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I would think large swings like that are water weight. They're probably really focused and not drinking or eating as much as usual
by tayo42 3y ago
I would think large swings like that are water weight. They're probably really focused and not drinking or eating as much as usual
- insanitybit 3y agoI totally agree. My personal opinion here is: 1. They're stressed and therefor eating less, especially if they're spending the daytimes of the tournament playing games - hardly conducive to appetite, and in fact I expect many will avoid food purposefully to try to not get that sleepy-full feeling. 2. To a much lesser degree, increased stress == increased heartrate == increased BMR. 3. Maybe, and I hate to speculate because of the stigma (personally I don't care if chess players are doing drugs), some amphetamine use, or at least caffeine, all of which can suppress appetate further. I personally very much doubt that it's the thinking hard that's actually burning calories. Unfortunately, I can't even read the linked post! It's paywall'd.
- bluGill 3y agoA pound of fat is 3500 calories. If a chess player eats nothing at all they are unlikely to burn that many calories in a day. Chess players do eat during a tournament. Therefore weight loss must be water.
- dekhn 3y agoThat's not how weight loss works- you don't lose a pound by "burning" fat.
- Detrytus 3y agoHow else would it work? You burn fat (as in: you turn it into energy, powering your own living cells), turning it into CO2 and H2O, which are then breathed out or expelled with urine.
- devmor 3y agoWhat? Yes it is. Your fat cells are turned into ATP via Beta-oxidation and used for cellular energy. The excess carbon from the processes is then exhaled as CO2 during normal respiration and the water is sweated or urinated. When you lose about 3500 calories of energy via this process, you have burned a pound of fat.
- bluGill 3y agoThe fat in the cells are turned into energy, but generally the cells remain.
- devmor 3y agoYes that is true, the water and lipids in the cell are extracted, but the cell stays there until its natural cell death (which can take years). That doesn't really have anything to do with the conversation though.
- dekhn 3y agoDo people who burn 3500 calories weigh one pound less? Are you sure? (that belief is mainly based on an old study where fat was removed from a body and combusted). It's been observed, with newer more accurate measures, that fat burning doesn't correlate perfectly with weight loss. From what I can tell, weight changes happen only partly due to CO2 exchange and partly due to rates of consumption and excretion. The biophysical origin (I'm a biophysicist) of weight change as a function of energy use, eating and excretion is a bit more complicated than that.
- devmor 3y agoGive or take, yes. Like you said, it’s a bit more complicated than that and every body is different. But burning roughly 3500 calories will result in the body weighing roughly 1lb less (accounting for food and water intake and loss). If it didn’t work this way, every bodybuilder and fitness enthusiast on the planet would have a very different approach to their diet.
- mock-possum 3y ago
- qball 3y agoThe chemical process that consumes fat is a combustion reaction.
- dekhn 3y agoYes, that part is true, I agree. That's not what I was saying, though.
- ergonaught 3y agoAbsolutely water weight. I can drop 10 pounds this week trivially by triggering a water flush (change in diet), essentially at will. Wife absolutely hates it, but that’s water weight.