I’ve finally read an article on weight gain that makes sense to me. It’s by David Berreby and published over at aeon.
As it turns out, it’s not just human beings that have been getting fatter over the last several decades. It’s all primates, even those with strictly controlled diets:
Consider, for example, this troublesome fact, reported in 2010 by the biostatistician David B Allison and his co-authors at the University of Alabama in Birmingham: over the past 20 years or more, as the American people were getting fatter, so were America’s marmosets. As were laboratory macaques, chimpanzees, vervet monkeys and mice, as well as domestic dogs, domestic cats, and domestic and feral rats from both rural and urban areas. In fact, the researchers examined records on those eight species and found that average weight for every one had increased. The marmosets gained an average of nine per cent per decade. Lab mice gained about 11 per cent per decade. Chimps, for some reason, are doing especially badly: their average body weight had risen 35 per cent per decade. Allison, who had been hearing about an unexplained rise in the average weight of lab animals, was nonetheless surprised by the consistency across so many species. ‘Virtually in every population of animals we looked at, that met our criteria, there was the same upward trend,’ he told me.
Interesting article.
In my view there’s no single reason. I’m not denying that eating too much and exercising too little are important contributing factors. There have been analyses which have found that eating as few as 30 excess calories per day can lead to serious weight gain. However, the converse does not seem to be the case, i.e. reducing your calorie consumption by 30 calories per day does not seem to result in weight loss over time.
I’m betting that it’s a combination of factors including diet, exercise, improper or excessive use of antibiotics, stress, environmental change, and maybe even communicable disease. I also predict that the “simple thermodynamics” model will be flogged relentlessly however little real proof actually exists for it.
There is something disquieting about that quoted passage, like its out of the the early chapters of a science fiction novel.
“And then people started noticing the birds acting strangely . . .
“And then doctors began reporting children born with extraordinary mental development for their age . . .
I’m kind of interested to see whether Verdon and Ice will suddenly reappear if I write a comment. . .
So, I’ve lost 38 pounds as of this morning’s weigh-in. From 259 down to 221, which is thinner than I’ve been since I was living under a freeway overpass in Austin.
I’ve fought the weight battle since I was a teenager. My conclusion, based on this latest, surprisingly successful round, is that it is so much more psychological than people want to admit, but that there are also a host of physical factors involved.
My short list of reasons I’m now only overweight and no longer obese: Fear of needles (threat of diabetes), Androgel, C-Pap, concern about dying and not having taken care of my family adequately, gym that doesn’t smell bad, sunshine and marijuana (zero calories, unlike Scotch,) and the realization that I’m out to get me, that I am the enemy. But there are other factors, I suspect, like living in Marin county, recent antibiotics, sunshine.
It is absolutely true that weight loss requires massive reduction in calories not some incremental 30 calorie bullshit. It’s also true that exercise plays a psychological as well as physiological role. And you need to understand that it’s Vietnam, not WW2 and that the war goes on and on and on with no final victory. And I suspect that it is all very much an individual, bespoke thing, not a formulaic “do this, don’t do that” kind of deal.
It’s all kind of strange. Much more going on there than simple thermodynamics and what’s worked for me (so far) may have no applicability to anyone else. I’m wary.
I know you have commented about a simple thermo model before, but unless you are prepared to write a paper, that will make you world famous, discrediting conservation of energy, you need to expand the thermo postulate.
If x number of calories go in, you must account for them. Note that this does NOT mean that if you were at some steady state you will gain weight (or lose weight) if you increase or decrease the calories in. Either the body’s metabolic rate must change and burn – or not burn – the calories, or they must, shall we say, be eliminated. Its a simple energy balance.
They key then is understanding why elimination or burning patterns might change. Some will tell you that in cold weather the body’s millions of years of evolution will store calories for fear of
starvation. Some will cite the proverbial massive dinner vs 5 small portions spread throughout the day.
I’m sure everyone is a bit different.
As for you, Michael, congratulations. I recently went from 227 to 203 the easy way………I got sick and was hospitalized. Heh. Cheater. The good news is my blood sugars went from borderline Type II diabetes to perfect. And since I’ve spent most of my adult life between 190 and 200 (227 was me perfecting my Michelin man impersonation) I figure I’ve only got 8 pounds now to lose the old fashioned way: earn it.
Red:
I’m sitting here baking cookies with my daughter and her friend to give to teachers on last day, scared of what I may do. . . It’s a bit like being an alcoholic.
Genes, genes, genes.
I’m 5’6″, 2oo pounds like forever (well, at least the last 6 years). I’m 72, go to a gym 4 days a week, play golf twice a week. My weight varies +/- 3-5 pounds. When I was younger, the only way I could keep my weight down, really down, was to essentially stop eating and run 50-70 miles a week. That took a toll on my ankles and knees for which the bill has come due (fused ankle, creaky, probably will have to be replaced knee(s)).
My brother: 6′: “Jesus, I have a hard time keeping my weight up. I’m 170 now, and that’s from a low of 160 incurred last year from all the yard work I had to do on my new house. Took me a year to get it back up.”
Me: Jesus???
I’m overweight to obese based on BMI. Since my lean weight (0% fat) has been measured at 175 lb., pretty obviously I’ll never be a sylph. I’m just not built that way.
