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Adipose tissue retains an epigenetic memory of obesity after weight loss

nature.com

121–130 of 343 posts

Re: Adipose tissue retains an epigenetic memory of obesity after weight loss

#121

Just went trough Yo-Yo. Any good strategies on how to overcome it for good?

I might consider working with a cognitive behavioral therapist. Since you’ve already lost weight, you do know (in big picture terms) how to lose/not gain weight: eat a healthy diet consistently and get regular exercise. For most people who struggle with their weight, there are emotional eating patterns or even just bad habits that are just hard to break on their own. Of course knowledge about diet and exercise is imm…

I totally see this is myself. If I'm feeling blue, nothing makes me feel better like a cinnamon roll.

Re: Adipose tissue retains an epigenetic memory of obesity after weight loss

#122
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is more likely: - a physics-breaking thermodynamic anomaly - a food addicted person is lying about their consumption 200 kcal a day.. yeah sure. A human body needs more than that just to breathe and pump blood. Even comatose a skinny person needs 5 times as much. Overweight people have a significantly higher metabolic base rate. Just breathing can easily be 1000kcal a day if your lungs have to move 30 kilos of u…

It's insane how arrogant people can be about this. You have not accounted for all of the variables and that is blatantly obvious. The phenomenon is well known and there are multi-variable equations for it, many different models. One popular model is that NEET can decrease below the caloric deficit, meaning you still gain weight by becoming subconsciously lazier despite everything feeling equally difficult subjectivel…

Nutritional science is pseudo science at best. I had rather continue to believe in thermodynamics lmao

Re: Adipose tissue retains an epigenetic memory of obesity after weight loss

#123

I always used to think negatively about people that were severely overweight (still do unconsciously if I'm being honest) as I always attributed their obesity to lack of will power. I'm a huge proponent of better living through chemistry (steroids - with frequent blood work, nootropics, whatever) and recently I decided to get my abs back. I hopped on some compounded semiglutide and was blown away by the change in my…

I think you mean semaglutide.

Re: Adipose tissue retains an epigenetic memory of obesity after weight loss

#124
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there really was a gene that allowed you to survive on substantially less food than your peers, pretty much all humans would have said gene. The history of humanity is rife with famine, and that gene would be a game-changer for survival

It's all about tradeoffs. In this case, I wonder if there's an "efficient metabolism" gene that makes your body put a higher percentage of incoming nutrients into long-term storage (mostly in fat tissue). Carriers of this gene would be more likely to survive a famine, but less likely to outrun a predator or defend against an attack by another leaner human, who's genes allocate incoming nutrients to be utilized more e…

Look into Polynesian peoples. They survived long sea voyages, and are known to be generally large people in modern day. Like the guy at my high school whose nickname was "Big Tonga"

Re: Adipose tissue retains an epigenetic memory of obesity after weight loss

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

metabolism is orthogonal . It's possible to have a fast metabolism and still be obese if you're eating at a surplus. But it's also possible people with faster metabolisms may be more successful at weight loss if already obese. So a 300-lbs person who eats 10,000 calories/day to be weight stable will find it easier to lose weight compared to to a 300 lbs person who is stable at 4,000 cal/day. This can also explain how…

10k calories a day is what a black bear eats preparing for hibernation. And it is what Michael Phelps would eat daily when training in the pool for hours on end. Obese people can remain obese eating 1000 calories a day. I recall one episode of My 600lb Life and the show's featured person that day was at 900 or 1200 calories a day and still didn't lose weight. Might have still been gaining. It is a dynamic system. Peo…

As somebody who went through successful weight cuts at least 3 times I must notice that not losing weight on 200 calories a day is... a very unrealistic situation. Even a 1000 calories is starving.

