If a human could eat significantly more calories for the same amount of work and not put on weight we would be prodding them in a lab for breaking the laws of physics on conservation of mass and conservation of energy.
That’s false. It doesn’t break any law of physics. In practice it also doesn’t seem to be true.
I have a friend that repeated Dave Asprey’s experiment and added 1000 kcal of calories via butter per day. The person knew enough about his diet to know that this meant that he consumed more calories. They didn’t put any weight by doing the experiment for a month.
As far as “resting” metabolism goes, there are also very different resting states. Friday I was lying on my back in my bed from 20 to 23 and was deelpy relaxing. At the end the space under the right side of my body was wet. The leg and up to the shoulder. The left side of my face was also wet and there was a bit sweat running down but not enough to make the blanket under that left side wet. I can’t tell you to what extend the warmth was created by brown fat or by muscles, but I was certainly not exercising but deeply relaxing and releasing tensions.
I have a friend that repeated Dave Asprey’s experiment and added 1000 kcal of calories via butter per day. The person knew enough about his diet to know that this meant that he consumed more calories. They didn’t put any weight by doing the experiment for a month.
“I have a friend who...” isn’t terribly compelling evidence. :)
As far as “resting” metabolism goes, there are also very different resting states.
From my recall, basal metabolic rates can vary significantly between otherwise very similar individuals. ~60% of BMR variances are determined by differences in lean muscle mass. But even when two individuals are the same age, gender, lean muscle %… they can still have BMR differences that would seem to contribute to weight gain in some individuals over time… even if their diet and exercise routine was identical to someone who maintained a stable weight.
I don’t think it’s as simple as OP is making it. But I also don’t think it’s as complicated as LW seems to make it.
As long as we’re accepting anecdotal evidence, I’ve gained and lost in a ~40lb range (~160-200lb) over the last few years according to essentially a very predictable ‘calories consumed minus calories burned’ model. During some periods, I’ve kept copious spreadsheets of every calorie and every rep in the gym. It’s been very predictable once I had some good data.
Again, for clarity’s sake and so that I am not pestered on this point, I think there is more to the equation than just calorie arithmetic (and there are plenty of cases where people are predisposed to obesity no matter what they try and of course no one should be shamed for their body weight) …but there is not nearly as much woo and mystery to losing weight as many on LW would try to make you think.
I think the main reason people end up desiring for weight loss to be a lot more than just calorie math is that while much of weight loss is simple, it’s also super fucking hard. It’s emotional. And being hungry sucks and makes your crabby. And making these changes will diminish your capacity to do other things for a while. Just like any other pursuit requires you to allocate resources, you can’t expect to put effort into incorporating a brand new dieting strategy and exercise regiment while maintaining the exact same level of productivity and focus. There is an adjustment period. Then it gets easier.
Because it’s super fucking hard and emotional, it makes sense to me that fad diets are as popular as they are. But maybe there isn’t a hack? Maybe much of what needs to be done amounts to changing habits? Which is simple, but hard.
As long as we’re accepting anecdotal evidence, I’ve gained and lost in a ~40lb range (~160-200lb) over the last few years according to essentially a very predictable ‘calories consumed minus calories burned’ model.
I don’t have a model that would be disconfirmed by your story.
I think the OP might have been partly motivated by a comment about some overweight being triggered by inflammation and there a bunch of inflammationary illnesses that do quite often result in weight gain.
Are you aware about how little some people’s weight chanages year to year and about the amount of calories that are needed for gaining a kilo of additional bodyweight?
Habits alone without a regulation system that tries to keep a certain amount of weight and influence it by hunger and other methods don’t seem to me capable of holding constant weight.
That’s false. It doesn’t break any law of physics. In practice it also doesn’t seem to be true.
I have a friend that repeated Dave Asprey’s experiment and added 1000 kcal of calories via butter per day. The person knew enough about his diet to know that this meant that he consumed more calories. They didn’t put any weight by doing the experiment for a month.
As far as “resting” metabolism goes, there are also very different resting states. Friday I was lying on my back in my bed from 20 to 23 and was deelpy relaxing. At the end the space under the right side of my body was wet. The leg and up to the shoulder. The left side of my face was also wet and there was a bit sweat running down but not enough to make the blanket under that left side wet. I can’t tell you to what extend the warmth was created by brown fat or by muscles, but I was certainly not exercising but deeply relaxing and releasing tensions.
“I have a friend who...” isn’t terribly compelling evidence. :)
From my recall, basal metabolic rates can vary significantly between otherwise very similar individuals. ~60% of BMR variances are determined by differences in lean muscle mass. But even when two individuals are the same age, gender, lean muscle %… they can still have BMR differences that would seem to contribute to weight gain in some individuals over time… even if their diet and exercise routine was identical to someone who maintained a stable weight.
I don’t think it’s as simple as OP is making it. But I also don’t think it’s as complicated as LW seems to make it.
As long as we’re accepting anecdotal evidence, I’ve gained and lost in a ~40lb range (~160-200lb) over the last few years according to essentially a very predictable ‘calories consumed minus calories burned’ model. During some periods, I’ve kept copious spreadsheets of every calorie and every rep in the gym. It’s been very predictable once I had some good data.
Again, for clarity’s sake and so that I am not pestered on this point, I think there is more to the equation than just calorie arithmetic (and there are plenty of cases where people are predisposed to obesity no matter what they try and of course no one should be shamed for their body weight) …but there is not nearly as much woo and mystery to losing weight as many on LW would try to make you think.
I think the main reason people end up desiring for weight loss to be a lot more than just calorie math is that while much of weight loss is simple, it’s also super fucking hard. It’s emotional. And being hungry sucks and makes your crabby. And making these changes will diminish your capacity to do other things for a while. Just like any other pursuit requires you to allocate resources, you can’t expect to put effort into incorporating a brand new dieting strategy and exercise regiment while maintaining the exact same level of productivity and focus. There is an adjustment period. Then it gets easier.
Because it’s super fucking hard and emotional, it makes sense to me that fad diets are as popular as they are. But maybe there isn’t a hack? Maybe much of what needs to be done amounts to changing habits? Which is simple, but hard.
I don’t have a model that would be disconfirmed by your story.
I think the OP might have been partly motivated by a comment about some overweight being triggered by inflammation and there a bunch of inflammationary illnesses that do quite often result in weight gain.
Nope, it was all about habits really. And how they lead to good and bad outcomes.
Are you aware about how little some people’s weight chanages year to year and about the amount of calories that are needed for gaining a kilo of additional bodyweight?
Habits alone without a regulation system that tries to keep a certain amount of weight and influence it by hunger and other methods don’t seem to me capable of holding constant weight.
Changing habits is a hack. But one that seems promising if it can yield long term change and long term progress.
Meh. Semantics.
I’m saying the route to weight loss might be hard, like eat less and exercise more. For months. There may not be a low effort technique (i.e. hack).