söndag 14 november 2010

Why Are Thin People Not Fat?

I've been watching documentaries lately, well it's not really lately anymore because I've switched over to watching tons of dorama. :D School is a bit easier for a while now too so I thought I'd catch up on some series that I've been wanting to see/finish watching.


But that's not what I was going to talk about. A while ago I was depressed about my weight and looked on the site where I find documentaries after something about weight-loss. It always makes me feel better seeing people who are worse off than me (does that make me a horrible person...) which is one of the reasons I love watching shows like Biggest Looser and the likes. Anyway, I found a documentary with the title Why Are Thin People Not Fat? and felt that this was a question I wanted an answer to. There were a few different parts to it but the most interesting was an experiment they did with thin people where they had them eat 5000 calories a day for about a month with no exercise to see how their bodies reacted. They all gained weight, around 5 kg each but their reactions to it was different. One of them gained not fat but muscles! His body got a lot of extra nutrient but didn't want to get fat so it produced muscle (this without exercise) which consumes more energy than fat thus using more of the food he ate for things other than getting fat.

I wish my body would do that... :(
And even though they all gained weight they lost all or almost all of it in the following two weeks. The bastards.

What the scientists deducted from this (and other) experiment was that all people have a weight that their body is going to deem ideal, it can be 50 kg or 150 kg, and that it will strive towards. That means that if you overeat your body will try to adjust so that the extra energy goes elsewhere. But it also means that when you're trying to loose weight your body will do everything to go back to the weight that it wants.
They had made experiments with overweight people where they lost weight and then were put on a diet made to maintain that weight, basically eating normally. When they measured their brain-activity it was sending signals equivalent of a semi-starving person doing everything to make the person eat more food. So if these people were going to keep the weight off they were going to have to live with battling their brain for the rest of their lives.

The documentary was very interesting but extremely disheartening, basically telling you that whatever you do your body has the last say in what you weigh. I'm not completely convinced though, there are a lot of people who have lost a lot of weight and kept it off and I'm going to join that group, no matter what my body wants!
I've already lost almost 15kg and I'll fight to keep it sinking! Yeah fighto-oh!

The documentary can be seen here for those interested:

6 kommentarer:

  1. 15 kg, that's AMAZING!! Go you!
    But dude, that really is disheartening ;__;
    but I don't think anyone's body's ideal weight would be like 150 :/ but I guess I can never be thin and that makes me sad 8(

    You look great though!! You rly do, so don't forget that! :)

    SvaraRadera
  2. @KAVKI
    Thank you. <3
    And you look amazing too! You always have and always will. :)

    SvaraRadera
  3. whoa, that got me depressed ;________________; urgh D: hapy thoughts, happy thoughts XD

    SvaraRadera
  4. @Fluff
    Yeah I know... That's why I had to start thinking of all the people who have made it, and there are a lot of people who manage to lose weight and stay thin, so it can be done! :)

    SvaraRadera
  5. I to do belive that we all have a ideal weight, the one the body wants to strive to. But at the same time our minds lay out the traps we fall into. >.<

    Congratz on the 15kg! It's great, and it shows, you look smashing!

    SvaraRadera
  6. I have always figured this, but I think maybe it may be because the body is so used to being that size that the people's brains reacted in such a way. Maybe after a few years of maintaining healthy calorie intake and such, they will no longer respond like they're starving and the body and brain will adjust. Congrats on the 15kg, I know how hard it is losing weight and the thin line you toe with it. I hope to be able to lose as much as you have.

    SvaraRadera