How can some people eat so much junk and gain no weight?
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This is my nephew on the left age 21 weights 8st 6lb. This is the massive food potions he eats everyday, he bakes cakes, breads at least 3 times a week and eats it all to himself, he enjoys going to eating places where they have plate challenges you finish in the allotted time you get the meal for free. The only exercise he does is a hour swim once a week and a 15 mile walk once a week, he can't seem to put any weight on. Some people say they can't believe how little I eat except I'm 4 stone overweight. Everyone is different.4 -
1.) He may actually eat less than he appears to. I know sometimes my friend's husband will go for a long stretch of time without eating, but when he eats he EATS. Those who don't know him as well might see him eat and be led to believe he is just lucky to be able to pack that away. He looks like a small guy with clothes on but he is pure, solid muscle which also likely factors in. Also, your friend may not be eating everything on his plate all the time.
2.) Maybe you'll see him gain weight in the future if he really IS eating as much as you say. I know a guy who was considered a "little guy" who packed food away like nobody's business. Everyone kept saying things like "how can such small guy eat like that?" Well, turns out he couldn't. Now he's not what I consider big, but he definitely has packed on a decent amount of weight. It caught up to him, and maybe it will catch up to your co-worker. If it does or doesn't though, that's his business.
3.) Maybe he's way more active than you think he is.
It seems like your concern for what he eats is harmless, but be careful about comparing yourself to others! It's kind of like comparing your life to what people post on social media- it's tempting to think that others have perfect lives but everyone has their own things that they're dealing with that you DON'T see. You don't see what this guy does all day, you just see what he shows you.
Edit to remove my point #2 which doesn't apply here.6 -
Looking at your "one meal"....and if you indeed eat that meal..... that is about 1000 calories in sausage links ( about 250 calories a link)
ad the sauce and rice and huge amount of fries and you have there a meal of over 1500 easily ( close too 2000 calories)
So that is reason number one...you eat more than you think
Other reason is your friend is not 24/7 with you... you dont know how much he eats and how active he is.
And if you want some advice...stop looking at others..start weighing your food...ALL your food so you know what you are eating in calories
Be active and eat enough to be strong...so 1500 is low for a man i would shoot for way more....and the weight will still drop off this way...guaranteed ( if you dont have any medical issues)9 -
leejoyce31 wrote: »You people are so mean.
Who was mean??? Please quote them. I saw nobody being mean.8 -
I wonder how that guy feels hearing stuff like this from others. I'm THAT coworker at my job. "How are you SO skinny when you eat SO much?!" I'm 5'3" and 111 pounds. I maintain my weight on 2000+ calories on most days. The other night at my cousin's surprise party at a BBQ restaurant I easily had twice as much food as anyone and received similar questions; one 300 pound guy said I ate as much as he does in four days (he's obviously underestimating his consumption). That particular day I was very hungry as I walked 44,411 steps the day before and didn't eat as much as I should have because I was too busy all day.
I try to roll with it but it gets annoying. I workout every morning, I get 15K+ steps per day, I have a good amount of muscle, and to top it off I'm very fidgety. Sometimes I eat several small meals per day, sometimes a few large ones; after that huge BBQ meal I could only consume 660 calories the next day.
If you're so certain he really does nothing at all, maybe he's got hyperthyroidism and doesn't know it or want anyone else to know about it. Either way, comparing yourself to others is not a good look. You want to eat more? Move more.18 -
singingflutelady wrote: »Anyone have the link to the British show where there were 2 friends, one thin and one obese where the obese friend was so sure her friend had a high metabolism and could eat whatever she wanted? they tested them and in fact the obese friend's metabolism was higher than the thin one
I remember that! It's funny because some of the people I know always comment on how I manage to stay so skinny (I'm not!) while eating so much. But they see me twice a year at potlucks when I probably eat 3000 calories of food (easily). They don't see what I do the rest of the time.
But just because typically thin people who eat a lot of junk don't eat that way all the time, doesn't mean that there aren't people who do indeed eat a lot without gaining weight. It just doesn't happen as much as we think.3 -
He isn't eating as much as you think. So there is this guy in my office, and everyone talks about how much he can eat, and how he stays in such good shape, because everytime there is free food here (which is a lot) he will take 3 or 4 plates full. Well I sit next to him, and he eats like a bird sits here all day with open big plate of food that he picks at all day, never finishes it, and brings the leftovers, plus the other 3 plates home to have as his meals through out the week. Things are never what they seem.7
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I eat more than my husband does. I do in his presence at night and on the weekend. During the week he does send me food porn. I think its what he wants to eat!
