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Eating too much food the 'secret to becoming fat' The secret to staying slim is to not eat more calories than your body uses. Excuses like this will only make

Eating too much food the 'secret to becoming fat' The secret to staying slim is to not eat more calories than your body uses. Excuses like this will only make obesity even more common and accepted than it is today.

spacesuitman2 8y ago
>The secret to staying slim is to not eat more calories than your body uses This. There are too many people who do not understand that conservation of mass applies to the human body too. Nobody gains 1 kg by eating a single peanut, yet some people claim it's all genes.
- zepolen 8y ago
  The genes affect their 'cant stop after eating that first peanut' syndrome. Just like the will to live affects your 'cant hold breath forever' incapability. I mean sure it's technically possible to hold your breath until you pass out, but it would take a crazy amount of will power.
Wh1zz 8y ago
Sure, but some might be genetically predisposed to make more efficient use of calories (burn easier rather than store as fat). Which could make a massive difference.
- black-tea 8y ago
  Actually the person who makes more efficient use of calories is more likely to become fat because they don't need as much. There's also a lot of evidence that burning through loads of energy will reduce your life span. Eating less is always better than trying to burn more.
  - Tepix 8y ago
    > Actually the person who makes more efficient use of calories is more likely to become fat because they don't need as much. Only if they eat as much as someone who uses calories less efficiently. Which is not a given.
  - Wh1zz 8y ago
    > There's also a lot of evidence that burning through loads of energy will reduce your life span. Eating less is always better than trying to burn more. I would think that it is highly dependent on what you're burning the energy for... Surely if you eat more to maintain a fit body/lifestyle, it is likely to have a more positive effect on lifespan compared to eating less and living a more sedentary life? Of course, an optimal balance needs to be struck between the two, but I am very curious on what the research says about this balance.
- mikekchar 8y ago
  If I'm 6'4" and 20 years old, I can probably eat 2500-3000 calories a day and stay slim. If I'm 5'10" and 50 years old, I can probably east about 1900 calories a date a stay slim. It is a huge difference. But, it doesn't matter. Some people can eat more than others and not get fat. There is no justice in the universe ;-). Whether it is some gene, your body size, your age or something else, it doesn't matter. Eat too much and you will get fat. Don't eat too much and you won't get fat. That last bit is super important. There is no illness that causes people to starve to death even when obese. Your body is a factor, not an excuse (Ha ha! Here I am quoting Arnold!)
  - yetihehe 8y ago
    > Don't eat too much and you won't get fat. Just invent flying cars, that will solve some problems. Easy, right? The "HOW" is a problem, not "what is needed". When obese people don't eat too much, their body thinks "I don't have enough, time to enter energy saving mode and increase hunger".
    - mikekchar 8y ago
      That is not established. I have never seen a study that says that obese people are hungrier than non-obese people. There isn't even a way to establish a baseline.
      - AstralStorm 8y ago
        There are at least 3 hormonal ways, but such blood sampling is prohibitively expensive for now. Of course it'd be better I'd you could just read it off neurons, too hard though.
      - yetihehe 8y ago
        If I eat enough to sustain my obese body, I'm not hungry anymore. If I try to eat less, I'm hungry. I successfully lost 10kg, and first 5kg was even easy. I thought at start "ehh, that hunger is only a feeling, I can continue like that", but I couldn't and I'm back where I started. Just eating less may work for some people, but not everyone.
- manjana 8y ago
  That is true to some degree. That to which you are referring is metabolism. Metabolism however, is influenced to a large extent by enviroment and level of exercise. But correct that it might be genes was observed in the dutch population generations after early nineteen hundredth's famine crisis: [ https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/science/dutch-famine-genes.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/science/dutch-famine-gene... ]. This eventualley led to a new area of study called epigenetics (of which one of the pioneers actually earnes a Nobel's Prize I think). Epigenetic research has shown that genes are not final. In the case of the dutch famine, the famine-victims which survived had undergone epifenetic changes (their genes changed) in response to the famine, their body would become extremely energy efficient and their energy partitioning would lean towards buildup of adipose tissue (fat). However (!!) research later shown that these gene alteration which their offspring inherited and which were observed throughout the dutch poulation generations later, was reversible by environmental factors and exercise.
- aaaaaaaaaab 8y ago
