If you are an engineer you are intelligent enough to work out how your metabolism works and make changes. What would be a reason to stay fat?
Lack of will.
People with low BMI aren't more active, they are just less hungry, 'run hotter'
171–180 of 350 posts
Re: People with low BMI aren't more active, they are just less hungry, 'run hotter'
#172Hunger is mediated by a bunch of hormones and you can test for some of those, but there is no test for the feeling of hunger. As a comparison, it is famously very hard for doctors to understand pain; it is also difficult for patients to communicate about pain. The feeling of hunger is not comparable between people. Hunger is driven by multiple sensations (blood sugar, stomach stretch, hormone levels) and by cognitive…
About 15 years ago I adopted an informal low-carb diet: I started by skipping instant breakfast for breakfast and ended by adopting the Carl’s Jr. lettuce-wrapped burgers for lunch.
The goal was to change my cholesterol (it worked), not lose weight, and I ate however much I wanted.
But at the same time I lost 30 pounds over about three months. I didn’t even notice the change for the first month. I wasn’t fat to start, and by the end I was startlingly thin. Anecdotal, obviously.
Re: People with low BMI aren't more active, they are just less hungry, 'run hotter'
#173Hunger is mediated by a bunch of hormones and you can test for some of those, but there is no test for the feeling of hunger. As a comparison, it is famously very hard for doctors to understand pain; it is also difficult for patients to communicate about pain. The feeling of hunger is not comparable between people. Hunger is driven by multiple sensations (blood sugar, stomach stretch, hormone levels) and by cognitive…
> The feeling of hunger is not comparable between people.
I wish this were the baseline understanding everyone shared! Even as one person, as my mental health has been differently treated over time, I've been shocked at how different the subjective experience of hunger at various calorie deficits has been.
Re: People with low BMI aren't more active, they are just less hungry, 'run hotter'
#174I think the hungry bit is often under-discussed. I lost 75kg over 3 years, then put exactly 75kg back on over the 4 years after that. While losing weight, and keeping it off (for about 6 months), I was hungry all the time, every day. I hoped that my body would eventually "get used" to the new standard, but in the end (not conciously), I gave up -- it was too mentally tiring to be hungry whenever I was awake. I'm sure…
When I lost 13kg I had the same problem, I put it all back on immediately - I had an insatiable hunger after losing the weight. I ended up losing it all over again 6ish months later but this time I was able to keep it off because I didn’t have the hunger. The only difference was I lost it doing keto for the last month and I ate way healthier. I also run very hot and have a normal BMI now.
I lost 16kg by being more active and careful with eating then got stuck. Then I switched to keto and lost another 14kg. Sticking to a keto diet was very hard. I quit after a few months and slowly gained 15kg back.
Re: People with low BMI aren't more active, they are just less hungry, 'run hotter'
#175Seems to line up with my experience, am always burning up (until I turn on the AC and freeze) Especially at night though I have to to jack the temperature down or I won't sleep. Also less hungry aligns pretty well. Unfortunately when I get hungry, it's normally "a little hungry) at akward spread out intervals. I probably feel most hungry after midnight but never eat then because well, I have to sleep soon. I've tried…
Same for me. Even as Ive tried to gain weight, my weight barely budged. 150-155 for at least the last 10 years. I have obese (300lb+) friends and they insist they don’t eat that much more than me. Except they do. We go out to eat, we stop eating after about 5-10 min. I’m full and done. They burp a couple times, then proceed to keep eating, smothering everything in Mayo and bbq sauce. Then they get insane desserts. An…
I didn’t burp until my late teens. Since then I burp typically as far as I know.
Re: People with low BMI aren't more active, they are just less hungry, 'run hotter'
#176If you are an engineer you are intelligent enough to work out how your metabolism works and make changes. What would be a reason to stay fat?
We should all know our metabolic flexibility. But how do you know how much fat you can oxidize? It isn't easy to understand metabolism. I rely on a lactate test to figure it out.
Re: People with low BMI aren't more active, they are just less hungry, 'run hotter'
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
> losing body fat means that you must continuously make choices that decrease your comfort in some way - eating fewer highly rewarding foods, maintaining a state of hunger, increasing activity level Not necessarily! I've successfully lost a lot of body fat (~50 pounds over the last 18 months) by deliberately changing my diet to eat more foods (that I like) that are lower in energy density than what I was eating befor…
You just restated what the OP said, but tried to paint it somehow in a more positive light. You yourself stated you are "eating fewer ... highly rewarding foods". So what exactly are you contradicting in their statement?
The implicit context there is that the changes to diet and behaviour don't have to be "choices that decrease your comfort in some way".
That is, it doesn't have to be uncomfortable.
Re: People with low BMI aren't more active, they are just less hungry, 'run hotter'
#178The article says the low BMI people ate "12% less food" (presumably that's measured in calories), though it may not be fully true that they're "less hungry". There's a very common tendency to assume that the satiety response is based on how many calories you eat, but perhaps unless you're actually starving, it mostly isn't! Primarily, you feel sated when your stomach is or has recently been full of food, but that's b…
(cf. laproscopic bands and gastric bypass being incredibly effective at causing morbidly obese people to lose weight -- they're literally just making the stomach effectively smaller).
They are not that effective. the weight loss is often not enough or the weight returns. Gastric bypass, which is a major operation, will seldom make a very obese person thin and the weight tends to slowly return.
Re: People with low BMI aren't more active, they are just less hungry, 'run hotter'
#179There's a really interesting study they did with pigs. They fed pigs four different diets that had the same amount of calories, but varying ratios of n3/n6 fats. The pigs with high n6/n3 ratio ended up much fatter and less muscular than the pigs eating a 1-1 ratio diet. It's a very neat demonstration that "all that matters is calories" is not true; your metabolism, and thus how you use the calories, is influenced by…
If it was the ratio being studied, could you instead increase your n3 fat consumption?
Re: People with low BMI aren't more active, they are just less hungry, 'run hotter'
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same for me. Even as Ive tried to gain weight, my weight barely budged. 150-155 for at least the last 10 years. I have obese (300lb+) friends and they insist they don’t eat that much more than me. Except they do. We go out to eat, we stop eating after about 5-10 min. I’m full and done. They burp a couple times, then proceed to keep eating, smothering everything in Mayo and bbq sauce. Then they get insane desserts. An…
Overeating is the root of it. It's popular to deny this and come up with other excuses; normally when I'm with somebody making those excuses for themselves I don't dispute any of it (because it's not worth the social capital I'd expend in doing so.) But what really ticks me off is when somebody offers those lame excuses up for my obesity. I'm not big boned, there's not something wrong with my metabolism, I don't have…
It’s good you are honest with yourself about it. Unfortunately I don’t know what the solution is, if you find one let me know so I can pass on to my friends. I binge eat too; it’s just doesn’t take that much to get me full. If I had to eat more to feel full, I’d be fat too. Very few people have the willpower to stop eating while still hungry and with food in front of them.