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This is not how metabolism works. It's not mechanistic. Extra calories rapidly ramp up the resting metabolic rate, and deficits dramatically slow it. Minor prot

This is not how metabolism works. It's not mechanistic. Extra calories rapidly ramp up the resting metabolic rate, and deficits dramatically slow it. Minor protein or sleep deficiencies slow the metabolic rate. Endurance exercise slows the resting metabolic rate. Low calorie intake is a major risk factor for obesity.

michaelochurch 12y ago
This is interesting. Thanks for the insight. So, how would you solve the obesity problem? Do you think it's about food quality rather than quantity? What exercises work and which don't? Out of curiosity, why isn't the state of medicine able to speed BMR up to the level of the 95th-percentile 17-year-old, a rate we know to be safe? It seems like getting metabolism to that level would have minimal side effects. (Obviously, metabolism can't be increased without limit, since there's a point where a person would get heatstroke.) Is it just that hard to control it like that from day to day?
- a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
  You can easily take thyroid hormones and raise the metabolic rate. That is not tricky at all. Bodybuilders do it all the time to lean out. Some say a substantial fraction of the population is mildly hypothroid and meds are appropriate, cf. Broda Barnes. Ari Whitten's "Forever Fat Loss" I think covers all the causes of obesity and debunks the major myths. There is no simple solution because the totality of modern industrialized life conspires to produce obesity. Emotional stress, lack of sleep, lack of daylight exposure, micro-nutrient deficiencies, pollution exposure, and so forth all tank metabolism. The body is made for near continuous low level outdoor activity and "working out" is not a proper substitute. You're designed to burn through large amounts of calories daily doing stuff like walking 8 miles at a leisurely pace and moving things around. Whereas the stress of a daily running habit is apt to adaptively lower the resting metabolic rate to the point it's barely useful. Everybody unduly obsesses over the food aspects, but to the extent there is a particular food villain it's probably seed oils. Soy oil and canola oil suppress metabolism (directly interfere with mitochondria) and are quite new inventions, and are now consumed in huge quantities. Aside from that there is simple calorie over consumption driven by food reward. People are naturally attuned to much more monotonous and lower flavor diets than are readily available now.
eru 12y ago
> Low calorie intake is a major risk factor for obesity. That sounds fishy. Especially on evolutionary grounds. Why would anyone ever starve, if metabolism was so variable?

michaelochurch 12y ago

This is interesting. Thanks for the insight. So, how would you solve the obesity problem? Do you think it's about food quality rather than quantity? What exercises work and which don't? Out of curiosity, why isn't the state of medicine able to speed BMR up to the level of the 95th-percentile 17-year-old, a rate we know to be safe? It seems like getting metabolism to that level would have minimal side effects. (Obviously, metabolism can't be increased without limit, since there's a point where a person would get heatstroke.) Is it just that hard to control it like that from day to day?

a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
You can easily take thyroid hormones and raise the metabolic rate. That is not tricky at all. Bodybuilders do it all the time to lean out. Some say a substantial fraction of the population is mildly hypothroid and meds are appropriate, cf. Broda Barnes. Ari Whitten's "Forever Fat Loss" I think covers all the causes of obesity and debunks the major myths. There is no simple solution because the totality of modern industrialized life conspires to produce obesity. Emotional stress, lack of sleep, lack of daylight exposure, micro-nutrient deficiencies, pollution exposure, and so forth all tank metabolism. The body is made for near continuous low level outdoor activity and "working out" is not a proper substitute. You're designed to burn through large amounts of calories daily doing stuff like walking 8 miles at a leisurely pace and moving things around. Whereas the stress of a daily running habit is apt to adaptively lower the resting metabolic rate to the point it's barely useful. Everybody unduly obsesses over the food aspects, but to the extent there is a particular food villain it's probably seed oils. Soy oil and canola oil suppress metabolism (directly interfere with mitochondria) and are quite new inventions, and are now consumed in huge quantities. Aside from that there is simple calorie over consumption driven by food reward. People are naturally attuned to much more monotonous and lower flavor diets than are readily available now.

eru 12y ago

> Low calorie intake is a major risk factor for obesity. That sounds fishy. Especially on evolutionary grounds. Why would anyone ever starve, if metabolism was so variable?