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The body is an energy equation to be balanced. Physics defines that. What you are talking about substantially in your post is about willpower with regards to e

The body is an energy equation to be balanced. Physics defines that. What you are talking about substantially in your post is about willpower with regards to eating and exercise which is totally different.

dougmwne 4y ago
I am very much not talking about willpower. I am saying it is NOT about willpower. And sure, there is an energy equation here thermodynamically, but it is unhelpful. It would be something like: Calories in * X = Calories consumed * Y + Fat stored * Z Where X, Y and Z are unknown and barely controllable factors related to hunger, type of food, digestion, microbiome, hormones, genetics, metabolism, environment, society and so on.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
pixl97 4y ago
Evolution had no care about the understanding of applied physics when we came up the evolutionary tree. Understanding physics here almost has no effect on our behavior. Instead look at the evolutionary incentives. If you starve you are going to die and it is going to fucking hurt the entire time you are dying. With that one line of information you now understand not only humans but the vast majority of animal life on this planet and why almost all animals get fat if you leave a full food dish around. We are optimized to avoid starving at all costs. When winter comes you could die. When the summer drought comes you could die. Your animal brain is yelling at you to pack on the pounds now that the eating is good because the lean times are coming. Our animal brain has no understanding or concept that times are good, we need to slow down. It has never been a primary evolutionary driver.
- kemayo 4y ago
  Notably, this is (presumably) why our bodies often think it's a very good trade-off to turn everything down instead of burning fat. Fat is important long-term storage that might be what gets us through the winter starvation, and storing/burning it is a lossy process -- turning down the tap on our energy usage for a little while, however, might be all we need to get through a lean few weeks.
_dain_ 4y ago
> The body is an energy equation to be balanced. Physics defines that. Most equations don't fight back when you try to balance them. But this one does.
andbberger 4y ago
in a banal sense this is true but the reality is less clear than the CICO folks would have you think. there are regulatory functions in the method for energy consumption (basal metabolic rate is not constant) and microbiota have a substantial effect both through their own metabolism and endocrine effects
downboots 4y ago
> The body is an energy equation to be balanced. Physics defines that. Care to write it?
- grecy 4y ago
  if ( calories in > calories used) then gain weight (store the excess for later as fat) if (calories in < calories used) then lose weight (burn fat previously stored to keep running the machine) You can make that on a daily, monthly or yearly timescale, it makes no difference. Everything we know about physics says it is the only way.
crabkin 4y ago
you can tell these people have never tried to bulk and cut cycle, if you guys start lifting weights or even taking stimulants it becomes beyond obvious that it is a simple input/output sort of thing. The psychological, I saw someone mention the hypothalamus part, that must be the real difficult thing.

dougmwne 4y ago

I am very much not talking about willpower. I am saying it is NOT about willpower. And sure, there is an energy equation here thermodynamically, but it is unhelpful. It would be something like: Calories in * X = Calories consumed * Y + Fat stored * Z Where X, Y and Z are unknown and barely controllable factors related to hunger, type of food, digestion, microbiome, hormones, genetics, metabolism, environment, society and so on.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

pixl97 4y ago

Evolution had no care about the understanding of applied physics when we came up the evolutionary tree. Understanding physics here almost has no effect on our behavior. Instead look at the evolutionary incentives. If you starve you are going to die and it is going to fucking hurt the entire time you are dying. With that one line of information you now understand not only humans but the vast majority of animal life on this planet and why almost all animals get fat if you leave a full food dish around. We are optimized to avoid starving at all costs. When winter comes you could die. When the summer drought comes you could die. Your animal brain is yelling at you to pack on the pounds now that the eating is good because the lean times are coming. Our animal brain has no understanding or concept that times are good, we need to slow down. It has never been a primary evolutionary driver.

kemayo 4y ago
Notably, this is (presumably) why our bodies often think it's a very good trade-off to turn everything down instead of burning fat. Fat is important long-term storage that might be what gets us through the winter starvation, and storing/burning it is a lossy process -- turning down the tap on our energy usage for a little while, however, might be all we need to get through a lean few weeks.

_dain_ 4y ago

> The body is an energy equation to be balanced. Physics defines that. Most equations don't fight back when you try to balance them. But this one does.

andbberger 4y ago

in a banal sense this is true but the reality is less clear than the CICO folks would have you think. there are regulatory functions in the method for energy consumption (basal metabolic rate is not constant) and microbiota have a substantial effect both through their own metabolism and endocrine effects

downboots 4y ago

> The body is an energy equation to be balanced. Physics defines that. Care to write it?

grecy 4y ago
if ( calories in > calories used) then gain weight (store the excess for later as fat) if (calories in < calories used) then lose weight (burn fat previously stored to keep running the machine) You can make that on a daily, monthly or yearly timescale, it makes no difference. Everything we know about physics says it is the only way.

crabkin 4y ago

you can tell these people have never tried to bulk and cut cycle, if you guys start lifting weights or even taking stimulants it becomes beyond obvious that it is a simple input/output sort of thing. The psychological, I saw someone mention the hypothalamus part, that must be the real difficult thing.