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Comment by yieldcrv | Hacker News Reader

This is interesting as this is my default, and I am pretty lean. I often have to remember to eat or check if I did, and lament that its a chore. I enjoy food and the dining experience, but I would be fine with that being an entertainment option once a week too.

I wonder if there is enough research on how gut bacteria influences these things, because if this is what people want maybe I could sell mine.

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I saw a documentary once about people who effortlessly remain at a healthy weight, and their activities were tracked for a couple of weeks, revealing;

* Unexpected bursts of random activity like dancing for a few minutes or moving heavy furniture, that these people didn't even notice, while still doing no deliberate exercise,

* Binging like suddenly eating a whole pizza, but then eating next to nothing the next day because "too busy", without putting thought into it. This would be bad for you on the scale of months, but fine over one week.

So, of course, they made up for all the calories they seemed to be taking in. There's an implication that this is instinctual, or just fortunate habits. In my case, I also burn energy arguing, puzzling, and worrying, and I naturally radiate more heat than most, and although I'll happily try to eat a whole tiramisu by myself I seem to have a small stomach and don't attempt it often anyway. So although I think of myself as lazy and gluttonous, I guess I'm just fortuitously, circumstantially not. Imprison me in a restaurant, I'd probably get fat.

Edit: right now I'm idly eating chocolate while I type. But I have no other food in the house, except three bananas. That's because I didn't organize it, because I'm lazy, but what "lazy" really means is a complex subconscious strategy, I think.

This is something that I like to ask friends and acquaintances: Would you rather take a pill that gives you perfect nutrition and nullifies your hunger feeling or a pill that the gives you perfect nutrition and nullifies any other calories you eat.

It's pretty much 50/50. Which is weird, as you'd think that eating is only a pleasure when hungry and I'm proposing them a way to get rid of hunger. Even weirder is that I personally would take the second pill and enjoy my gluttonous lifestyle.

Regarding this thread: I personally decided for myself that if I can be stubborn towards my wife, friends and mom (and I am a stubborn SOB) I sure as hell can be stubborn towards my own bodily desires. I removed all meals except once per day and pretty much all desserts. Fuck what my body thinks it desires, if it needs it that much it can go fix a meal while I sleep.

That's some philosophical weirdness right there. I guess we're kind of into the biological aspects of the human condition and don't want to part with them, because they're like a fun, mildly disgusting game. There'd have to be some other entertaining lifestyle that you gain in exchange, and you'd have to be sure you could dig it before you'd agree to the switch.

I want both... Some days, in particular when working hard or focusing on something, food is just fuel and not something I want to spend time on. I'd definitely take that first pill for those days.

But I also really like cooking. If I have the time I don't mind spending hours in the kitchen to prepare something. I don't really need that second pill yet, but sometimes you just want to pig out...

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