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People with low BMI aren't more active, they are just less hungry, 'run hotter'

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Re: People with low BMI aren't more active, they are just less hungry, 'run hotter'

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you run hotter, wouldn't you feel less hot? Since your normal temperature would be that much higher than the ambient temperature. At least, when I have a fever I feel cold, even though I'm hot.

Not sure why, but the fever thing is special I think. A common symptom of the flu is chills even though your body is at scorching temps. I "run hot" as my partner says. She'll touch my arm and it boggles her mind how hot I feel. I have to keep my room at 67F at night or I can't even use blankets. My sleep suffers from how hot I run. I don't feel cold in the least.

Could be food related. Feeling hot stopped when I did an elimination diet. Basically my body was constantly reacting to food.

Eventually diagnosed with an autoimmune condition. Food is one of the primary ways I keep it under control.

Re: People with low BMI aren't more active, they are just less hungry, 'run hotter'

#212
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alcohol and ice cream before bed will help you gain weight. Doesn't even have to be a lot - like one drink and 1/2-1 cup of ice cream.

Technically they're best consumed in the morning, from a caloric standpoint.

Why is that? I've always heard that you can eat a lot for breakfast and your body will somewhat adjust it's calorie needs down for the rest of the day. My grandfather needed to gain weight as he got older he would eat ice cream or drink a beer before bed and it helped him gain weight. My understanding is that metabolism drops during sleep, making it more likely that the calories are stored rather than used.

Re: People with low BMI aren't more active, they are just less hungry, 'run hotter'

#213
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The 'it's all my fault' attitude isn't really helpful for you to solve those problems however. Binge eating can be driven by a myriad of factors, mostly psychological. I'm fat too, and I'm comfortable with that word, I dont like medicalizing it with term obesity. While my weight is at least partially my own fault, its at least influenced by factors outside of my control - upbringing, genetics, societal factors, and a…

[deleted]

Re: People with low BMI aren't more active, they are just less hungry, 'run hotter'

#214
post #130

I'm one of these people. Always super hot after eating, especially carbs (which I now avoid). Hard to gain weight even at 28. I also almost always wake up covered in sweat and have to change cloths. So not all roses.

most people wake up sweaty

Not me

Re: People with low BMI aren't more active, they are just less hungry, 'run hotter'

#215
post #120
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you missed the important point, IMO: being hungry. it's bizarre that we can be mechanically and nutritionally full yet still be hungry. These low BMI individuals were not hungry. WTF is going on with the hunger response being so messed up in a huge segment of the population?

It’s not messed up. It’s just maladapted to our food environment where there is high calorie, highly rewarding, cheap food available to us at all times. Countries where traditional diets predominate don’t have widespread obesity, and we can see obesity rise in developing nations as they adopt Western diets. Some people, including the Chinese-resident subjects of this study, have hunger responses that are not suscepti…

While Chinese people may have a low obesity rate, they aren’t significantly healthier in other respects. High cholesterol, blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes (white rice) are a big problem.

Re: People with low BMI aren't more active, they are just less hungry, 'run hotter'

#216

To be fully honest - I can relate to this. During my college years, I ate a full-size burger, potato fries, and soda every day for lunch for ~2 years. I never got fat and retained a healthy BMI, never crossing 200lbs despite being a 6'2" male - even though I almost never exercised and spent almost all day sitting working in the Math Lab. I did skip breakfast regularly so maybe that had something to do with it. My fam…

Meth lab? That’ll help lose weight

Re: People with low BMI aren't more active, they are just less hungry, 'run hotter'

#217

The study was underweight bmi vs healthy bmi. Nothing about overweight bmi, which I would assume is the trifecta of overeating, little activity, and slower metabolism. At least that is my personal experience in going from overweight to healthy bmi. Really not surprising that people that eat less have lower bmi and higher metabolism than people that eat more with a slower metabolism but who are more active.

When I was 16, I was playing varsity basketball, baseball, track and was working on a farm doing heavy work all summer. Per the doctor, I was obese. My wife was obese because breasts. BMI is bullshit imo, it has some general value but creates a lot of distress for people, especially women.

BMI is useful for screening and population studies, but it's (mostly) bullshit for individuals. For most people it's body composition that really matters. Excess adipose tissue, especially visceral fat, has a wide range of negative health effects. Anyone who cares about their health should get a DXA scan at least every few years; it will give a highly accurate reading on body composition including fat distribution.

Re: People with low BMI aren't more active, they are just less hungry, 'run hotter'

#218

Seems 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…

Same for me with the burping. I don't even know how to force one. Instead I just feel bloated and miserable for an hour or two, so it's an incentive to not eat much or drink anything carbonated.

Re: People with low BMI aren't more active, they are just less hungry, 'run hotter'

#219
post #77

Hunger 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…

I think, as a society, we're having trouble grappling with the implications of the hormonal changes that happen due to fat set points increasing over time. It seems to make it nearly impossible for some people to lose weight over a long run of time. Whatever they lose, their body will try very hard, apparently for the rest of their lives, to put it back on.

But what I think we're having trouble in understanding what this means is that it doesn't mean obesity as a social problem can't be solved. It might mean some amount of people who are already obese will never be able to sustainably change that fact, but it's not like people are being born with naturally higher fat set points. That is a hormonal change that happens when you become obese and stay that way for a long time. Interventions that focus on younger people who have not yet become obese can still work. But this is contrary and different to how the entire obesity industrial complex works. It is focused on treating overweight and obese people, not on preventing new people from ever getting that way in the first place. Even with children, we focus the interventions on trying to help fat kids lose weight. We should probably expect that to work at least a little bit better than trying to intervene in adults, but even better still is to work with the kids who aren't obese, which at an early enough age is all of them, and figure out how to keep them that way.

Re: People with low BMI aren't more active, they are just less hungry, 'run hotter'

#220
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The 'it's all my fault' attitude isn't really helpful for you to solve those problems however. Binge eating can be driven by a myriad of factors, mostly psychological. I'm fat too, and I'm comfortable with that word, I dont like medicalizing it with term obesity. While my weight is at least partially my own fault, its at least influenced by factors outside of my control - upbringing, genetics, societal factors, and a…

Whether or not the realization that overeating is my problem helps me solve the problem is orthogonal to whether or not it's true. It is objectively true that I overeat.

In my case, I believe I overeat because I have poor impulse control and I enjoy both the act of eating and the sensation of being stuffed with food. Furthermore I particularly enjoy greasy and carby foods, pizza particularly. If I ate less (or stuffed myself with plant fiber instead of pizza grease) I am certain that I would lose weight. Do I have the motivation and conviction to follow through with that? Past performance says no. But that doesn't change the fact that I'm overeating. It's not an attitude, it's reality.

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