Exercise Might Not Help Lose Weight

[Alx]

10 minutes ago, pganapathy said:

 

I know that I am going to seem defensive in my response, but I am telling you what I saw with my eyes every day for 4 years.  A slim girl at 5 foot nothing who ate all her meals with us, eating as much as classmates of mine who were 6 foot 4 and around a 100 odd KG in weight.  She was probably 50 kg at best.  And she never gained weight.  It isn't like she was anorexic and threw up her food or that she played an extra amount of sports.  I admit she was an exception, but the only explanation is that her metabolism was off the charts, rather than everybody else in that school had low metabolism and we all gained weight, or maintained a much higher weight, when eating a similar amount of food.

I definitely stand by my statement that metabolism can make a huge difference under certain conditions.

I am 100% certain you were not with all of them all the time weighing all their meals. What you saw was just a part of the reality.

Also if were talking kids here up to 16 yo even the 6'4 ones rarely weigh 100 kilos. 

IF what you are saying was actually what was happening and these kids were eating 2600 calories and she was even at 4k calories which is less than what you are claiming there is no way this was due to metabolism. She either has an eating disorder, not able to utilize nutrition properly or another medical condition. Being this extreme however it would not go undiagnosed.

 

Outsiders perspectives are rarely correct:

Ive been in both high and low metabolism groups, atleast by outside estimation. When I was a kid I was often told how lucky I was to not put on weight with all the candy I was eating. We had a school project where we tracked all our calories for a week and guess what I was on the low end despite being 6'3. I was essentially replacing a lot of my meals at home by drinking skim milk.

When I got older and started going to the gym my colleques were amazed how I could gain weight by eating so little compared to female coworkers literally half my size. Again when we counted calories from our daily eating I was coming in at 3500+ and they were in the 2000 range.

Perspective.

[Big Lex]

I did a very unscientific and quick search of scientific literature on this....

I believed that there is likely almost no variation in BMR between individuals...it is linked to body mass and that's basically it. 

I was wrong; there is some variation in experimental studies. 

Meaning....even if you account for differences in muscle/lean mass, fat mass, etc. etc., some people burn more calories just staying alive than others. 

What causes the variation is not known, but the amount of variation is still quite small. As an example, one study of 150 subjects found a difference of 2.5x in BMR. One person's was roughly 1000 kcal/day, and the other's was 2500 kcal/day. They estimated that about 65% of this difference could be attributed to their difference in body composition and other factors. But basically as much as 20% of this difference was unexplained. 

So 20% of 250% is 50%....so there could be a range of 50% difference in metabolism among people, but I would assume this would comprise people across the entire bell curve distribution of BMRs. For people within 1 or 2 SD of the mean, our metabolic rates would be basically the same, or differing by very small amounts. 

Most of the calories used in metabolism are thought to be involved in maintaining fluid balance, meaning preserving the osmolar composition of intracellular and extracellular fluids and electrolytes. Proton pumps, sodium/potassium exchange pumps, etc. Cool. 

[Shorty]

5 hours ago, pganapathy said:

 

I definitely stand by my statement that metabolism can make a huge difference under certain conditions.

You may. But you still don't know anything about her metabolism. You knew a girl who was slim. That's it.

[Vinsk]

37 minutes ago, Shorty said:

You may. But you still don't know anything about her metabolism. You knew a girl who was slim. That's it.

It’s most likely a combination of many things and certainly not just metabolism anyway. Let’s face it..no matter how hard some may train…they’ll never look like Ronnie Colman. This is how many supplements and other products are sold. Cindy Crawford isn’t beautiful because of her products. Her daughter is proof of that.

[Shorty]

19 minutes ago, Vinsk said:

It’s most likely a combination of many things and certainly not just metabolism anyway. 

"Metabolism" is a term that people use to appear knowledgeable about something they know zero about.

"My metabolism is shot"

"He's got a really fast metabolism"

"Apparently her metabolism is through the roof"

It seems strange to me that we have a thread where people seem to be learning that if you drink cola and eat transfats and have a high carb diet, walking to the bus stop doesn't lead to weight loss.

Almost as insane as threads where people talk about how they prepare for a round of golf and what they eat during a round to avoid "fatigue"  whilst riding in a cart in mild weather.

The people who sell products like Powerade (Coca Cola - fancy that) should be ashamed. In 99.99% of cases - the exception being running through the desert in a heatwave, water is fine. And it has 0 calories. You have parents thinking that juniors playing soccer need this garbage.

Edited July 15, 2021 by Shorty

[saevel25]

On 7/15/2021 at 5:22 PM, Vinsk said:

It’s most likely a combination of many things and certainly not just metabolism anyway. Let’s face it..no matter how hard some may train…they’ll never look like Ronnie Colman. This is how many supplements and other products are sold. Cindy Crawford isn’t beautiful because of her products. Her daughter is proof of that.

I found an interesting podcast called the Huberman Lab. Where is goes somewhat into the biochemistry or biomechanics of things to see if there are any ways for us to do things to optimize things like sleep, learning, weight loss, etc... 

He cited a few studies were they showed that people who tend to eat what ever they want, also tend to be fidgety. Meaning, they don't sit idle much. Not that they go for walks all the time, or exercise all the time, but the extra high frequency movements through out the day can cause them to burn anywhere from 800-2500 calories. 

I just think it is hard to peg down the calories burned part of the equation versus calories eaten. 

[billchao]

33 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

He cited a few studies were they showed that people who tend to eat what ever they want, also tend to be fidgety. Meaning, they don't sit idle much.

Interesting. I don’t think I have ever thought of random movements throughout the day as part of caloric burn but it makes sense.