  >make more efficient use of calories (burn easier rather than store as fat) That’s the opposite of efficient...
willvarfar 8y ago
The article starts by saying: > Scientists say they have discovered the secret behind why some people are skinny while others pile on the pounds easily. > Their work reveals newly discovered genetic regions linked to being very slim. > The international team say this supports the idea that, for some people, being thin has more to do with inheriting a "lucky" set of genes than having a perfect diet or lifestyle Further down the article adds: > Most obesity is acquired in adult life and is linked to the obesogenic environment we live in - a sedentary lifestyle and abundant access to calorie-dense foods. I am lucky; I don't have to heed your newfriend advice to stay slim. My genes (or, the article mentions at the end, possibly my gut microbes) seem to have a secret of their own. If you are unlucky and your body is good at storing excess calories, then I guess those people will have to adopt the 'newfriend secret' of not eating to much.
- AstralStorm 8y ago
  You do understand that our meals, standard ones, are generally too fat and to get thin you'd have to cut everything in half, which is essentially unhealthy without support. You'd have to cook for yourself too. And avoid all the carefully crafted tempting foods and marketing too. Funny thing about effectiveness, that such cutting is ineffective.
  - bkor 8y ago
    Too fat? Fat actually doesn't make you that fat. Low fat foods with loads of sugars do. Plus high fructose sugar. Overweight/obese is mainly a food addiction IMO. It's hard, difficult, etc. But amount of time it's due to medicines/genes is pretty limited. There's huge differences per country in the obesity percentage which cannot be explained by things such as genes or food shortage.
Someone 8y ago
”is to not eat more calories than your body uses” No, it is for your body to not take in more calories than your body uses. Some bodies may not take in all excess calories you eat, just as a car doesn’t use more gas if you keep the gas topped up, or do take them in, but have ways to burn them of instead of storing them in fat (say by moving more blood through the skin), just as some oil refineries flare off gas that they don’t need, rather than storing it and becoming larger and larger over time. So, eating too much is the cause, but what constitutes too much can depend on the person. If your digestive system has a hard limit on the amount of stuff it can take in, it may even be impossible for you to become obese.
apatters 8y ago
This is a toxic and harmful attitude. There are genetic, dietary and fitness components to obesity. This is not disputed. At least one of these components is outside of the control of the individual. Others can be influenced. If someone is chronically obese, the best thing for them is to work on what they can control with professionals, which might normally include a dietitian or a personal trainer but they might also benefit from work with professionals in other fields -- psychiatry, comorbid diseases etc. And having friends support them in this process helps too. (I don't think their friends should tell them "fat is beautiful," by the way, but I'm not a professional in any of the relevant fields, so does my opinion even matter?) At no point do I think shaming the obese (which is basically what you're doing when you say "this is simple and it's your fault" does more harm than good. Shame isn't listed anywhere as a treatment for any disease or disorder as far as I know.
- benj111 8y ago
  While I wouldn't be as blunt as the OP, I wouldn't describe it as toxic. Ultimately if you are obese, it's because you've eaten too much and that needs to be accepted before you can do anything about it.
  - AstralStorm 8y ago
    Ultimately you're toxic, because most people (obese or not) I know have tried at least one way to lose weight which cut calories and it failed. If you have nothing effective to offer, really the best thing is sometimes to shut up and research why they fail and how to not make them fail.
    - benj111 8y ago
      No need to be rude. I'm not saying its easy or simple, but ultimately it comes down to calories in and calories out. The problem isn't going to go away if you attack people for saying that. It is the foundations that all solutions are based on.
      - 8y ago
jakobegger 8y ago
That is pretty obvious, but doesn't mean that genes have no effect. A certain gene might make you feel hungry more, and will make you eat more, and will make you bigger. Another gene might cause someone to prefer certain foods, and again cause a difference in body weight. Pretending that everyone is the same is pointless. Someone who doesn't feel hungry much might say, it's easy, just eat less. But that advise is pointless for someone who constantly craves food -- eating less might be incredibly hard for one person while it is incredible easy for another. The article presents some evidence that our genetic makeup has an influence on our body weight. Lets not dismiss it just because it doesn't fit in to the world view of "everyone is the same".
zepolen 8y ago
A fat guy once told me that he is addicted to food like an alcoholic or smoker, the problem is it's easy to relapse.

