Your body fights against you

bbbbb33333

Interesting article

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

auticus

Yep. It's called survival. Your body does not care that people look down on you for being fat. It only knows that avoiding starvation is more important than that hot blonde chick rejecting you.

laurastrait21

VERY interesting .. the body is an amazing adapter, whether we like it to be or not!

dsjohndrow

Amazing article. Take-aways:
- People who have lost weight have a HARD time keeping it off.
- Muscles from those who lost weight burn 25% fewer calories than those who are at the same weight.
- 800 calorie day losers almost always gained it back.
- It's hard (isn't that why we are here?)
- Being overweight should be more socially acceptable.
- For the weight challenged, the same amount of calories can cause a gain in one, and not the other.
- Leptin injections appeared to change how the brain responded to food

operavagabond

Great article! Proves that being fat isn't just because you're lazy and uncommitted. Also shows that those "lose weight quick" products and TV shows cause more damage in the long run. It's kind of sobering to realize that we have to work harder to maintain weight loss than people who aren't afflicted with those inherited traits.

auticus

This is why for example my 105 lb ex wife could eat 3x what I ate and not gain a pound, and I'd gain a ton of weight. Calories are different to each person. Your body does different things with them.

mayerrocks

This article should be forwarded to all of your friends that seem to be judgmental of you because of your weight problem.

MaraDiaz

Yep. It's called survival. Your body does not care that people look down on you for being fat. It only knows that avoiding starvation is more important than that hot blonde chick rejecting you.

Actually, that doesn't make much evolutionary sense when you think about it. Lots of animals evolve costly habits and body traits to attract and keep a mate.

Okay, going to go do laundry now, just had to let my inner nerd out to ponder.

delipidation

That's why I generally try to frame the discussion in terms of eating to feed the muscles, then using those muscles to burn the fat. I don't need to be lighter, I need to be stronger, and if I am stronger, I will have burned fat to get that way.