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Do people really need to be told this? Calories == Energy. If you kept putting more gas in your car then it uses its gonna spill out all over. If it could store

by ejs 18y ago

Do people really need to be told this? Calories == Energy. If you kept putting more gas in your car then it uses its gonna spill out all over. If it could store the overflow, like the body does, your just gonna have more lying around. Despite what the diet book cartel wants people to believe, energy production and usage by the human body is not all that mysterious.

tricky 18y ago
I'm right there with you. All you need to know about losing weight is this: Don't eat so much. Problem is people won't believe you and it is unmarketable. So, companies go out and produce candy bars, market them as diet food by slapping a label on them that says, "eat this and not much other stuff and you'll lose weight." Cracks me up.
- jodrellblank 18y ago
  No that isn't "all you need to know" Have you read: http://www.sethroberts.net/about/whatmakesfoodfattening.pdf http://www.sethroberts.net/about/whatmakesfoodfattening.pdf What about satiety of the food you eat? Eating fewer calories is easy if it's filling, less so if it isn't.
  - tricky 18y ago
    I never said it was easy. It took me two years to figure out _how_ to eat less when my metabolism magically changed. There is nothing in any book could have helped me with that. Each day was an experiment. Still is, but the bottom line is I don't eat as much as I did before and the things I do eat just happen to be classified as "healthy." It's a big PITA.
patio11 18y ago
If you tell people that the secret to losing weight is "eat less and exercise more", they a) think its too simple to work and b) too onerous to actually do. Delta in mass = inputs to the system - outputs from the system - energy expended by the system. If you desire negative deltas, decrease inputs, increase outputs, or increase energy expended. (Options #1 and #3 are probably better for most people, owing to the inability to control #2 in a safely scalable manner.) The human body does not get a free pass from physics just because its details are complex.
smcdow 18y ago
Yes, calories==energy. But why is it necessarily "spill out all over"? If thermodynamics apply (and they do), then adding more fuel to a fire makes the fire burn hotter. Or, to keep the car analogy, pumping more gas to the engine makes the engine run faster, and thereby consume all the fuel being pumped into it. So, by analogy (and since we're talking about simple thermodynamics), eating more calories should make your metabolism run faster. More fuel, more fire, higher rate of fuel consumption. This is definitely true for those people who can eat lots of food and never get fat. Ectomorphs. So, why doesn't this rule apply to everyone? Why do some people store what they eat as fat and others just burn it all off regardless of how little they exercise. Why aren't we all ectomophs? Genetics may come into play, sure, but all humans have the same genome. The difference must be related to differences in our bodies. Which means differences in hormonal reflexes, differences in responses to certain types of food, etc. It is about calories, but it's not _just_ about calories. It's about our bodies, too, and how we've conditioned them to process different kinds of foods. Highly recommend "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes.
- ejs 18y ago
  Adding more gas to a car will not burn more. There is a system to regulate the consumption of fuel (throttle) just as a human body. Its not a burn pit. And is this old metabolism debate still going on? Last time I checked most overweight people actually had higher metabolic rates.
Oxryly 18y ago
Tell that to a diabetic.

by ejs 18y ago

tricky 18y ago

I'm right there with you. All you need to know about losing weight is this: Don't eat so much. Problem is people won't believe you and it is unmarketable. So, companies go out and produce candy bars, market them as diet food by slapping a label on them that says, "eat this and not much other stuff and you'll lose weight." Cracks me up.

jodrellblank 18y ago
No that isn't "all you need to know" Have you read: http://www.sethroberts.net/about/whatmakesfoodfattening.pdf http://www.sethroberts.net/about/whatmakesfoodfattening.pdf What about satiety of the food you eat? Eating fewer calories is easy if it's filling, less so if it isn't.
- tricky 18y ago
  I never said it was easy. It took me two years to figure out _how_ to eat less when my metabolism magically changed. There is nothing in any book could have helped me with that. Each day was an experiment. Still is, but the bottom line is I don't eat as much as I did before and the things I do eat just happen to be classified as "healthy." It's a big PITA.

patio11 18y ago

If you tell people that the secret to losing weight is "eat less and exercise more", they a) think its too simple to work and b) too onerous to actually do. Delta in mass = inputs to the system - outputs from the system - energy expended by the system. If you desire negative deltas, decrease inputs, increase outputs, or increase energy expended. (Options #1 and #3 are probably better for most people, owing to the inability to control #2 in a safely scalable manner.) The human body does not get a free pass from physics just because its details are complex.

smcdow 18y ago

Yes, calories==energy. But why is it necessarily "spill out all over"? If thermodynamics apply (and they do), then adding more fuel to a fire makes the fire burn hotter. Or, to keep the car analogy, pumping more gas to the engine makes the engine run faster, and thereby consume all the fuel being pumped into it. So, by analogy (and since we're talking about simple thermodynamics), eating more calories should make your metabolism run faster. More fuel, more fire, higher rate of fuel consumption. This is definitely true for those people who can eat lots of food and never get fat. Ectomorphs. So, why doesn't this rule apply to everyone? Why do some people store what they eat as fat and others just burn it all off regardless of how little they exercise. Why aren't we all ectomophs? Genetics may come into play, sure, but all humans have the same genome. The difference must be related to differences in our bodies. Which means differences in hormonal reflexes, differences in responses to certain types of food, etc. It is about calories, but it's not _just_ about calories. It's about our bodies, too, and how we've conditioned them to process different kinds of foods. Highly recommend "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes.

ejs 18y ago
Adding more gas to a car will not burn more. There is a system to regulate the consumption of fuel (throttle) just as a human body. Its not a burn pit. And is this old metabolism debate still going on? Last time I checked most overweight people actually had higher metabolic rates.

Oxryly 18y ago

Tell that to a diabetic.