4 ms·

Over my life I’ve been close to a small handful of perpetually skinny people who thought they had high metabolisms. In every case, when I watched them closely,

by medler 3y ago

Over my life I’ve been close to a small handful of perpetually skinny people who thought they had high metabolisms. In every case, when I watched them closely, I realized they barely ate anything. My ex-gf was one of these people and would routinely tell people about how she could eat anything and not gain weight. But when I would go on a severely calorie-restricted diet I was still eating more than she did on a normal day. I don’t think she was lying about being able to eat anything, I think she just didn’t realize how little she actually ate.

brigadier132 3y ago
> In every case, when I watched them closely, I realized they barely ate anything I know people (mainly Asian guys that are trying to build muscle) that seriously struggle to eat at a calorie surplus. So maybe it's not "metabolism" (which there are significant differences between humans) but also differing levels of hunger.
- stanford_labrat 3y ago
  There is a biological feedback loop that dictates how hungry you are via hormones such as ghrelin and leptin. My little brother is about 50lbs lighter than me at the same height and we have very different builds and all his attempts to bulk fail for the same reason: no appetite. Meanwhile I’m overshooting my bulks and have to cut harder because I love eating too much.
  - username135 3y ago
    Eating enough food is the most exhausting part of trying to bulk. Its not hours in the gym - thats easy - its calories on the plate.
    - ses1984 3y ago
      Everyone’s different.
- paulpauper 3y ago
  maybe it mostly goes to the mid section. Having a large stomach but thin limbs can create the illusion of being skinny
paulpauper 3y ago
One individual, Michael Rea, weighed (at the time of publication) 115 lbs at 6-feet and subsisted on a diet of 1900 calories a day [0], which he tracked meticulously. It's hard to convey with words how incredible this is. To put this in perspective, Ansel Key's subjects had to diet down to 1,500/day to get almost as thin. Super-fast metabolisms that cannot be explained by undereating or pathology do exist. [0] https://nymag.com/news/features/23169/ https://nymag.com/news/features/23169/ Michael’s regimen of 1,913 calories a day is exactly that: 1,913 calories every single day, 30 percent of them derived from fat, 30 percent from protein, and 40 percent from carbohydrates. Cooking for him is the same elaborate exercise in dietary Sudoku it is for all CR die-hards, only more so. This is more impressive than even Terrance Tao in terms of outliers...nuts. Unless you tried to lose weight of study this stuff, this is no small feat. Pro bodybuilders have to eat less than 1200/day to get super-lean and this is with tons of muscle helping. This guy does it at 1900. If there were a Tiger Woods of metabolism, this guy would be it if Tiger Woods could play better golf.
- naijaboiler 3y ago
  In my early to mid 20s. I had to go on intentional ingest nearly 5k a day just to gain 10 lbs. As soon I returned to my regular diet, I lost it all. In my early 40s, I dare not even eat half ass much as I did say 25, I will blow up like a balloon. My own lived experience makes me doubt the universality of that "metabolism doesn't change with age". Maybe metabolism doesn't change, but my ability to convert what I put into my mouth into weight gain has definitely changed for me. As a young man, I used to eat way much more and poop way much more. It was like the food was just passing through, without really getting in my body. No matter how much i ate Just came right out
- XorNot 3y ago
  Why is Michael Rea considered exceptional here? For that height and weight, that's pretty much bang on what you'd expect as a maintenance level of calories assuming he does any physical activity at all.
  - paulpauper 3y ago
    trying to get that low of a weight would entail significant metabolic adaptation, which calculators do not account for. Take a 180lb 6-foot male and try to get him to 115 and you can be sure it will take way fewer than 1900.
naijaboiler 3y ago
Skinny people almost always eat less even though they tell you otherwise. In closely observing most, they eat less

by medler 3y ago

brigadier132 3y ago

> In every case, when I watched them closely, I realized they barely ate anything I know people (mainly Asian guys that are trying to build muscle) that seriously struggle to eat at a calorie surplus. So maybe it's not "metabolism" (which there are significant differences between humans) but also differing levels of hunger.

stanford_labrat 3y ago
There is a biological feedback loop that dictates how hungry you are via hormones such as ghrelin and leptin. My little brother is about 50lbs lighter than me at the same height and we have very different builds and all his attempts to bulk fail for the same reason: no appetite. Meanwhile I’m overshooting my bulks and have to cut harder because I love eating too much.
- username135 3y ago
  Eating enough food is the most exhausting part of trying to bulk. Its not hours in the gym - thats easy - its calories on the plate.
  - ses1984 3y ago
    Everyone’s different.
paulpauper 3y ago
maybe it mostly goes to the mid section. Having a large stomach but thin limbs can create the illusion of being skinny

paulpauper 3y ago

One individual, Michael Rea, weighed (at the time of publication) 115 lbs at 6-feet and subsisted on a diet of 1900 calories a day [0], which he tracked meticulously. It's hard to convey with words how incredible this is. To put this in perspective, Ansel Key's subjects had to diet down to 1,500/day to get almost as thin. Super-fast metabolisms that cannot be explained by undereating or pathology do exist. [0] https://nymag.com/news/features/23169/ https://nymag.com/news/features/23169/ Michael’s regimen of 1,913 calories a day is exactly that: 1,913 calories every single day, 30 percent of them derived from fat, 30 percent from protein, and 40 percent from carbohydrates. Cooking for him is the same elaborate exercise in dietary Sudoku it is for all CR die-hards, only more so. This is more impressive than even Terrance Tao in terms of outliers...nuts. Unless you tried to lose weight of study this stuff, this is no small feat. Pro bodybuilders have to eat less than 1200/day to get super-lean and this is with tons of muscle helping. This guy does it at 1900. If there were a Tiger Woods of metabolism, this guy would be it if Tiger Woods could play better golf.

naijaboiler 3y ago
In my early to mid 20s. I had to go on intentional ingest nearly 5k a day just to gain 10 lbs. As soon I returned to my regular diet, I lost it all. In my early 40s, I dare not even eat half ass much as I did say 25, I will blow up like a balloon. My own lived experience makes me doubt the universality of that "metabolism doesn't change with age". Maybe metabolism doesn't change, but my ability to convert what I put into my mouth into weight gain has definitely changed for me. As a young man, I used to eat way much more and poop way much more. It was like the food was just passing through, without really getting in my body. No matter how much i ate Just came right out
XorNot 3y ago
Why is Michael Rea considered exceptional here? For that height and weight, that's pretty much bang on what you'd expect as a maintenance level of calories assuming he does any physical activity at all.
- paulpauper 3y ago
  trying to get that low of a weight would entail significant metabolic adaptation, which calculators do not account for. Take a 180lb 6-foot male and try to get him to 115 and you can be sure it will take way fewer than 1900.

naijaboiler 3y ago

Skinny people almost always eat less even though they tell you otherwise. In closely observing most, they eat less