrients in their gut.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#738
post #623

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to count calories. I'm just too lazy to measure and research everything I eat, and the alternative is to have only processed foods that are labeled. It's too bad that we can't just live on Soylent (the actual beverage, not the thing from the book)

I was very excited about Soylent years ago...until I tried it. I really disliked the flavor, so wouldn't have stuck with it regardless, but what really surprised me was how much I enjoy the act of sitting down and eating a meal. Soylent filled me up, but it never satiated me. Regardless of the time savings and predictability, I missed the act of eating, if that makes sense.

I tried it while on a trip to the states, and had the same experience as you. It was barely ok, and the taste was not great. Also, saved time from not eating a regular meal is not that much, cooking it is. As with many things, that can be fixed just by throwing more money at it.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#739
post #727
post #719

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was only referring to the accepted fundamental truths about all human physiology CICO is fundamental to human physiology in the same way that "people become indebted because they spend more money than they earn" is fundamental to economics: true, but utterly useless for actually addressing poverty or obesity. An attractive red herring and a dangerous one. (It's even worse than that: at least we can measure income…

I completely agree with you about poverty and obesity. Those are systemic problems and are going to take something else to escape. Choices are removed for people who get stuck in those black holes, and its true that saying “use a budget” isn’t helpful after those happen. It might be helpful long before, but the forces are too strong for people who are spiraling down or stuck there. So, I hear you and I think you’re r…

> CICO is what bodybuilders and athletes and models use, among many others, people mostly fine-tuning.

To nitpick, bodybuilders and athletes usually control their diet at a level where calorie counting is not relevant.

An example of that: https://youtu.be/PBfDWstg3Hc It’s interesting that the overlays always show calorie intake, but you hear the guy and at no point he mentions calories, ever.

He specifically mentions fat, proteins, vitamins, minerals, nutrients and overall quantity. He weights his food at each meal and he probably adjust all of these try and error style, looking at the results. I think calorie estimates are probably meaningless at this point.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#740

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt the 4-5% you saw is a first principle of breathing.

Why not? CO2 levels in blood must be tightly controlled. It probably can't get twice as high as usual. If there's already 4% of CO2 in the air around you it's an immediate danger. While you can spend 10 minutes in 3%. If your body could bump up CO2 in exhaled air from 4% to 8% then you'd probably have bo problem surviving in air thay contains 4%.

Its a mix of anerobic and erobic exercis. Its hard to keep the same heart rate while biking. So sometimes the body doesnt need oxygen to burn fuel. So it doesnt exhale co2. As said I am no expert.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaerobic_exercise

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