"What I learned about weight loss from spending a day inside a metabolic chamber"

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NorthCascades
NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
"There are only about 30 metabolic chambers in the world, and the NIH is home to three. These highly sensitive, multimillion-dollar scientific instruments are considered the gold standard for measuring metabolism. It’s furthered our understanding of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes — diseases that are now among the greatest threats to health worldwide — by letting researchers carefully track how individual bodies respond to the calories they’re offered."

https://www.vox.com/2018/9/4/17486110/metabolism-diet-fast-weight-loss

This is an article with some interesting history and background about this journey we're all on. Spoiler: she (the author) learned that she has a normal metabolism, that being alive burns the bulk of her calories, and that energy balance controls everything for everybody.

Replies

  • IdLikeToLoseItLoseIt
    IdLikeToLoseItLoseIt Posts: 695 Member
    Good read, thanks!
  • mimimunchery
    mimimunchery Posts: 69 Member
    Great article - thank you!
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,341 Member
    Great read, thanks for posting it. Very enlightening look at how a metabolic chamber works, and also clears up a lot of myths about how our metabolism (and CICO) works.
  • Deviette
    Deviette Posts: 1,010 Member
    Very good, I have also made note of some of those linked studies to ponder over later :smile:
  • PHOTOCHAP
    PHOTOCHAP Posts: 104 Member
    Very interesting read, good post. I think I should sleep more :o
  • cheryldumais
    cheryldumais Posts: 1,907 Member
    Thanks for sharing. Interesting read.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,965 Member
    Good read.
  • PennyP312
    PennyP312 Posts: 161 Member
    I read this last night and loved it! Thought of the MFP folks too.
    Found the bit about doctors still not understanding how our brain knows and adjusts for what our body weighs, so so interesting and thought provoking.
    Great read!
  • maureenkhilde
    maureenkhilde Posts: 848 Member
    I just read this, and wow learned lots about Metabolism. The fact that the brain knows and adjusts, that was eye opening. But what I really had not read before that there are three different types of so called caloric burn that the body does. Thanks for sharing this very insightful article.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,010 Member
    Tagging for later - thank you!
  • elsie6hickman
    elsie6hickman Posts: 3,864 Member
    Really interesting. Wouldn't it be enlightening to be part of a study like that.
  • Silentpadna
    Silentpadna Posts: 1,306 Member
    I think it's just confirmation bias for all of us CICO true believers.

    ...

    ...

    /sarc off
  • Stockholm_Andy
    Stockholm_Andy Posts: 802 Member
    It's a really interesting article so thank you for posting.

    I'll admit though I was ready to be pissed off when I read the URL

    www.vox.com/2018/9/4/17486110/metabolism-diet-fast-weight-loss

    I guess they need to drive traffic but I was pleasantly surprised to read a sensible article.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,368 Member
    Good read.

    'exercise only account for 10 to 30% of our metabolic rate'. That's a pretty big part if you ask me. But yes.. spinning calories suck!

    Totally agree that people always underestimate the calories that they eat.

    But yes, very good point, again, about how we really don't know why people tend to eat more than others.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,965 Member
    I agree about the exercise bit. It said a couple different times how insignificant exercise and activity is in terms of calorie burn. For me it's the difference between 1800 and 2500 calories. (according to my fitbit) That's a big difference.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,368 Member
    hesn92 wrote: »
    I agree about the exercise bit. It said a couple different times how insignificant exercise and activity is in terms of calorie burn. For me it's the difference between 1800 and 2500 calories. (according to my fitbit) That's a big difference.

    I got a bit under 10,000 steps today so far and that's 445 extra calories from Fitbit (more than that really because if I don't get 3000 steps, I end up at -100 calories or more by the end of the day). That's 1800 calories I can eat instead of 1300. That's HUGE. And I know that my Fitbit underestimates my calories too (or I would have gained back 40 lbs with the numbers I've had in the last 3 years).
  • TrishSeren
    TrishSeren Posts: 587 Member
    So interesting! Also, the bike part where she burned less than she expected and says that spin classes are overestimating calorie burn, totally agree with that. There is no way I burn 400 calories in a half hour class.
  • Noreenmarie1234
    Noreenmarie1234 Posts: 7,492 Member
    Very interesting, thanks for sharing!
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