spacesuitman2 8y ago

>The secret to staying slim is to not eat more calories than your body uses This. There are too many people who do not understand that conservation of mass applies to the human body too. Nobody gains 1 kg by eating a single peanut, yet some people claim it's all genes.

zepolen 8y ago
The genes affect their 'cant stop after eating that first peanut' syndrome. Just like the will to live affects your 'cant hold breath forever' incapability. I mean sure it's technically possible to hold your breath until you pass out, but it would take a crazy amount of will power.

Wh1zz 8y ago

Sure, but some might be genetically predisposed to make more efficient use of calories (burn easier rather than store as fat). Which could make a massive difference.

black-tea 8y ago
Actually the person who makes more efficient use of calories is more likely to become fat because they don't need as much. There's also a lot of evidence that burning through loads of energy will reduce your life span. Eating less is always better than trying to burn more.
- Tepix 8y ago
  > Actually the person who makes more efficient use of calories is more likely to become fat because they don't need as much. Only if they eat as much as someone who uses calories less efficiently. Which is not a given.
- Wh1zz 8y ago
  > There's also a lot of evidence that burning through loads of energy will reduce your life span. Eating less is always better than trying to burn more. I would think that it is highly dependent on what you're burning the energy for... Surely if you eat more to maintain a fit body/lifestyle, it is likely to have a more positive effect on lifespan compared to eating less and living a more sedentary life? Of course, an optimal balance needs to be struck between the two, but I am very curious on what the research says about this balance.
mikekchar 8y ago
If I'm 6'4" and 20 years old, I can probably eat 2500-3000 calories a day and stay slim. If I'm 5'10" and 50 years old, I can probably east about 1900 calories a date a stay slim. It is a huge difference. But, it doesn't matter. Some people can eat more than others and not get fat. There is no justice in the universe ;-). Whether it is some gene, your body size, your age or something else, it doesn't matter. Eat too much and you will get fat. Don't eat too much and you won't get fat. That last bit is super important. There is no illness that causes people to starve to death even when obese. Your body is a factor, not an excuse (Ha ha! Here I am quoting Arnold!)
- yetihehe 8y ago
  > Don't eat too much and you won't get fat. Just invent flying cars, that will solve some problems. Easy, right? The "HOW" is a problem, not "what is needed". When obese people don't eat too much, their body thinks "I don't have enough, time to enter energy saving mode and increase hunger".
  - mikekchar 8y ago
    That is not established. I have never seen a study that says that obese people are hungrier than non-obese people. There isn't even a way to establish a baseline.
    - AstralStorm 8y ago
      There are at least 3 hormonal ways, but such blood sampling is prohibitively expensive for now. Of course it'd be better I'd you could just read it off neurons, too hard though.
    - yetihehe 8y ago
      If I eat enough to sustain my obese body, I'm not hungry anymore. If I try to eat less, I'm hungry. I successfully lost 10kg, and first 5kg was even easy. I thought at start "ehh, that hunger is only a feeling, I can continue like that", but I couldn't and I'm back where I started. Just eating less may work for some people, but not everyone.
manjana 8y ago
That is true to some degree. That to which you are referring is metabolism. Metabolism however, is influenced to a large extent by enviroment and level of exercise. But correct that it might be genes was observed in the dutch population generations after early nineteen hundredth's famine crisis: [ https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/science/dutch-famine-genes.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/science/dutch-famine-gene... ]. This eventualley led to a new area of study called epigenetics (of which one of the pioneers actually earnes a Nobel's Prize I think). Epigenetic research has shown that genes are not final. In the case of the dutch famine, the famine-victims which survived had undergone epifenetic changes (their genes changed) in response to the famine, their body would become extremely energy efficient and their energy partitioning would lean towards buildup of adipose tissue (fat). However (!!) research later shown that these gene alteration which their offspring inherited and which were observed throughout the dutch poulation generations later, was reversible by environmental factors and exercise.
aaaaaaaaaab 8y ago
>make more efficient use of calories (burn easier rather than store as fat) That’s the opposite of efficient...

