Comment by readme | Hacker News Reader

Comment by readme | Hacker News Reader

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Calories, although the simplicity of the thermodynamics analogy seems simple are not the only factor at play here.

The basic reason is that your body can increase or decreased its energy expenditure drastically in response to increased or decrease consumption of calories.

I'm reading The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung right now and he presents a very strong argument that the cause of obesity is insulin resistance.

In the book he cites both overfeeding studies where subjects were fed very large numbers of calories but did not gain weight, as well underfeeding studies where subjects ate only 500 calories a day but didn't lose weight.

After reading this I'm pretty damn convinced that the diet problems facing us are: highly refined carbohydrates, sugar and sugar substitutes, and alcohol (I haven't come across this in his work, but if you look at the stuff by Dr. Lustig you'll see sugar and alcohol are incredibly similar metabolically)

Think about this: for most of human history we did not count calories and yet we were not obese.

It's the highly processed western diet of breads, cakes, cereals, soda, etc that are the culprit.

I don't know. I read and really enjoyed this book, and even follow a mild version of intermittent fasting for a while. (only ate 12pm-8pm for a while).

Then a few months ago I started following some fitness YouTuber's advice, which mostly boils down to "count calories and consume less calories than your body uses". I started a basic course of counting calories and eating at a deficit, and dropped ~7kg in a few months (and hopefully am still going).

It wasn't even that hard - mostly counting everything and cutting out some of the stuff that is really high in calories. I still ate fairly well, e.g. I'd eat my favorite hamburger - just would skip the fries to be under the calorie count.

Of course I've only done this for a few months and it's hard to say if my body will eventually force me to expend less energy.

I take comfort in the fact that a lot of bodybuilders go to extreme lengths to drop down in body fat, so they've done anecdotal research on this area a lot. And most of them are not following intermittent fasting, or keto, or anything like that - they're just reducing calorie intake when needed, and going up and down in weight fairly consistently.

keep in mind a lot of body builders will also do unhealthy things to reach their aesthetic goals, like steroids.

congratulations on your cut

A great book as well is The Hungry Brain by Stephan J. Guyenet. It looks at the neurology of eating, overweight and obesity, and there is a ton there. Basically, most of the popular theories (insulin, microbiome, willpower, sugar, etc.) are only a tiny bit right, and the truth is predictably holistic, mostly driven by things that are not acting under conscious control. There are of very interesting studies covered in that book.

It is physically impossible to consume 500 calories a day and not lose body weight if you are making even a basic effort to exercise. That might work for a week, it won't for 6 months.

I see he's written a book. I don't see any peer reviewed papers or actual scientific studies that have been reproduced by others.

The book cites somewhere between 20 and 100 peer reviewed scientific papers, maybe those pages aren't available in the preview you were able to find.

I can't find the exact part of the book where he mentions the guy who ate 500 cal/day and didn't lose weight, but when I find it again I'll note it. This person did have serious hormonal issues, though. Most people of course, 500 cal a day and also exercise weight will come off, how permanently is another question.

Yes that is simply incorrect, you will lose crazy amount of weight on 500 kcal a day. Maybe it was for rodents?

I think I saw somewhere on hackernews a calculation that for only maintaining you body temp it takes 800-900 kcal. That is not even taking into account breathing, blood circulation, etc.

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