Why Aren't Thin People Fat?

Hey everybody - let's be nice to each other on this one, okay?  Please, please, please!

There was a really interesting programme on BBC Two last Monday - Horizon's Why Aren't Thin People Fat?  Here's a link about it:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7838668.stm

Guess what they found?  It wasn't a matter of the thin people having greater willpower, being mentally stronger, etc etc...  Turns out - nature seems to have intended us to be different shapes and sizes.

People who struggle with their weight (like me) in another time (pre-modern) would have been the survivors because of our bodies' efficient ability to store fat.  'Problem' is - we don't really have famine anymore in the developed world.

And yes - there's a lot of new & exciting genetic research going on into why some people tend to get & stay fat, while others can eat what they want and stay thin (like my husband - I hate him - lol!).  In fact, it seems there are a number of genetic markers that predispose one to overweight - and ones that do different things.  Some that seem to make you an efficient fat-storer - yaye  .  Some that seem to affect some sort of (mental? hormonal?) switch on appetite - whereas some people don't have trouble when it's time to stop eating, and others can't stop eating (and not because we're worthless & weak  ).

Anyway, it was really interesting and compelling viewing!  There was one experiment they showed where they took a group of chldren in preschool care (so like 3-4 year olds), they fed them all a healthy reasonable lunch & then had the children rate their fullness using pictures, then they gave all the children crayons and pictures to colour.  While the children were colouring, they put out plates of chocolates and chocolate biscuits on the tables (without fanfare) and then just observed what the various children did.  Some children pulled the plates of goodies over to themselves & started one-by-one devouring everything on the plate.  Some children picked occasionally at things off the plate.  And some just kept on colouring, as if they weren't bothered at all by the goodies, some even pushing the plate away.  Ha!  I know what group I'd have been in.  The suggestion being that these behaviors are established well early in life.

They also talked about how weight issues may be affected by certain things while your mother carried you in utero.  For instance, if your mom was an older mother and if she was overweight during pregnancy, it increases the likelihood that a child may struggle with weight issues.  Gosh that sounded familiar!

Yeah, I'm not sure if it's good news or bad news - maybe it isn't even news really.  They said that once you've got X number of fat cells, you've got 'em - they aren't going anywhere.  They can shrink or expand in size, but you'll never have less - though your body could make more.  Boo.

Also, it's easier to lose and maintain small amounts of weight loss than large amounts, which fortunately that does have some health benefits.  Your body seems to have certain weight setpoints that it wants to keep you at.  I've been experiencing that for about the past 2-3 years, after losing quite a bit of weight upon moving to England.

The funny thing too - some of the thin people that they overfed for the study - one guy hardly gained anything at all, despite eating thousands more calories than he needed!    He actually put on muscle instead of fat, and they weren't supposed to exercise.  (Some of the thin people said they didn't regularly exercise anyway.)  Seems that his metabolic rate increased to accommodate the extra food.

This idea isn't actually that new. I saw an episode of Bullsh!t two years ago that covered the same ground pretty much: the effect of your efforts is very small compared to the effect of your genetics or other factors that are not in your control.

My husband eats way too much, I mean WAY too much.  Most of it junk.  Despite that he's never broke the 10st mark and has put on a grand total of 2lbs since the age of 18.

Myself, I rarely eat more than 1100-1200 calories a day and put on weight at a rate of knots.  I'm ok for now but it's quite miserable knowing if I pig out over a short space of time I have to go on a diet for at least a month.  Especially as I LOVE food.

Also he gets way less exercise (none) and I exercise every day.  

But then my dad is Italian and my gran is Greek so I was never going to have a small ars*.  

Oh - they also talked about middle-age spread, from age 30 on...that it's pretty much going to happen for most folks - and the typical weight gain amounts to only about an excess 7 calories a day (!!!).  So yep - all good news. 

Yep, I've known for years that I'm simply not built to be very thin, and since then have focused on being as healthy as possible.  It took a lot of the pressure off when I realised that being a size 14 for life wasn't a bad thing!  

My husband is overweight and has trouble losing weight- looking at his family I think genetics could well be a factor.  But again, we're focusing on getting healthy and fit, at which point his weight should adjust to what is natural for him.

