Re:Energy Compensation and Adiposity in Humans
by inglor_cz on Friday September 24, 2021 @02:21PM
(#28646024)
Saying that
humans (or other animals, because this problem is not unique to humans) gain weight because they consume more calories than they burn
is like saying that
planes crash because the force of gravity became stronger than the lift generated by the wings.
An obvious physical truism, but it gets you nowhere on the field of disaster. And if you do not dig further into the problem (pilot error? machine malfunction? controlled flight into terrain?), you won't be able to prevent future disasters.
For starters, short of outright starvation (0 is certainly 0), we do not even know how many calories we eat, and we might never be able to find out. The values written on the packaging are measured by burning said food in calorimeters, but our bodies aren't calorimeters and there is a huge systemic error, perhaps 30 per cent. Even chewing the food longer can increase the total calorie intake from the same meal.
Personally, I had reasonable and sustainable results with intermittent fasting. Blood pressure normalized, waistline diminished, though not to the point of having a sixpack. But I didn't have the same sustainable results with generic calorie restriction and 5 meals a day. I was miserable, cold and felt hungry all the time. That is not life.
None of those bad effects seem to be present on IF.
humans (or other animals, because this problem is not unique to humans) gain weight because they consume more calories than they burn
is like saying that
planes crash because the force of gravity became stronger than the lift generated by the wings.
An obvious physical truism, but it gets you nowhere on the field of disaster. And if you do not dig further into the problem (pilot error? machine malfunction? controlled flight into terrain?), you won't be able to prevent future disasters.
For starters, short of outright starvation (0 is certainly 0), we do not even know how many calories we eat, and we might never be able to find out. The values written on the packaging are measured by burning said food in calorimeters, but our bodies aren't calorimeters and there is a huge systemic error, perhaps 30 per cent. Even chewing the food longer can increase the total calorie intake from the same meal.
Personally, I had reasonable and sustainable results with intermittent fasting. Blood pressure normalized, waistline diminished, though not to the point of having a sixpack. But I didn't have the same sustainable results with generic calorie restriction and 5 meals a day. I was miserable, cold and felt hungry all the time. That is not life.
None of those bad effects seem to be present on IF.