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A comment on A Mathematical Challenge to Obesity. Parent comment

Re:A Mathematical Challenge to Obesity by colomon on Tuesday May 15, 2012 @04:15PM (#3978550)
On consideration, it occurs to me that the original article may mean "extra over your maintenance calories".

In other words, suppose the obese guy needs 3500 calories a day to maintain his weight, and the skinny guy needs 2000. Then I guess it might be true that if the obese guy eats 3510 calories a day, he will gain weight faster than the skinny guy eating 2010. That seems counter-intuitive but at least plausible.

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Re:A Mathematical Challenge to Obesity by waterlesscloud on Tuesday May 15, 2012 @05:20PM (#3978929)
I suspect the actual meaning is that 10 extra pounds on the 200 pound guy takes more to maintain than 10 extra pounds on the 300 pound guy.

In other words, it's not a linear relationship.

That seems to make a lot of sense, actually.

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Re:A Mathematical Challenge to Obesity by runhomequick on Tuesday May 15, 2012 @04:33PM (#3978660)
For most people, extra calories will be split between being stored or being burned for energy by muscles. It's easy to fidget those 10 calories away if you aren't lethargic (which overeating for the obese is likely to cause).
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