How much does metabolism actually effect weight gain?

ihateroses

I've been trying to debunk some fatlogic and would love to know if any of you know of any actual studies that have proven/debunked that metabolism is the actual cause of obesity.

I have been told today that a person that weighs 3x as me eats as many calories as me on a daily basis and gains weight. (I'm talking 1500 calories...a deficit for me...)

ironanimal

Right. What's their lifestyle like? Their age? Height? These things contribute.

Notice if you spend any time with someone severely overweight they snack and don't realise it, have much larger portions and use the phrase "a little extra won't hurt" a lot.

Those things also contribute

jacksonpt

Metabolism isn't the cause of obesity. Nor is it the cause of skinnyness (or whatever the trem is for the opposite of obesity).

Metabolism (faster or slower) impacts how many cals you need to maintain current weight. For some, that might be 1500 cals. For others, it might be 2500. But regardless of what the number is, eating more will cause weight gain, eating less will cause weight loss.

hookilau

Metabolism isn't the cause of obesity. Nor is it the cause of skinnyness (or whatever the trem is for the opposite of obesity).

Metabolism (faster or slower) impacts how many cals you need to maintain current weight. For some, that might be 1500 cals. For others, it might be 2500. But regardless of what the number is, eating more will cause weight gain, eating less will cause weight loss.

But doesn't that leave out metabolism disordered people?
If metabolism isn't working correctly, say as in high blood sugars & insufficient insulin production (whatever the reason) isn't excess glucose stashed as fat in the liver, and other places?

soldier4242

When people are talking about changes in metabolism causing obesity they are simply referring to a reduction in the calories that a person burned in the day without any changes their lifestyle. So I guess you could say that the change in the metabolism caused the weight gain but not really. It could more accurately be attributed to the complacency of the individual.

You don't see a lot of people in the MFP community put a lot of stock in this way of thinking because metabolism does not change enough between 20 and 30 for example to counterbalance the value of exercise. Until you are dead you always have the ability to create a calorie deficit and lose weight. You might be burning 100 fewer calories at rest today then you did 5 years ago but if you are lifting weight and running then that won't really matter enough to justify becoming obese.

IAteBethDitto

Logic is only part of the story here. The other key ingredient is empirical evidence.

If, say, you both were to have your resting metabolic rates measured in a physiology lab, then you could talk.

Otherwise it's just one person's argument against another.

cwolfman13

I seriously doubt she's eating 1500 calories to get obese. Fat people tend to drastically underestimate their consumption...lean people tend to drastically overestimate their consumption.

I actually tested this out with my buddy when I first started out with all this calorie counting. I always pretty much though that I consumed roughly what he consumed and he figured the same...but I was borderline obese and he was pretty lean. When we both sat down and counted our calories out, he was consuming about 2400...I was consuming north of 3500. He though he was consuming more than he was and was shocked at that number...I thought I was consuming around 2500 calories per day and was shocked at my number.

LAW_714

I've been trying to debunk some fatlogic and would love to know if any of you know of any actual studies that have proven/debunked that metabolism is the actual cause of obesity.

I have been told today that a person that weighs 3x as me eats as many calories as me on a daily basis and gains weight. (I'm talking 1500 calories...a deficit for me...)

It is possible for there to be actual aberrant medical issues. That said, it isn't common and for most people this isn't a factor. Not really.

Sedentary vs. active? Matters. Whether you're eating beyond what you're using matters. Whether you've managed to eat your way into metabolic syndrome where you've made your body resistant to grhelin, leptin, and/or insulin so that you're not getting proper satiation signals and roller-coaster blood sugar matters (but not in the way that your question asks). Plus that's related to (not independent of) what and how much we eat and isn't actually changing the 'speed' of our metabolism, just messing with signals from it.

So I guess, is it in any way possible? Yeah.
Is it LIKELY? No.

evileen99

The obese actually have HIGHER metabolisms than the skinnies. When you're obese, you develop more muscle because it takes more strength to move that bulk around in your day to day activities. More muscle = higher metabolism.

I (thin) and my friend (obese) both have BodyMedia Fits. When I'm sitting on the couch doing nothing, my baseline calorie burn is about 0.9 per minute. Hers is 2.7. She's not fat because she has a low metabolism, she's fat because she eats WAY too much food.

And yes, she greatly underestimates how much she eats. She'll tell you that it's not a lot, but trust me, it is.