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Comment by gumby | Hacker News Reader

Why? It’s been a few years since I saw him last but the diet had really helped him to lose a lot of weight and keep it off.

I know others who have lost a lot of weight with it. And his “floater/sinker” graph has been copied in several applications.

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I think it's solving the wrong problem. If I look at a picture of Mr. Walker himself,

https://through-the-interface.typepad.com/through_the_interf...

(just the first one that came up on a Google Search)

This doesn't look like a fit and healthy man and I don't some that isn't fit and healthy should dole out advice on how to control a chaotic system such as human physiology using engineering.

Perhaps - and this is a theory I subscribe to: less fat/weight loss isn't what we're trying to achieve as a goal. Perhaps just being fit is. And fit looks different for different people because genetics. And what I mean is, is there lean muscle mass on a person's body (irregardless of % of fat, to a large degree). If I look at this photo of Mr. Walker, to me he looks skinny fat, which I think is just as bad as being "fat".

Just as an idea - as one who has a BMI of 25.8 and who could also run a marathon, then pump out 10 or so pullups. I think fat % or weight in general is just the wrong metric to use.

What is "lean muscle" regardless of fat?

Take a look at a sub elite/elite power lifter. They may be have a body composition of 20%+ fat, but they are also packing a lot of lean muscle. For the most part, I would call that a healthy individual, even though they're BMI (which is... problematic) would say that this person is overweight and in need of a diet. That doesn't even pass the sniff test for me.

Thinness is not the goal you want to achieve. It's a very easy goal to achieve when compared to being a fit individual. Starve yourself and you're done.

You can not starve yourself into being a fit individual.

As someone who follows too many fitness influencers, it sounds like you follow too many fitness influencers. Muscle is lean by definition. This guy isn't fit, but I don't think he claims to be. He's a software developer who seems to be uninterested in fitness as a concept, he just doesn't want to be obese, which he isn't.

Yes, being fit, strong, and lean is harder than not being extremely overweight. But not everyone cares about that.

We're actually not assessing him very differently. But I'm saying being "thin" and "weak" is just as big of a problem as, "fat" and "weak". The problem isn't being fat, it's being "weak". If I'm assessing someone and they have 30% bodyfat, but are as strong as an ox, I'm not worried about their long term health. I use the example of a advanced power lifter in a post, upstream - you know a someone that looks like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5ywwZlESOU

Chiseled abs and a penchant for energy drinks isn't needed. If I was to be critical, I'd say that low of a body fat % for long periods of time is counter productive to overall fitness and ugh: the shit you find in some energy drinks.

When you say that being skinny fat is bad, in what sense do you mean that, and what evidence is there for it? Are you talking about aesthetics, cardiac risk, mortality risk, quality of life, or something else? Do you mean e.g. with 5kg extra fat but no extra muscle he'd have equal risk of a heart attack?

Your logic seems to be “he doesn’t look like a fitness influencer, therefore he’s not fit and healthy”, and I’m not sure that stacks up. Maybe his goals are not the same as yours, and you shouldn’t conflate them?

I'm specifically not and as an aside I don't look like a fitness influencer either. I'm absolutely saying his goals are not the same as mine as I am literally saying losing weight shouldn't be the end all, be all goal. It should be having a good amount of muscle. The photo I posted makes me think that this guy is just skinny fat, which is what happens when champion diet over exercise.

He looks fit and healthy to me, for someone who isn't an athlete.

No diet builds muscle.

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