Rise of Childhood Obesity

[Amaris]

Yeah some people do have slow metabolism. But the vast majority of people don't. Having a slow metabolism isn't something an overweight person can just get by with without noticing. There would be a problem like the thyroid not doing what it's meant to do.
How ever the vast majority of fat people who complain about slow metabolism and thin people about fast metabolism just don't know how much they eat. It's a very nice and simple explanation but it doesn't shine under the light. Put it simply.
How does it take more energy to move a 150 pound body then a 300 pound? Oh and weight isn't gained very easily. The quick weight gain people have is water. Gaining fat is something hard. Most fat people gain it over years/months. They don't wake up suddenly the day after eating a nice cake with an extra pound of fat in their body.

Yeah that definitely not true. For one thing where would the energy go? Do you have a large amount of muscles? Do you move around a lot more then most people? Do you actually eat a "lot"? Remember perception is everything. What my my sister calls "eating a lot" would be a snack for my overweight friend.

Some people require more energy for the same cellular functions than others -- hence, higher metabolisms. It has to do with how efficiently the energy is used.

Exactly. Two people with exactly the same musculature and bodyfat percentage might have to consume completely different amounts of calories to maintain such a figure.

It's why we have body classifications like endomorph, mesomorph, and ectomorph.

And let's not even get involved with those damned Allasomorphs!

J.

 

[Data Holmes]

for anyone who doesn't think that HFCS is a problem, next time you go shopping, just try and buy everything you need but HFCS free. It's damn near impossible to do. HFCS is in everything.

 

[Arrqh]

for anyone who doesn't think that HFCS is a problem, next time you go shopping, just try and by everything you need but HFCS free. It's damn near impossible to do. HFCS is in everything.

And if it wasn't, sucrose would be in everything... we'd have the same fundamental problem.

 

[Bluesteel]

These are some pretty big generalizations. Some fat people really DO have slow metabolisms. That's why they have to be careful of what they eat, because they can gain weight incredibly easily.

And sometimes thin people have incredibly fast metabolisms.

Yeah some people do have slow metabolism. But the vast majority of people don't. Having a slow metabolism isn't something an overweight person can just get by with without noticing. There would be a problem like the thyroid not doing what it's meant to do.
How ever the vast majority of fat people who complain about slow metabolism and thin people about fast metabolism just don't know how much they eat. It's a very nice and simple explanation but it doesn't shine under the light. Put it simply.
How does it take more energy to move a 150 pound body then a 300 pound? Oh and weight isn't gained very easily. The quick weight gain people have is water. Gaining fat is something hard. Most fat people gain it over years/months. They don't wake up suddenly the day after eating a nice cake with an extra pound of fat in their body.

I can eat and eat and eat, and I don't get fat. My body just breaks food down very quickly. I intentionally overeat because I want to gain weight, and it still doesn't work. By your statement, I should be overweight.

Yeah that definitely not true. For one thing where would the energy go? Do you have a large amount of muscles? Do you move around a lot more then most people? Do you actually eat a "lot"? Remember perception is everything. What my my sister calls "eating a lot" would be a snack for my overweight friend.

Some people require more energy for the same cellular functions than others -- hence, higher metabolisms. It has to do with how efficiently the energy is used.

People will need different amount of energy to do the same thing. But it's not at the level where it actually makes people fat or thin quickly.

I mean you think about the sheer amount of energy needed to burn a pound of fat. It begs the question. Where does the energy go?

It's why we have body classifications like endomorph, mesomorph, and ectomorph.

We have those body types because people have different levels of fat and muscle. If somebody had the same weight,muscle and fat one wouldn't be an Endo while the other one is a Ecto.

 

[Holdfast]

It's why we have body classifications like endomorph, mesomorph, and ectomorph.

The origins of these terms was actually psychology rather than physiology. The guy who came up with them did it in an attempt to correlate physiognomy with personality. Not a field that most people these days take terribly seriously. IIRC, he took thousands of photos of naked Yale students in order to further his research, too...

I know they're still popular terms for various reasons in weight training and in the popular press, but I wouldn't assign all that much significance to them, unless using them as a partial corollary of the more fundamental points I'll make about body shapes below:

Anyway, Bluesteel is right on several points made upthread though they bear expanding:

1) Heavier people generally use more energy than lighter people. This is not difficult to understand. First of all, when moving, there's more mass to lug around; second, even when not moving, more mass means more oxidation required to support it remaining alive. Even fat tissue requires energy to stay alive, so the more of it you have, the more energy you burn through.
2) The caveat with the above is that it assumes the same ratio of muscle to fat between those people. If someone has a high ratio of muscle to fat, they'll burn through more calories because for any given mass of tissue, muscle requires more energy to support it than fat, even at rest. Conversely, someone with a high ratio of fat to muscle will burn through less calories than a high muscle ratio perosn of the same weight.
3) There is therefore person to person variation in BMR (how much energy you burn when perfectly at rest). The person's metabolism is not "slow" or "fast", in that each of their cells burns through much the same amount of energy as anybody else's. It's just that depending how much of and what kind of cells they have, their overall body will burn through more or less energy at rest. And since often (not always though) the different proportions of different tissues affects outward appearance of someone, it's easy to see how terms like mesomorph, etc, came about. To call this either a slow or fast metabolism is HIGHLY disingenuous, because that strongly implies - and is usually inferred as - an unchanging genetic feature they cannot alter, which is not true. It's not the shape or body appearance or cell metabolism that's the issue, those are just convenient (but sometimes inaccurate) proxies for underlying more fundamental issues. Put more bluntly, and barring a tiny minority of people with genuine underlying disorders, it's a convenient excuse.

By far, the most important thing if you just want to lose weight is how much you eat. Exercise is actually pretty inefficient for losing weight because you need to do a heck of lot of it to burn through enough calories, though it's obviously great for general health and for toning up and as a helping hand. But for weight loss, you need to control how much you're eating, overall.

And at the end of the day, no matter what you think your metabolism is, if you're taking in more calories than you're burning through, you will eventually put on weight; and if you're taking in fewer calories than you're burning through, you will eventually lose weight. It really, really isn't a difficult concept. The rate of loss or gain may not always be linear, mind you. People do tend to have weight plateaus (if you think about the competing variables that govern overall energy usage, you can easily see why) and other periods of more rapid loss/gain but that does not negate the statement.

 

[Tribbles]

Thanks for the explanations, Holdfast, Bluesteel, and everyone else who has contributed to the discussion. I think I'm starting to understand now. Either way, I will think twice before I say I have a "fast metabolism" in the future.