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Comment by tomp | Hacker News Reader

> regardless of how much they eat and how little they exercise, never put on weight?

If I had to choose between thermodynamics and medicine being wrong, and people not being able to accurately estimate how "much" they eat and how "little" they exercise, I'd bet all my money on the latter.

The simple reality is, people have vastly different appetites. I eat fast and am always hungry. I have two coworkers, one eats quite a bit less than me (often struggles to finish a standard portion), the other eats mich more but quite slowly.

3 different people, 3 vastly different eating habits. The reason people gain different amounts of weight most likely isn't in the differences between our bodies, but the differences between our minds.

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I never understand the thermodynamics argument in terms of weight gain. Surely you acknowledge that some solar cells and mechanical engines are more efficient than others?

Additionally, do you acknowledge that some drives are more irresistible than others? Can you hold your breath until you pass out?

Is it so hard to imagine these drives might differ from person to person? I fully acknowledge that, irrespective of your body's efficiency, if you could ignore your drive magically, you would lose weight with no problem, but that is far from a useful endpoint because the drive matters.

Some people's bodies just burn more calories in resting than others. Or their resting isn't as resting as they think - look at people who sit but their leg twitches up and down.

Ultimately it's still calories in vs out. But the out isn't just burning 500 calories running. It's what you burn doing your day to day too.

My point is exactly that it's drive that differs, not metabolism. For the latter, see e.g.:

https://examine.com/faq/does-metabolism-vary-between-two-peo...

Metabolic rate does vary, and technically there could be large variance. However, statistically speaking it is unlikely the variance would apply to you. The majority of the population exists in a range of 200-300kcal from each other and do not possess hugely different metabolic rates.

Your body is not a bomb calorimeter. If you're looking to thermodynamics to explain weight loss or gain you'll be disappointed.

It's not that far off. If you're not looking at calories in and calories out first, you'll be disappointed. Thermodynamics doesn't cease to operate inside the human body.

Sure, if you're tracking your food intake closely, maintaining a significant deficit, and not losing weight, talk to a doctor about your thyroid. If you're putting in hours in the gym and eating a lot and not gaining any muscle, talk to your doctor about your testosterone level. But if you're looking to hormones and whatnot first, you're probably just deluding yourself.

Are you suggesting that lowering daily caloric intake to 0 would not result in weight loss? Why bother eating then?

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