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My favorite explanation I found on the issue is on "The Hacker's Diet" (free ebook).

https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/

The author's theory is that the issue is not on of metabolism, but that people overeating do not have a good "I'm full" mechanism.

Most people like you that "can eat all they want and not gain weight" in reality... don't. They balance out their intake naturally, if not in the scope of a meal, over a day or so.

For example the concept of leaving unfinished food on the plate it completely alien to me (or not going for seconds if available), while most normal people just stop when they feel they are ok.

In my very personal and anecdotal experience every time I started dieting counting calories and exercising I have always lost weight, consistently, while when I stopped I gained weight back (again, consistently and predictably).

Most other diets that have a scientific basis should be efficient as well, since what they all have in common is to enforce some sort of control on your intake.

Either way I agree that it's about genetics and willpower but, not having the possibility to change genetics, the mechanism to counter it exists and it's not a mystery, it's really a psychological issue, IMHO.

> people overeating do not have a good "I'm full" mechanism

And there are people like me who rarely feel hungry. I eat because the clock tells me to.

I am one of the "eat whatever shit in a big quantity and never gain weight" people, and I think you may have a point. After discussing it turns out if you add anything I don't eat that much.

First, I never eat in the morning. And I mean never, I can't eat after waking up, I always need a few hours before being able to eat without being disgusted, I know it's bad but I don't think it has an effect really (I don't do it since I'm like 12 or 13).

Second, I NEVER eat between meals. I don't do snacks, unless someone give one to me or whatever, but you get the point, I don't fucking eat some chocolate bar everyday at 4pm, or eat chips all day because I'm bored.

I often only eat good food, or what I think is good food at least. I never use the microwaves, always buy "fresh" meat, eat vegetables aswell (only recently, not when I was a teenagers).

So in the end, I may eat like a savage during the meal earning my reputation, but in the end I don't really eat a lot of shit.

Anyway since I watched Fed Up I understand while US kids are obese. Their public cafeteria in school literally are fast food. Not to mention the retards crying out for freedom when the gouvernement even think about taking action into kids diet.

I won't even start on the sugar and science thing because it sound very threatening but I don't know enough to judge how accurate it is, even though I have no doubt it's very likely given history (hello smoking industry).

> I am one of the "eat whatever shit in a big quantity and never gain weight" people

I'm the same way.

> First, I never eat in the morning. And I mean never, I can't eat after waking up, I always need a few hours before being able to eat without being disgusted,

I'm the same way.

> I know it's bad

Why do you think it is bad? Because everyone has told you that you need a good breakfast? That it's the most important meal of the day? That's all recent and new ideology. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20243692

> I often only eat good food, or what I think is good food at least. I never use the microwaves, always buy "fresh" meat, eat vegetables aswell (only recently, not when I was a teenagers).

Here we are different. I eat good and "bad" food.

If I had to guess why I can eat anything and everything (including lots of sugary drinks) with little to no exercise and not gain weight it would be this: food passes through me. My digestive tract doesn't absorb food that well, a lot of calories just go through me. (TMI: Honestly, some foods can go through me in 2 hours.) That's what I think. (No, I don't care to go to the doctor to figure out if its true or to "fix" it because frankly, it doesn't negatively affect me as far as I'm concerned.)

The author's theory? Why do I care what the creator of Autodesk's theory on weight loss and diet is?

Why is Hacker News so fast to pooh-pooh the study in the linked article and declare it as fake science, but we're happy to accept a completely unproven and untested theory from someone with no expertise in the field? Because it's called "The Hacker's Diet"?

You wouldn't give a nutritionist's opinion on Javascript frameworks much credence, so don't take your diet advice from programmers.

One supports the opinion of the commenters, the other doesn't, so "obviously" the one which supports their opinion is good and the other one is just fake science.

> Some people won't need your plan because they stay at low weight no matter what they eat.

This is just not true. I find that the people who say that actually eat a lot less calorie wise than they think. Eat 4500 calories per day for 2 years and see if you stay skinny. McDonalds 2 times a day is more like 2000 calories at the very high end. It takes time to eat 4500 cals per day, most skinny people can't do it at all but it's easy for fat people. Eating only unhealthy food every day doesn't really say anything about energy in vs energy out

My guess is that you simply overestimate how much you eat, perhaps by a lot. I'm pretty sure that people who are skinny without much struggle (or struggle to gain weight) generally overestimate their caloric intake, and people who struggle with their weight generally underestimate their caloric intake.

It really is that simple and these vague self-reports are worse than useless.

People aren't capable of "judging" how many calories they consume. I bet if we compared you to someone who's gaining weight we'd find your ideas of "portion" are off by a factor of 2-3 and that's why they're gaining weight and you're not.

It's probably true that I eat less than a typical overweight person. But the thing is, I eat as much as I want, and sometimes even a bit more. Do you think it's just because our ideas of portion size are different? I think it's more plausible that I'm just less hungry than they are, for some reason that has nothing to do with willpower.

You're right, there are certainly many mental factors that contribute to weight gain, such as hunger, willpower etc. that vary from person to person. However, as far as actual physical weight gain (controlling for height and muscle mass), the dominating factor is calories in vs. calories out.

For people like you who are tall and skinny and it seems impossible to gain weight, you are either not eating as much as you think you are consistently (i.e. not correctly tracking your calorie intake) or you are grossly underestimating how many calories obese people consume on a daily basis.

Just eating at McDonalds 1-2 times a day doesn't mean anything if you are just getting a burger, but if you get three burgers, a large fry and large coke on a daily basis, that is going to make a difference.

Along with mental factors, poor dietary upbringing, as well as horrible (and consistently changing) nutrition advice are strong contributors to problems with weight gain.

Very true. I'm the same height as you and weigh 230. I eat like a bird (not exactly but likely less than 2000 calories per day) and do not lose any weight. The only time I've managed to lose weight was on a raw vegetable juice diet.