I’m slenderer than either of my parents were at my age, as are most of my siblings. I’m also much more careful about diet and exercise than either of my parents were.
My calorie consumption is approximately:
300 calorie breakfast
200 calorie snack
300 calorie lunch
200 calorie snack
400 calorie dinner
200 calorie snack
My meals and snacks run heavily towards whole grains, non-saturated fats, lean protein, fresh or frozen fruits or vegetables. Very nearly the only cheating I do is the occasional alcoholic drink (“occasionally” as in roughly two per week).
Based on my level of activity, I think I should be losing weight. I’m not. That I’m skeptical of the “simple thermodynamics” model is an understatement.
Dear Glittering Eye Forum,
I never thought it would happen to me that I would be writing about my weight, but the honesty of old men is contagious.
I’m 5/11; 190 lbs, which I’ve probably been at +/- 3lbs for the last ten years. BMI puts me at about 12 pounds overweight. I was probably at normal weight when I married, but then stopped running, starting eating more and better. I don’t count calories, can be indifferent to food when I’m on my own (I usually eat no breakfast; sometimes work through lunch), don’t have a sweet tooth, and on most days drink occasionally. I think weight – wise, I can probably maintain my approximate weight with little thought or effort, and I’ve attributed that to genes. I have more of my dad’s than my mom’s, though my dad had polio so its hard to tell.
. . . but I don’t look like I weigh less than 200, and the middle has gotten rounder, and I think I’m starting to lose muscle mass. I’m thin-boned, so BMI is probably not unfair to me, like it is to others. So I started running again last Fall, interrupted by the Winter, and the results have not been terribly impressive. Tomorrow I’ll be running my first 5k race in 15 years, but I wasn’t able to run more than 3.5k on Wednesday (could I have? I think so. I didn’t think I would be good at work though)
Long way to saying, I’m indifferent about my weight for the most part, and my weight appears largely indifferent to most things I do or don’t do. I need to get better at more regular exercise, and if for some reason that makes me gain weight I am going to ignore it. I am also going to avoid too much running:
http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2012/11/walk-dont-run-to-the-gym.html
I may be revealing some ignorance, but I’ve never really understood the concept of calories as a measurement for nutrition. I can understand burning coal/wood to measure the energy produced, but food? (I understand that today the calculations are a little different, but I believe the underlying principle is still burning of food)
The only time in my adult life that I would characterize myself as being reasonably thin was more than thirty years ago. I had been seriously injured in an automobile accident that nearly severed my left arm.
I lost considerable weight at that point. I don’t know how much muscle mass I lost but it must have been considerable. After some months passed and I’d gained some strength in my arm, I determined to get back into shape so I could return to judo. I began running. I was running five miles a day, seven days a week. I lost even more weight, was down where I’d been in high school when I was making weight for wrestling, and was as fit as I’ve ever been in my life. I started going back to judo.
Then I developed exercise-induced asthma and running became next to impossible. My doc told me there was nothing wrong with me that couldn’t be cured by moving out of Chicago. Since then I’ve been able to run two or three miles at time easily enough but nothing longer than that.
One more anecdote. About fifteen years back in a last-ditch effort to rid myself of my chronic pain I went through a fairly severe cleansing process. 800 calories a day, most that in the form of a food supplement that tasted like chalk but kept my nutrition level high. After a couple of months of that, I weaned myself back onto normal food, eating very much as I had in grad school: fish, rice, green vegetables. I ate no red meat, dairy, or wheat for a year. I went down to 10-15% body fat.
The good news is that I lost my allergy to ragweed pollen. The bad news is that I still had my chronic pain.
Boo!
Not a massive one, if you cut out 20% and vary your diet from day-to-day and exercise you can see significant weight/body composition changes.
See here
For specifics, see here
The basics:
– Avoid breakfast!
– Drink black coffee or green tea upon waking and stay active during the fasted state: i.e. walking, buying groceries, housework.
– Eat only protein, and fat during the day before training. You can include green vegetables here, we’d suggest however that results will be better with extremely low carbs in the portion of the day.
– Train between 4pm-6pm.
– Post-workout, eat a substantial whole food meal with plenty of carbs and protein.
With this protocol you can still eat lots of great food like ice cream, pizza, curry chicken with white rice, pancakes, etc.
Most people look at dieting as eating like this:
Monday: 1800kcal
Tuesday: 1800kcal
Wednesday: 1800kcal
Thursday: 1800kcal
Friday: 1800kcal
It sucks. You feel hungry and deprived all the time. After awhile your body adapts as well and you get squat for results. Consider doing this diet though,
Monday: 1500kcal,
Tuesday: 2800kcal
Wednesday: Fast
Thursday: 3500kcal
Friday: 1500kcal
Yeah, Wednesday is going to really suck, but it is one day. And Tuesday is awesome and Thursday even more so. And look…same caloric in-take as the standard diet.
And stop counting calories FFS and start counting macro-nutrients (hint: you’ll be counting calories indirectly and be more accurately taking in precisely what you need to change your body comp).
And throw the whole idea of BMI out the window. If you have “overweight” according a BMI metric, but have 10% body fat you are fine.