Documentary- Why Are Thin People Not Fat?

The way I ate when I was in high school was insane. Breakfast would be something like a six egg omelet and half a loaf of bread, washed down with a half-gallon of milk (weight gainer protein powder optional). If dad made biscuits and sausage gravy (one of his specialties), I was good for a couple of those on top of it. A steakhouse in our town had a meal called the "Mountain Man", which was 2 pounds of prime rib, a huge baked potato and a salad....I'd eat every bit of it, along with a basket or two of garlic bread, then finish what was left on mom or dad's plate. When mom made tacos or enchiladas, I was good for at least a dozen of either for dinner. When we barbecued, I ate no less than three hamburgers with all the fixings, along with chips and guacamole, a couple sodas and maybe a piece of pie for dessert. Looking back at it now, I don't know how my parents afforded to feed me!

I was 6'6", rail-thin at 175 lbs. and trying desperately (and unsuccessfully) to gain weight for football. I amazed people with how much I ate. But in retrospect, I was also *very* active - I played interscholastic sports (football, basketball and track), which involved 3-hour practice sessions each day plus game days. Some seasons would overlap, which would involve back-to-back consecutive practice sessions for each sport. I rode dirt bikes and raced BMX on the weekends. Basically, the only time I wasn't moving and doing something was when I slept. I took in a tremendous amount of calories on a daily basis, but also undoubtedly had an obscenely high calorie expenditure to counteract it. If I ate like that now (32 years later with a completely different lifestyle), I'm sure I'd weigh 400+ lbs. in a pretty short time. The laws of thermodynamics still applied to me back then, but both ends of the equation were at very high levels.