willvarfar 8y ago

The article starts by saying: > Scientists say they have discovered the secret behind why some people are skinny while others pile on the pounds easily. > Their work reveals newly discovered genetic regions linked to being very slim. > The international team say this supports the idea that, for some people, being thin has more to do with inheriting a "lucky" set of genes than having a perfect diet or lifestyle Further down the article adds: > Most obesity is acquired in adult life and is linked to the obesogenic environment we live in - a sedentary lifestyle and abundant access to calorie-dense foods. I am lucky; I don't have to heed your newfriend advice to stay slim. My genes (or, the article mentions at the end, possibly my gut microbes) seem to have a secret of their own. If you are unlucky and your body is good at storing excess calories, then I guess those people will have to adopt the 'newfriend secret' of not eating to much.

AstralStorm 8y ago
You do understand that our meals, standard ones, are generally too fat and to get thin you'd have to cut everything in half, which is essentially unhealthy without support. You'd have to cook for yourself too. And avoid all the carefully crafted tempting foods and marketing too. Funny thing about effectiveness, that such cutting is ineffective.
- bkor 8y ago
  Too fat? Fat actually doesn't make you that fat. Low fat foods with loads of sugars do. Plus high fructose sugar. Overweight/obese is mainly a food addiction IMO. It's hard, difficult, etc. But amount of time it's due to medicines/genes is pretty limited. There's huge differences per country in the obesity percentage which cannot be explained by things such as genes or food shortage.

Someone 8y ago

”is to not eat more calories than your body uses” No, it is for your body to not take in more calories than your body uses. Some bodies may not take in all excess calories you eat, just as a car doesn’t use more gas if you keep the gas topped up, or do take them in, but have ways to burn them of instead of storing them in fat (say by moving more blood through the skin), just as some oil refineries flare off gas that they don’t need, rather than storing it and becoming larger and larger over time. So, eating too much is the cause, but what constitutes too much can depend on the person. If your digestive system has a hard limit on the amount of stuff it can take in, it may even be impossible for you to become obese.

apatters 8y ago

This is a toxic and harmful attitude. There are genetic, dietary and fitness components to obesity. This is not disputed. At least one of these components is outside of the control of the individual. Others can be influenced. If someone is chronically obese, the best thing for them is to work on what they can control with professionals, which might normally include a dietitian or a personal trainer but they might also benefit from work with professionals in other fields -- psychiatry, comorbid diseases etc. And having friends support them in this process helps too. (I don't think their friends should tell them "fat is beautiful," by the way, but I'm not a professional in any of the relevant fields, so does my opinion even matter?) At no point do I think shaming the obese (which is basically what you're doing when you say "this is simple and it's your fault" does more harm than good. Shame isn't listed anywhere as a treatment for any disease or disorder as far as I know.

benj111 8y ago
While I wouldn't be as blunt as the OP, I wouldn't describe it as toxic. Ultimately if you are obese, it's because you've eaten too much and that needs to be accepted before you can do anything about it.
- AstralStorm 8y ago
  Ultimately you're toxic, because most people (obese or not) I know have tried at least one way to lose weight which cut calories and it failed. If you have nothing effective to offer, really the best thing is sometimes to shut up and research why they fail and how to not make them fail.
  - benj111 8y ago
    No need to be rude. I'm not saying its easy or simple, but ultimately it comes down to calories in and calories out. The problem isn't going to go away if you attack people for saying that. It is the foundations that all solutions are based on.
    - 8y ago

jakobegger 8y ago

That is pretty obvious, but doesn't mean that genes have no effect. A certain gene might make you feel hungry more, and will make you eat more, and will make you bigger. Another gene might cause someone to prefer certain foods, and again cause a difference in body weight. Pretending that everyone is the same is pointless. Someone who doesn't feel hungry much might say, it's easy, just eat less. But that advise is pointless for someone who constantly craves food -- eating less might be incredibly hard for one person while it is incredible easy for another. The article presents some evidence that our genetic makeup has an influence on our body weight. Lets not dismiss it just because it doesn't fit in to the world view of "everyone is the same".

zepolen 8y ago

A fat guy once told me that he is addicted to food like an alcoholic or smoker, the problem is it's easy to relapse.