Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed

colorado.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 151 posts

Re: Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed

#141

Post by exfatloss »

vkazanov wrote: post #136
exfatloss wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mind sharing your before/after weight and roughly how lean you were? If your metabolism is already dialed in (i.e. you were not obese) this might totally work and be very effective for fat loss.

93kg to 78kg, 180 cm. Did not look fat, but my face got round and belly was forming. Haven't seen my abs for years and years by then. Surprisingly, 80 kg was like no abs at all and 77.8kg was a 4-pack already. I wrote earlier that reforming my diet to protein-centric, 1800-2000cal a day + 15k steps walking + some lightweight kettlebell work was enough to get things going. I used myfitnespal, really useful. It wasn't…

Especially for people who are very obese :)

For comparison, I recently went from 132kg (290lbs) to 111kg (245lbs) in the last 5 months without counting calories, on a very-low-protein, ultra-high-fat diet.

Re. the abs, I've never had them but my impression is they're hidden by basically the last 5lbs of fat you'll lose. So nothing and then they're suddenly there makes sense. Congrats!

Re: Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed

#142

Post by exfatloss »

kaba0 wrote: post #135
exfatloss wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the experience of practically everyone who's ever tried to lose weight, not just me. You think we had an obesity epidemic that's growing if counting calories really worked? > Besides, if people can really accurately count their calorie intakes and won’t overeat what they use up, then it is thermodynamically impossible not to lose weight. This is false. The body is a self-regulating system. You eat less, the b…

It ain’t going to burn less than like 2000 calories. We are just surprisingly efficient at turning food into energy, and too efficient to burn enough energy with even hard-core movements. And it doesn’t hurt your last point in anyway, both statements can be true.

It absolutely will. I've tried it myself and stayed stable around 1,000kcal/day for 2 months straight.

Re: Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed

#143

Post by vkazanov »

exfatloss wrote: post #141
vkazanov wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

93kg to 78kg, 180 cm. Did not look fat, but my face got round and belly was forming. Haven't seen my abs for years and years by then. Surprisingly, 80 kg was like no abs at all and 77.8kg was a 4-pack already. I wrote earlier that reforming my diet to protein-centric, 1800-2000cal a day + 15k steps walking + some lightweight kettlebell work was enough to get things going. I used myfitnespal, really useful. It wasn't…

Especially for people who are very obese :) For comparison, I recently went from 132kg (290lbs) to 111kg (245lbs) in the last 5 months without counting calories, on a very-low-protein, ultra-high-fat diet. Re. the abs, I've never had them but my impression is they're hidden by basically the last 5lbs of fat you'll lose. So nothing and then they're suddenly there makes sense. Congrats!

Congrats! That's huge! I know it's a very liberating feeling, both physically and psychologically.

My collegue went from 115kg to 85kg some time ago. I know it's a different kind of game. Took a year for him. He was younger, in his late 20s, so running was still an option for him. I am In my late 30s, and traumas accumulated so i had to accept that calorie counting was the only remaining option.

Also, I'd suggest still working from a high-protein approach. You get to keep you muscle, especially if you do some reasonable amount of training.

Re: Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed

#144

Post by vkazanov »

exfatloss wrote: post #141
vkazanov wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

93kg to 78kg, 180 cm. Did not look fat, but my face got round and belly was forming. Haven't seen my abs for years and years by then. Surprisingly, 80 kg was like no abs at all and 77.8kg was a 4-pack already. I wrote earlier that reforming my diet to protein-centric, 1800-2000cal a day + 15k steps walking + some lightweight kettlebell work was enough to get things going. I used myfitnespal, really useful. It wasn't…

Especially for people who are very obese :) For comparison, I recently went from 132kg (290lbs) to 111kg (245lbs) in the last 5 months without counting calories, on a very-low-protein, ultra-high-fat diet. Re. the abs, I've never had them but my impression is they're hidden by basically the last 5lbs of fat you'll lose. So nothing and then they're suddenly there makes sense. Congrats!

And yes, abs are not the most important thing. Depends on genetics, max weight, fat distribution. Doesn't really matter In practice.

Back when i doing boxing in early 20s I was as low as 69kg, and still didn't see the full 6-pack. Go figure....

Re: Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed

#145

Post by exfatloss »

vkazanov wrote: post #143
exfatloss wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially for people who are very obese :) For comparison, I recently went from 132kg (290lbs) to 111kg (245lbs) in the last 5 months without counting calories, on a very-low-protein, ultra-high-fat diet. Re. the abs, I've never had them but my impression is they're hidden by basically the last 5lbs of fat you'll lose. So nothing and then they're suddenly there makes sense. Congrats!

Congrats! That's huge! I know it's a very liberating feeling, both physically and psychologically. My collegue went from 115kg to 85kg some time ago. I know it's a different kind of game. Took a year for him. He was younger, in his late 20s, so running was still an option for him. I am In my late 30s, and traumas accumulated so i had to accept that calorie counting was the only remaining option. Also, I'd suggest sti…

My entire hypothesis this time around is that protein is making/keeping me fat, and I went super low protein on purpose :) Of course it could also be something else. Everybody freaks out about the low protein though haha.