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although when you put in your details, MFP sets you a calorie allocation, some people burn less and the lucky ones burn more
maybe he is one of the luck ones, maybe he has a high metabolism
but if he is just eating crap, then it will catch up to him eventually due to the lack of nutrients etc1 -
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I wonder how that guy feels hearing stuff like this from others. I'm THAT coworker at my job. "How are you SO skinny when you eat SO much?!" I'm 5'3" and 111 pounds. I maintain my weight on 2000+ calories on most days. The other night at my cousin's surprise party at a BBQ restaurant I easily had twice as much food as anyone and received similar questions; one 300 pound guy said I ate as much as he does in four days (he's obviously underestimating his consumption). That particular day I was very hungry as I walked 44,411 steps the day before and didn't eat as much as I should have because I was too busy all day.
I try to roll with it but it gets annoying. I workout every morning, I get 15K+ steps per day, I have a good amount of muscle, and to top it off I'm very fidgety. Sometimes I eat several small meals per day, sometimes a few large ones; after that huge BBQ meal I could only consume 660 calories the next day.
If you're so certain he really does nothing at all, maybe he's got hyperthyroidism and doesn't know it or want anyone else to know about it. Either way, comparing yourself to others is not a good look. You want to eat more? Move more.
That many steps in one day? Wow, how did you manage that? On vacation earlier this year we had one day where we walked ALL day long, all over the city. That was 28,000+ steps and I thought my legs were going to fall off. Kudos to you!0 -
What I heard (and what I think is likely true) is that skinny people who eat a lot, they are compensating somehow most every time.
So I feel like I ate more when I was skinnier, I ate bigger meals, but really what would happen is I would eat a lot at one sitting then not be hungry for hours and hours and hours. This still happens, I can see it happen - we go out to breakfast at Denny's on Sundays, just me and the man, and we eat a big fry-up. Lotsa calories. That's around 8am usually. Then it will be 4pm and he's asking about supper and I am not hungry yet!
So even back in my 20s, I was usually around 125lb, yes - but after a semester abroad, with someone handing me breakfast, lunch, and dinner, free, I was up to ten stone. I had not realized until then, that I did not usually eat 3x a day, every day, full meals. Both because I couldn't afford it and because I didn't need it. Came back to the US, once again couldn't afford to eat like that, shrunk back.
And as an office worker, I've always had massive looking lunches, I'm a slim person so people would get confused. But I was happy to skip supper, my co-workers didn't see that, I only ate supper if I was hungry, usually wasn't so would just pack mine up for lunch the next day. Also I am fidgety... Now I work at a sports concern so there are a lot of people who look skinny eating a lot, they are distance runners and have to eat more than you'd think just to maintain.
I do think there are outliers, people whose bodies don't digest right and people who burn too many calories for their size just living, but mostly I think we are adjusting.6 -
I wonder how that guy feels hearing stuff like this from others. I'm THAT coworker at my job. "How are you SO skinny when you eat SO much?!" I'm 5'3" and 111 pounds. I maintain my weight on 2000+ calories on most days. The other night at my cousin's surprise party at a BBQ restaurant I easily had twice as much food as anyone and received similar questions; one 300 pound guy said I ate as much as he does in four days (he's obviously underestimating his consumption). That particular day I was very hungry as I walked 44,411 steps the day before and didn't eat as much as I should have because I was too busy all day.
I try to roll with it but it gets annoying. I workout every morning, I get 15K+ steps per day, I have a good amount of muscle, and to top it off I'm very fidgety. Sometimes I eat several small meals per day, sometimes a few large ones; after that huge BBQ meal I could only consume 660 calories the next day.
If you're so certain he really does nothing at all, maybe he's got hyperthyroidism and doesn't know it or want anyone else to know about it. Either way, comparing yourself to others is not a good look. You want to eat more? Move more.
That many steps in one day? Wow, how did you manage that? On vacation earlier this year we had one day where we walked ALL day long, all over the city. That was 28,000+ steps and I thought my legs were going to fall off. Kudos to you!
I was pretty much on my feet from 5am to midnight. I'm surprised you only got 28,000 from walking all day long, though. A five mile walk to or from work takes me an hour and 15 minutes and gets me around 8,500ish steps with my Fitbit.1 -
Just curious OP, why are you only eating 1500 cals/day? As a male, this would be the lowest recommended calorie intake, and that would not include any exercise cals, you said you average 15K steps/day and go to the gym 5-6 days/week?
Perhaps instead of worrying about what your colleague eats, you should make sure you are indeed getting enough fuel for your activity level and that your weight loss is not sacrificing lean body mass?
