If I were in your situation, I would start to take a technical interest in the biomechanics of fat deposition in male bodies, differential retention of water in body tissues, the genetics of metabolism, the adipocyte cell cycle in visceral fat—as much causal and molecular detail as I could bring myself to assimilate. Just for a few hours, I would proceed as if I was going to tackle the problem by understanding what’s happening from the molecular level up, genuinely identifying exactly where a change needs to occur, and fashioning an appropriate intervention.
The logic of this approach is that we are now in a time when such overkill analysis of all biological processes has become possible, and that you personally are smart and informed enough to be able to perform that analysis, “in principle”. “In principle” means that if you devoted the next several years of your life to nothing but the intensive study of those topics, you would almost assuredly make useful progress. In reality you have other priorities which guarantee that you won’t turn yourself into a research biologist. But just for a while proceed as if you were going to tackle this problem with the thoroughness and dedication you might reserve for problems in FAI theory, and knowing that it might have to be you personally who solves it (on the level of theory, not just the level of practice). You will undoubtedly learn relevant things if you do this, and if you manage to make a persistent hobby of it, your ability to tap into existing research literature and existing networks of expertise will eventually be transformed in an incredibly empowering way.
Also, you live in California. You could try to tap into the diy-bio scene, 23AndMe-style personal genomics, and the whole emerging bio-culture. Again, I’m not suggesting that you become in your own person an adipose-tissue hacker, but proceeding for a while as if you were going to do that will open doors and reveal perspectives that should actually be useful later on.
If I were in your situation, I would start to take a technical interest in the biomechanics of fat deposition in male bodies, differential retention of water in body tissues, the genetics of metabolism, the adipocyte cell cycle in visceral fat—as much causal and molecular detail as I could bring myself to assimilate. Just for a few hours, I would proceed as if I was going to tackle the problem by understanding what’s happening from the molecular level up, genuinely identifying exactly where a change needs to occur, and fashioning an appropriate intervention.
The logic of this approach is that we are now in a time when such overkill analysis of all biological processes has become possible, and that you personally are smart and informed enough to be able to perform that analysis, “in principle”. “In principle” means that if you devoted the next several years of your life to nothing but the intensive study of those topics, you would almost assuredly make useful progress. In reality you have other priorities which guarantee that you won’t turn yourself into a research biologist. But just for a while proceed as if you were going to tackle this problem with the thoroughness and dedication you might reserve for problems in FAI theory, and knowing that it might have to be you personally who solves it (on the level of theory, not just the level of practice). You will undoubtedly learn relevant things if you do this, and if you manage to make a persistent hobby of it, your ability to tap into existing research literature and existing networks of expertise will eventually be transformed in an incredibly empowering way.
Also, you live in California. You could try to tap into the diy-bio scene, 23AndMe-style personal genomics, and the whole emerging bio-culture. Again, I’m not suggesting that you become in your own person an adipose-tissue hacker, but proceeding for a while as if you were going to do that will open doors and reveal perspectives that should actually be useful later on.