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I know several people who eat way less than me and are as fat as ticks. The simple fact that calories in calories out does not explain obesity has been cracking

I know several people who eat way less than me and are as fat as ticks. The simple fact that calories in calories out does not explain obesity has been cracking over the head of doctors for decades and doctors have resisted addressing it. It’s like a person ignoring being cracked over the head with an oar — sometimes you wonder how they are able to do it. The drooling idiots… I think you could argue they are responsible for killing people at this point. The negligence is astounding.

callesgg 5y ago
It does explain obesity. The fact that different people burn different amounts of calories due to genetics and epi-genetics and other environmental factors does not invalidate calories in calories out.
- NikolaeVarius 5y ago
  There is also something called lying. I've seen a study that says that the average overweight person reports around 30-50% underestimation of calories. There is that British show that shows off exactly how much difference there is.
mkl 5y ago
How much do they drink? Alcoholic drinks contain quite a lot of energy: https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000886.htm https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000886.htm
baobabKoodaa 5y ago
Laws of physics exist. You ingest a certain amount of energy (calories), that energy has to go somewhere. It doesn't just disappear.
- version_five 5y ago
  Well, there is physical activity, as well as base metabolism. Plus you could pass more or less food through unabsorbed, depending on gut fauna and maybe other factors.
- supperburg 5y ago
  If you are a physicist then you are an exceptionally dull one. There is no physical law that determines what the human body does with the molecules it ingests. It can turn those molecules into fat or energy, in any ratio, or send the molecules right back out without even using them. This is a matter of metabolics and hormones, not physics. Calories in calories out is bullshit. Not because it isn’t broadly a good heuristic but because it isn’t based on any kind of biological axiom and is very often misused.
  - baobabKoodaa 5y ago
    > Calories in calories out is bullshit Usually when people say this, they mean (on behalf of themselves or someone else) "I couldn't lose weight even if I ate less, I am genetically fat". That's not physically possible. All humans have the ability to lose weight by eating less, because calories are not magic, they are bound to laws of physics (particularly conservation of energy). Yes, it will be easier for some people and harder on other people. But there is no human out there who will magically stay fat even though they are eating nothing but water.
    - supperburg 5y ago
      Again, you are wrong. It has nothing to do with physics. A human body is completely capable of remaining fat in the event of the cessation of eating. A person can die of starvation while fat and die in a fat body. The metabolic machinery of the human body is not static. It can choose to hang on to fat right up until you die. It can choose to use almost none of the food you eat to create energy. It can do anything no matter how illogical, including kill you. This is an illustration of the fact that the human body is a very precarious and complicated machine and the only reason people aren’t more aware of issues like this is because it is an insanely reliable machine — reliable enough to give us many delusions about certain aspects of ourselves being innate. It is literally physically possible for it to be true that a person cannot lose weight even if they eat less due to a sudden and extreme metabolic pathology. Again, super bad physics.
      - baobabKoodaa 5y ago
JTbane 5y ago
>I know several people who eat way less than me and are as fat as ticks. Have you considered that they are more sedentary than you, or perhaps eat more or more often than they tell you?
- epolanski 5y ago
  You don't get fat on 2k calories per day or less, unless you're very small. I met some people who ate a lot but were super skinny, but I never saw or read about the opposite, obese people eating healthy but gaining weight.p
- supperburg 5y ago
  I live with them. I work at home and one of them does too. I see basically everything they eat. I know how much they exercise. They simply use more of the food they eat to make fat. And yes, calories in calories out is complete bullshit. There is no rule or axiom of biology that says you have to utilize 100% of the food energy that you consume. It’s possible for people to put it all away as fat, none of it as fat, all of it for energy or none of it for energy as illustrated in this case and in African sleeping sickness. People who say that it’s a matter of thermodynamics and that physics demands calories in calories out be true is a belligerent and arrogant fool.

callesgg 5y ago

It does explain obesity. The fact that different people burn different amounts of calories due to genetics and epi-genetics and other environmental factors does not invalidate calories in calories out.

NikolaeVarius 5y ago
There is also something called lying. I've seen a study that says that the average overweight person reports around 30-50% underestimation of calories. There is that British show that shows off exactly how much difference there is.

mkl 5y ago

How much do they drink? Alcoholic drinks contain quite a lot of energy: https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000886.htm https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000886.htm

baobabKoodaa 5y ago

Laws of physics exist. You ingest a certain amount of energy (calories), that energy has to go somewhere. It doesn't just disappear.

version_five 5y ago
Well, there is physical activity, as well as base metabolism. Plus you could pass more or less food through unabsorbed, depending on gut fauna and maybe other factors.
supperburg 5y ago
If you are a physicist then you are an exceptionally dull one. There is no physical law that determines what the human body does with the molecules it ingests. It can turn those molecules into fat or energy, in any ratio, or send the molecules right back out without even using them. This is a matter of metabolics and hormones, not physics. Calories in calories out is bullshit. Not because it isn’t broadly a good heuristic but because it isn’t based on any kind of biological axiom and is very often misused.
- baobabKoodaa 5y ago
  > Calories in calories out is bullshit Usually when people say this, they mean (on behalf of themselves or someone else) "I couldn't lose weight even if I ate less, I am genetically fat". That's not physically possible. All humans have the ability to lose weight by eating less, because calories are not magic, they are bound to laws of physics (particularly conservation of energy). Yes, it will be easier for some people and harder on other people. But there is no human out there who will magically stay fat even though they are eating nothing but water.
  - supperburg 5y ago
    Again, you are wrong. It has nothing to do with physics. A human body is completely capable of remaining fat in the event of the cessation of eating. A person can die of starvation while fat and die in a fat body. The metabolic machinery of the human body is not static. It can choose to hang on to fat right up until you die. It can choose to use almost none of the food you eat to create energy. It can do anything no matter how illogical, including kill you. This is an illustration of the fact that the human body is a very precarious and complicated machine and the only reason people aren’t more aware of issues like this is because it is an insanely reliable machine — reliable enough to give us many delusions about certain aspects of ourselves being innate. It is literally physically possible for it to be true that a person cannot lose weight even if they eat less due to a sudden and extreme metabolic pathology. Again, super bad physics.
    - baobabKoodaa 5y ago

JTbane 5y ago

>I know several people who eat way less than me and are as fat as ticks. Have you considered that they are more sedentary than you, or perhaps eat more or more often than they tell you?

epolanski 5y ago
You don't get fat on 2k calories per day or less, unless you're very small. I met some people who ate a lot but were super skinny, but I never saw or read about the opposite, obese people eating healthy but gaining weight.p
supperburg 5y ago
I live with them. I work at home and one of them does too. I see basically everything they eat. I know how much they exercise. They simply use more of the food they eat to make fat. And yes, calories in calories out is complete bullshit. There is no rule or axiom of biology that says you have to utilize 100% of the food energy that you consume. It’s possible for people to put it all away as fat, none of it as fat, all of it for energy or none of it for energy as illustrated in this case and in African sleeping sickness. People who say that it’s a matter of thermodynamics and that physics demands calories in calories out be true is a belligerent and arrogant fool.