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"You can't outrun your fork." I can. People who can't outrun their forks aren't running hard enough. Hunting down a lot of calories and eating them is part o

"You can't outrun your fork." I can. People who can't outrun their forks aren't running hard enough. Hunting down a lot of calories and eating them is part of being a mammal. I bicycled across North America one fall on a mostly mountain route. Four times a day I ate full meals and added as many Dove bars as I could without being sick in between. I biked up and down hills with 30kg of gear all day. And I lost a lot of weight. Sure it hurts to work that hard, but it's supposed to hurt a little. Being comfortable all the time isn't part of being a mammal.

lurknomore 12y ago
The saying isn't meant as a formal proposition. It is a rhetorical device intended to highlight the difficulty of making changes to body composition without making changes to diet. Your average obese American isn't about to be cycling across a continent.
mattlutze 12y ago
It feels disingenuous to suggest the barrier to obese people not being obese is that they're not taking quarter-year bike trips across North America.
rtb 12y ago
I look forward to your enlightening anecdote based debunking of other sayings, such as that time you made a great broth despite too many cooks, or that time a gathering didn't get merrier with more people.
- WildUtah 12y ago
  I'm a little too busy to entertain you with vignettes right now; I need to supervise this pot closely until it boils.
chrisBob 12y ago
I occasionally joke that I know the perfect diet: my wife and I went on a hard two week hike a few years ago. We both lost 10-15 lbs and neither of us had the weight to lose at the start. I make sure people know I am joking when I recommend it though: it would be a very bad idea for most people to try it, and that probably includes me. By the way, if anyone wants to attempt an unsupported hike of the John Muir trail, send me an email and I will be happy to give you some advice.
- thaumasiotes 12y ago
  I am a very, very picky eater. The first time I came to China, I didn't know how to find palatable food. (Yes, this was something I worried about beforehand.) Over the course of three months, I lost 15 pounds. I had been variously described, before that point, as "thin", "stick-thin", and "skeletal". When my dad picked me up at the airport afterwards, he was shocked. He said I looked like I was literally starving to death, which in a limited sense was true. I spent a lot of those three months visualizing pizza. Was it the perfect diet? I'm sure the approach (just refuse to eat what's available) works. But it was a truly awful experience. Not recommended to anyone.
ramblerman 12y ago
Most people are fat because of diet, and just exercising a bit is not going to help them as much as they might hope. Your anecdotate is just a silly brag that adds nothing to the discussion.

lurknomore 12y ago

The saying isn't meant as a formal proposition. It is a rhetorical device intended to highlight the difficulty of making changes to body composition without making changes to diet. Your average obese American isn't about to be cycling across a continent.

mattlutze 12y ago

It feels disingenuous to suggest the barrier to obese people not being obese is that they're not taking quarter-year bike trips across North America.

rtb 12y ago

I look forward to your enlightening anecdote based debunking of other sayings, such as that time you made a great broth despite too many cooks, or that time a gathering didn't get merrier with more people.

WildUtah 12y ago
I'm a little too busy to entertain you with vignettes right now; I need to supervise this pot closely until it boils.

chrisBob 12y ago

I occasionally joke that I know the perfect diet: my wife and I went on a hard two week hike a few years ago. We both lost 10-15 lbs and neither of us had the weight to lose at the start. I make sure people know I am joking when I recommend it though: it would be a very bad idea for most people to try it, and that probably includes me. By the way, if anyone wants to attempt an unsupported hike of the John Muir trail, send me an email and I will be happy to give you some advice.

thaumasiotes 12y ago
I am a very, very picky eater. The first time I came to China, I didn't know how to find palatable food. (Yes, this was something I worried about beforehand.) Over the course of three months, I lost 15 pounds. I had been variously described, before that point, as "thin", "stick-thin", and "skeletal". When my dad picked me up at the airport afterwards, he was shocked. He said I looked like I was literally starving to death, which in a limited sense was true. I spent a lot of those three months visualizing pizza. Was it the perfect diet? I'm sure the approach (just refuse to eat what's available) works. But it was a truly awful experience. Not recommended to anyone.

ramblerman 12y ago

Most people are fat because of diet, and just exercising a bit is not going to help them as much as they might hope. Your anecdotate is just a silly brag that adds nothing to the discussion.