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My father has had a low calorie diet all of his life. At 78, he is in perfect physical and mental condition. His doctor had only one concern; he is slowly losin
by louprado 9y ago
My father has had a low calorie diet all of his life. At 78, he is in perfect physical and mental condition. His doctor had only one concern; he is slowly losing weight each year and needs to reverse that. The doctor wanted to prescribe an appetite enhancing drug but my father explained he can not simply gain weight by eating more. It's as if his digestive system is already at a maximum threshold.
I wonder if habitual CR inevitably trains the body to stabilize its weight and if that can not be undone if practiced too long. That then put you at increased mortality risk when you start losing body mass in old age. Caged animal studies might miss this risk because a valued lab rat won't suffer sudden injuries and the resulting prolonged hospital visits.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- ak39 9y agoDoes your father do any resistance training? He should. Strength training stops muscle loss and improves bone density.
- magic_beans 9y agoThat's not the easiest thing to just pick up at 78.
- coldtea 9y ago>The doctor wanted to prescribe an appetite enhancing drug but my father explained he can not simply gain weight by eating more. It's as if his digestive system is already at a maximum threshold. Well, actually he can. It's not 100% just calories in/calories out, but it's very much that. If he eats potato chips and fries and lard every day he WILL gain weight.
- aianus 9y agoAlthough this is true, I can say from personal experience that my body will ramp up the vomiting and diarrhea to keep the weight gain to a minimum.
- martin1975 9y agotestosterone production also drops significantly with age. there are natural supplements that can boost it and aid in muscle growth.
- pharrlax 9y ago>The doctor wanted to prescribe an appetite enhancing drug but my father explained he can not simply gain weight by eating more. It's as if his digestive system is already at a maximum threshold. It's more likely that his weight set point has been lowered, and now his hormonal hunger indicators are defending that set point. He needs to power through it and eat more, even though it's going to feel like he's uncomfortably full all the time. I went through the same thing. It's all mental. It has nothing to do with the digestive system.
- taneq 9y agoNote that he doesn't need to eat much more. A few hundred kilojoules a day will do the trick over time - he could reverse such a slow trend by something as small as switching from low fat to full cream milk, or having a couple of Tim Tams with his morning coffee.
- notadoc 9y ago> I wonder if habitual CR inevitably trains the body to stabilize its weight This would not surprise me too much, in the same way that being overweight and habitually overeating basically trains the body to always want to be fat, always be hungry, etc