(I do weightlifting, and controlling one's weight is basics of everything in the gym)

Re: Adipose tissue retains an epigenetic memory of obesity after weight loss

#126
post #2

As someone who's struggled with weight loss, and have known others to struggle with it well, I think we colloquially called this "slow metabolism". It always did feel like it was easier to gain weight than lose it, especially fat weight and not muscle weight for me. I was recently sent a video about fat adaptation (basically teaching your body to be better at burning fat) by a very fit friend, but I wonder how much o…

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Re: Adipose tissue retains an epigenetic memory of obesity after weight loss

#127

As this article shows, there are incredibly complex feedback mechanisms around weight and metabolism, but thermodynamics are still fundamentally a thing. After he died last year, I ran across this engineering and accounting approach to weight maintenance and loss written up by John Walker (one of the Autodesk founders). It worked very well for him and changed the way I thought about weight and eating. It is interesti…

The problem with diets based only on calories is that they don't take satiety into account, nor health. Calories is what makes you gain/lose weight, it's basic physics. Satiety is what makes you want to eat more/less. Nutrients are what is making you healthy. Fiber and protein tends to make you feel full. Lack of them allow you to eat large amount of calories without feeling full. You need to keep track of micro and…

I would slightly tweak your last. Different nutrients (vitamins/whatever) also impact your body in specific ways. Not just "makes you healthy" but "causes you to do certain things." Caffeine is the easy example here.

This gets back to the "feedback loops" above. There are certainly feedback loops. But you are unlikely to be able to prime any of them by just increasing an input. And increasing output is something you have to train the body to do.

On that last, I think it is easy to model weight gain as something you train the body to do, as well? Certainly fits the model of the article.

There are also flywheel levels of energy use for some folks. Consider the amount of calories a professional athlete goes through. We can say exercise doesn't help weight loss at the population level with relative certainty. It is also relatively safe to say exercise burns an obscene amount of calories in athletes.

Re: Adipose tissue retains an epigenetic memory of obesity after weight loss

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am pretty sure the only way to reduce the number of cells is liposuction

I've been wondering about that. Like all cosmetic surgery liposuction is looked down upon. But maybe it can also be a useful and healthy weight loss strategy?

Despite being looked down on, it's still very common. I know several people who have had liposuction. The results are only temporary. Everyone I know that has had this procedure has rebounded back to their original body weight within 2 years.

Re: Adipose tissue retains an epigenetic memory of obesity after weight loss

#129

As this article shows, there are incredibly complex feedback mechanisms around weight and metabolism, but thermodynamics are still fundamentally a thing. After he died last year, I ran across this engineering and accounting approach to weight maintenance and loss written up by John Walker (one of the Autodesk founders). It worked very well for him and changed the way I thought about weight and eating. It is interesti…

The problem with diets based only on calories is that they don't take satiety into account, nor health. Calories is what makes you gain/lose weight, it's basic physics. Satiety is what makes you want to eat more/less. Nutrients are what is making you healthy. Fiber and protein tends to make you feel full. Lack of them allow you to eat large amount of calories without feeling full. You need to keep track of micro and…

The context is even more broad than this.

Beyond satiety, you also have to consider the role food is playing in the person's life. Is the person hooked on Dopamine, with food a (the?) main source of it? Can they introduce other enjoyable and meaningful activities that take their mind off food? Even if a person is not addicted per-se to the dopamine food provides, if their life is boring and seems to lack meaning, they will still turn to food as a major part of their daily routine.

You also have to consider that some people find daily planning and organization more difficult than others. Keeping to a good diet can require a great deal of planning on a daily basis.

So obesity is often only a symptom of more underlying issues like depression loneliness, a struggle for meaning and connection, ADHD, and more.

Re: Adipose tissue retains an epigenetic memory of obesity after weight loss

#130
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is self-defeating and untrue. Many people, myself included, have kept weight off for decades. But you don’t get there by thinking of your new lifestyle as “dieting”. You need to learn to love eating healthy foods in a healthy amount, and getting exercise. Eventually you can get to a place where the old foods and habits are simply unappealing.

> in a healthy amount That's the crux! Constant hunger starts nagging me as soon as I try. I've tried several times for several months, with nice results from the weight's points of view, but I never got to the point where my quality of life globally increased, and that was always due to the constant hunger. I'll only retry when I'll have found a way to stop the hunger now .

Just live with the hunger? Been starving for last 3 hours but idc really. Thats how i never went above 75kg all my life
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