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but still, I get your point. It's not fair when one does everything right, follows drs orders to the letter, when the personal trainer says jump off a cliff the go running off the nearest one while their friend/spouse barely gives 50% pigs out on mostly junk and they loose 25 pounds like nothing and your the one gaining 10 pounds.0
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singingflutelady wrote: »Anyone have the link to the British show where there were 2 friends, one thin and one obese where the obese friend was so sure her friend had a high metabolism and could eat whatever she wanted? they tested them and in fact the obese friend's metabolism was higher than the thin one
Is it this one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA9AdlhB18o 10 -
Bluejedi79 wrote: »but still, I get your point. It's not fair when one does everything right, follows drs orders to the letter, when the personal trainer says jump off a cliff the go running off the nearest one while their friend/spouse barely gives 50% pigs out on mostly junk and they loose 25 pounds like nothing and your the one gaining 10 pounds.
This doesn't happen in reality...perceptions maybe but in reality the person losing 25lbs is doing something right...and the person not losing is doing something not right.3 -
maybe he's T1 diabetic. Why do you care what this guy eats?3
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You'd think the same if you observed my uncle. He's ~5'4", 70 yrs old, weighs probably 130 lbs. Eats like a horse whenever he's out (often fast food burgers), usually has a HungryMan TV dinner and a slice or two of pie if he's eating at home (pumpkin in the fall, Marie Callendars' banana cream lately
).
But, he also exercises on his cross-country ski machine twice a day, and fixes/modifies race cars as a hobby (lots of lifting of parts, etc). The man is always working at something, and it's usually something physical, like construction work.
Funny thing, he recently had a scare that landed him in the hospital (turned out to be severe gas pains). By the time he left, all of the nurses were calling him 'Mr. Fit' based on the results of his stress tests, EKGs, and blood tests. Guess all the 'junk' isn't treating him too badly!3 -
WinoGelato wrote: »Just curious OP, why are you only eating 1500 cals/day? As a male, this would be the lowest recommended calorie intake, and that would not include any exercise cals, you said you average 15K steps/day and go to the gym 5-6 days/week?
Perhaps instead of worrying about what your colleague eats, you should make sure you are indeed getting enough fuel for your activity level and that your weight loss is not sacrificing lean body mass?
I eat the same amount of calories as OP. It's easy to get good nutrition if you stick to nutritiously dense foods. I'm not sure how much our maintenance calories differ though.
Edit: for better wording.0 -
People who look like Robert Downey Jr.
ETA: never mind. Wasn't familiar with the movie and didn't realize that IS Robert Downey Jr. lol3 -
AmandaIsherwood3 wrote: »
This is my nephew on the left age 21 weights 8st 6lb. This is the massive food potions he eats everyday, he bakes cakes, breads at least 3 times a week and eats it all to himself, he enjoys going to eating places where they have plate challenges you finish in the allotted time you get the meal for free. The only exercise he does is a hour swim once a week and a 15 mile walk once a week, he can't seem to put any weight on. Some people say they can't believe how little I eat except I'm 4 stone overweight. Everyone is different.
He *can't* put weight on? He needs a doctor. He could have a medical condition like hyperthyroid that is untreated.
(I walk 20 miles per week in the gym. That's 70 sweaty minutes on the treadmill, five days per week. That's not an insignificant amount of exercise, by the way, nor would five miles less be.)
Everyone could possibly be different with certain medical issues, but scientifically speaking, without ruling these in things are not all that different. If you're four stone overweight, you are probably eating more than you think. I'm not trying to be mean. The use of a food scale and very strict logging for everything you eat or drink for a week would likely be eye opening.3 -
Easy. That's why I continue to log on MFP
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My fiancee is like that he is about 5'10" and weighs about 160 pounds. He has lean muscle on his arms and legs. He can go a week or two and eat like a horse. For breakfast alone 5 pieces of sausage, 3 eggs, two pieces of toast, and jelly. That's close to 1500 calories for breakfast. But that is only on the weekends. Through the week he won't eat breakfast. Will have leftovers for dinner at work for lunch then dinner when he gets home. He will also snack on cakes, candy, and chips after dinner. He will easily eat 2500-3000 calories a day.
Me on the other hand only eats max 1500 a day.
The difference besides the fact men burn faster than women. Is he works in a warehouse in a freezer. He is constantly lifting on boxes that are 50-100 pounds 8 hours a day. I stay at home work out 30 minutes a day, clean and walk with the kids. He burns way more calories than I do. I use to try to eat as much as he did and I blew up.0 -
leejoyce31 wrote: »You people are so mean.
Care to explain. I haven't read one thing mean or ill mannered.5 -
I wouldn't worry about it... just focus on doing what you need to get your own results.
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leejoyce31 wrote: »You people are so mean.
You have a strange perception of what is 'mean'. After all, you did call the OP a girl.
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My late husband was one of those people who ate massive amounts and never gained an ounce. People used to comment on it all the time. What they did not see was that he was on some incredibly strong painkillers that made him very ill, so he rarely kept it down. He didn't want to share this with the world, of course, so everyone always assumed he had some kind of magical metabolism.4
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