Metabolic rate

timeforwork

Before you all sigh and move on I'm not blaming my weight on this I know it's too much cake and sweets but ..... Almost everyone here says it doesn't make a difference but working with animals I can't believe that. For example I have 4 dogs all the same breed and simalar size age ect all fed an exactly the same compleate food and getting the same exersise as each other. 1 has 1 mug of biscuit a day and is a bit rounded, the second has 2 mugs and is ideal weight the third also has 2 mugs and is a bit thin but won't eat more and the forth has 4 mugs a day. Also I have 3 retired horses all simalar again except 1 stays fat all year on just grass the second needs extra food in winter and the third is fed all year. So just wondering if it's an accepted fact for animals ( any get will tell you a neutered dog is likely to gain weight) why isn't. It the same for humans? Just curious really as my animals can't lie about food intake exersise ect but have very big food needs x

timeforwork

Sorry ment different food needs but can't figure out how to edit!

MontyMuttland

We're all different, so yes is the basic answer to what you're asking.
If you put 100 people together all the same sex, age, weight & height then fed them exactly the same food for a week and had them do exactly the same amount of activity, at the end of the week they would not all still weigh the same.
However, if you took the average weight at the end of the week, most of the people would still be pretty close to it.
It's because most people will be somewhere near the average for whatever you're measuring (be that BMR, calorie burn in exercise, etc) means that the system MFP uses works out pretty good for the majority of people.
The key thing to remember is that regardless of how close or far out someone is from the average, they are still governed by the same rules of metabolism.
Put simply, to lose weight you must burn more calories than you consume.
How well people achieve this is almost always down to how accurately they are able to measure the amount of calories they consume versus the amount of calories they burn.

Heatherpuggy2018

OP - your post omits a very vital point on this matter and that is ... behaviour. The dogs in your example may well vary in what their kennel behaviour is - for example, a skittish or more playful dog ... will burn more calories than a sedate dog. An older dog may use less energy than a young dog tearing round or continually barking. So it is impossible to use your example based purely on how many mugs of food they eat and the length of the walk. It is the same for humans - comparing how active they are in down time or whether they sit in a chair all day. Neutered dogs gain weight partly for the same reason - you are literally cutting an body organ away - so they need less calories as their bodies have reduced energy needs and because you have reduced hormones as a result ... they will behave differently - less busy and aggressive or amourous (depending on circumstances) - therefore less calorie burn. It is impossible in your example to measure what a horse eats when left to its own devices in a field. Some horses are experts in self- regulation when feeding - others are greedy and hit the grass and won't come up for air! You must know horses who can literally inhale an armful of hay in an instant and others who take time to eat - again this all goes back to behaviour and nothing to do with different metabolic rates. A slow metabolism does exist for some humans/animals ... but is it unusual and usually as a result of disease/illness