Re: Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed

#146

Post by hirvi74 »

uptownfunk wrote: post #122
hirvi74 wrote: post #112

The topic of obesity somewhat reminds me of a joke I once heard from a stand-up comedian whom I cannot remember the name of, but it went something along the lines of, "People always ask you why you quit drinking, but you know... People never ask you why you drank in the first place." I do not believe that there is a significant portion of the human population that wakes up each day and decides to actively diminish th…

This seems to try and give people a way out which is the exact opposite of what is needed to deal with this. There has to be a commitment and a no-way-out approach. It quite literally can be life or death. If individuals are not responsible for their own health then who is? How hard is it to eat chicken/tofu + veggies for one meal a day and cut out pizza/pasta/rice/wheat?

> If individuals are not responsible for their own health then who is?

I view the issue much like burnout. Who's fault is it for burnout? The employee or the employer? To be honest, just like obesity, it's probably a bit of both (not claiming employers are causing obesity).

> How hard is it to eat chicken/tofu + veggies for one meal a day and cut out pizza/pasta/rice/wheat?

It depends on how much one earns. It's a lot easier for someone making a HS salary than minimum wage which in my state, is still $7.25/hr.

I am not saying individuals are not responsible, but I do not agree that individuals are solely responsible. There are other factors at play.

I think we have a societal issue -- people are overworked and overstressed on average. Hell, depending on the source of information, around 20%-25% of Americans are prescribed psychiatric medication. That signals we are facing systemic issue within our society. Why are people so depressed, anxious, and or flying off the rails?

Another issue is that our society has become more sedentary as a whole -- especially in the work place. I imagine there were much less sitting/standing at a desk all day in 1923 than there is in 2023 on average. I think a lot of people were able to fulfill their minimum exercise needs without much effort -- be it factory work, more walkable cities, etc.. Is the increase in sedentary jobs, lack of walkable cities, etc.. an individual's fault or society's?

Maybe I am just talking out of my ass, but I would like to see any kind of research, if it even exists, on if there is a correlation between hours worked in a sedentary job and obesity.

Re: Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed

#147

Post by hirvi74 »

exfatloss wrote: post #134
hirvi74 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overeating is the "cause" of obesity because that is the mechanism of action that facilitates obesity. How else could one reasonably become obese? Overeating is the "how" not the "why" -- at least, that's how I see it. It would be like saying alcohol is the root cause of alcoholism, when in reality, the root cause of alcoholism is often much more nuanced. Hence why many people with addictions tend to be polysubstance…

Overeating is the cause of obesity like saving money is the cause of being rich. Yes, but that's not what we're talking about. It's an accounting tautology, not the root cause.

> Yes, but that's not what we're talking about

What are we talking about?

Re: Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed

#148

Post by hirvi74 »

kaba0 wrote: post #123
hirvi74 wrote: post #112

The topic of obesity somewhat reminds me of a joke I once heard from a stand-up comedian whom I cannot remember the name of, but it went something along the lines of, "People always ask you why you quit drinking, but you know... People never ask you why you drank in the first place." I do not believe that there is a significant portion of the human population that wakes up each day and decides to actively diminish th…

Or Big Sugar not actively lobbying and promoting their propaganda would help greatly — it really is unbelievable that due to having loads of corn, the US decided to slowly kill their populace by forcing them onto an over-sweetened diet, purely for profit. For foreigners, plenty of food is simply not edible they are so sweet, like who puts sugar into bread?! And it being the way people grew up with, it is exceedingly…

Wonderful contribution that didn't even cross my mind, but I completely agree.

Again, this still is not the fault of an individual which was I the point I was trying to make. Thank you for this bit, I will try to add this to my opinions next time I have a discussion about obesity.

Re: Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed

#149

Post by vkazanov »

crazygringo wrote: post #138
vkazanov wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Metabolism changes is something like going down from 2100 maintenance calories to 1900 calories. A donut is /at least/ 300+ calories. Age-related metabolism changes are also not that serious. I've seen people losing 40kg (120kg to 80kg) by just walking and counting calories. It's the last 5-6 kg that are harder than the first 20kg is almost trivial to lose - one all the right habits are in place. And habits are the h…

No, it's more like going from ~2500 maintenance to ~1400 cal/day before your body finally decides to start burning fat instead of lowering its metabolism further. At least for me. Obviously different people are different. And it has utterly nothing to do with habits, you can see my other comment. It's about the whether you can even manage the other health consequences you suffer from your metabolism being so low.

1400 a day? For an immobilised hospital patient- maybe. It's like not moving at all! How would your body compensate for it?

Given lightweight excercise (walking,kettlebells, etc) that's almost impossible!

Re: Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed

#150

Post by ghostbrainalpha »

Izkata wrote: post #120
suresk wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He discovered that a full 20% of the sample characterized as “healthy” weight had been in the overweight or obese category in the decade prior. When set apart, this group had a substantially worse health profile than those in the category whose weight had been stable. There are a few odd things about this approach. First, 20% of people in a healthy weight being previously overweight/obese? This seems high? Could th…

> I'm still trying to understand the full study, but it is odd that more people lost weight than gained weight, according to the numbers I'm seeing in it. Although that may be partially explained by the fact that it was limited to people 45 - 85 years old. Don't people typically gain weight in that age range, the opposite of what would explain that?

Once you reach 65+ people tend to lose weight until they die.

A lot of it is explained by muscle loss.

Post reply on HN