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Comment by belltaco | Hacker News Reader

> These people didn’t magically create mass from nothing. They ate too much for their activity. Done. Stop doing that if you don’t want to gain weight

Not true.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/science-reveals-w...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5082693/

> discovered that certain Russian populations had large intestines that were about 57 centimeters longer on average than those of certain Polish populations. Because the final stages of nutrient absorption occur in the large intestine, a Russian eating the same amount of food as a Pole is likely to get more calories from it. People also vary in the particular enzymes they produce. By some measures, most adults do not produce the enzyme lactase, which is necessary to break down lactose sugars in milk. As a result, one man's high-calorie latte is another's low-calorie case of the runs.

> Call out: Germ-free mice can eat more and gain less weight than conventional mice

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> "certain Russian populations"

Yes, of course. There are always outliers. But 50+% of the American population doesn't fall into this bucket, do they? Nor did they suddenly become that after they were born (i.e., obesity is a relatively new problem and not so much driven by DNA else why didn't it exist so much even just 50 yrs ago?).

We keep looking for all kinds of "answers" to obesity but we already have the one that works for most people most of the time:

Take in more calories than you burn, and those extra calories will become added weight.

That's it. It is *that* simple.

But people refuse to change their diet and/or lifestyle. In fact they're being told it's not their fault, as if someone else is responsible for what goes in their mouth and their sedentary lifestyles.

But what if consuming as low amount of calories as needed to be equal to or less than energy expended leaves you constantly feeling tired and with headaches and such from eating so little?

Is this not something that actually happens?

It seems like a spiral of doom. Eat less, so now I have even less energy for activity and thus now I am burning less energy, so I need to eat even less...

Sure. That sucks. But so does diabetes, strokes, heart attacks, and premature death.

The ultimate solution is prevention. But bring that up and you're accessed of being insensitive, fat shaming, etc. We've normalized the abnormal, and too few what to see that reversed.

It might be that simple from a high level conceptual standpoint, but when the amount of calories you burn passively adjusts up or down as your body fights to maintain its weight, it is much more complex.

Agreed. But that's a weight *loss* issue.

The more basic "Why has there been a rise in obesity?" keeps being asked, and that's already answered.

The idea that people are falling asleep next to a pod and waking up with too much weight for some mysterious reason is a false narrative. It's not making anyone any more aware or any healthier.

I agree that would be a false narrative to some extent, but in this thread I don't see a better explanation. Just the idea that in e.g. parts of the USA they have been told it's impossible to control their weight, so they then go on to eat too much and exercise less than in other places and other times in history, doesn't make any sense to me as an explanation. Apologies if that's not what you're saying.

> The more basic "Why has there been a rise in obesity?" keeps being asked, and that's already answered.

to my knowledge, it has not. Researchers are still trying to understand why.

That's a different why. That a:

Why are people eating so many calories?

Why aren't people getting off the sofa and moving?

The actual "mechanic" of weight gain are well known. That's not up for debate. But for some reason, it is. And the gains keep on coming.

Sigh. Exhibit A of lazy internet arguing.

The things you linked are completely irrelevant. First link: The calorie counts of food are wrong? Sure. Absolutely. No shock there. Treat them as rough estimates.

Second link: different people are different? Whoa. Wow. Oh man, mind blown.

What you naively describe as "not true", the universe itself would describe as bedrock reality.

Despite the bad scientism (i.e. coping) everyone hides behind, nothing changes the fact that if you burn more calories than you consume, you'll loose weight.

If you aren't loosing weight AND counting all of your calories, guess what: you've counted wrong. Dial them back more. Keep dialing back until results are achieved. The gym bros have truly found This One Weird Trick that works 100% of the time.

You just proved the point you want to disprove. Those that absorb more calories gain more weight, thus CICO.

The problem is, it still boils down to CICO due to thermodynamics. That means they're still eating too much given a certain amount of physical activity.

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