It always bugged me that this prretty obvious fact wasn't acknowledged. We are, or we all know overweight people. And with society is the way it is, probably good 90% of those want to lose weight. But only about 5-10% succeed in losing and maintaining that loss. Does everyone think that the rest are all slobby, no-will-power-having lazy bums?

Goodness knows I wasn't meant to be thin.  I've never been thin - not as a baby, not as a child, never!  But gosh, I'd sure like to be a little less fat. 

Oh - guess what other 'revelation' the programme made?!!! 

When the thin people were struggling to get all the calories in that they were supposed to be consuming for the experiment, they turned to chocolate & it helped them along - being one of the most calorie-dense foods there is! 

Yummmmm - chocolate! 

And yes, Mort - I agree that is super-annoying...especially when that kind of thinking still seems to be so prevalent. 

Gah, I feel like I'm spamming this thread, but this topic is near and dear to my heart, so I apologize in advance.

I always thought that the attitude of people towards dieting is a manifestation of the just world fallacy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_phenomenon

"In a just world, those who work hard, get rewarded. Therefore those who stick to their diets, lose weight. Therefore, if you didn't lose weight, you didn't work hard enough! Therefore it's all your fault you fat lazy pig."

That attitude is pretty damn annoying in the general populace. The problem is, I think it's prevalent in legitimate obesity research: it's like science starts with the assumption that anyone can lose weight if they really really tried, so don't really study the physical reasons why that might be impossible.

The problem is, I think it's prevalent in legitimate obesity research: it's like science starts with the assumption that anyone can lose weight if they really really tried, so don't really study the physical reasons why that might be impossible.

I didn't get that impression with the research they were showing on this program I referenced, among the scientists they were interviewing, at least.  Maybe this is changing as they find out more?  One of the scientists they interviewed was saying how it's wrong for fat people to be stigmatized as they are in today's world, and how when he looks at them - he sees people who would have been the population's survivors (as in, evolution's survival of the fittest) in the past.  Indeed, maybe that is partly why (along with a constant supply of food - no famine) weight problems are so prevalent today, because our ancestors did survive & pass it on through the gene pool of time.

Don't worry about spamming or talking about it - it's good to talk about it. 

I think it's also an issue of access and class in modern times.

Weight is tied both to the quality of food we can afford and to access to exercise (such as gym, swimming, etc.) and therefore, income.

Further, if one is disabled / has a physical impairment, both of these things may be economically restricted, due to poor access to education and employment, as a result.

Maintaining health is seen as morally right and just in modern society, IMO, but does not analyse social factors which may impede managing health. In fact, not managing one's health is pathologised, as if people live in a social and economic vacuum.

Just my two pence.

  

I wish I'd seen the show now.

I'm sick of people using the word "fitness" as a euphemism for "thinness".

That's one thing that annoys me about the Wii Fit game I got for Christmas.  It insists you set a goal that will "help you in your progress" but the only goal is a weight goal! No goal in how much time you'll spend exercising, or improved scores for coordination or whatever.

My weight fell in its "ideal BMI" range and it still wanted me to set my weight goal.  When I set the goal for "no change" it congratulated me on achieving my goal!    More annoying than that though, was the fact that it introduced my children to the whole idea of BMI and weight "goals" when we've never owned a scale or really talked about the kids weight, as they're healthy eaters and a healthy size.

I made a big deal of telling them about how BMI doesn't necessarily tell you anything about a person's fitness or health and how I disliked that aspect of the game.  We love the balance board though, and we like to play the games.

I think it's also an issue of access and class in modern times.

Weight is tied both to the quality of food we can afford

This, this, a million times this.  AND it is a self-perpetuating cycle.  Prepackaged food, which "appears" cheapest and easiest for a whole set of people who never learned to cook (either because they grew up in families where there was no one to teach them or they grew up in families that they themselves didn't know how to cook) is also the most calorie dense and worst nutritionally.  And when you aren't getting the nutrition you need, you stay hungry and crave more food... spiral away!

I've recently read "The Omnivore's Dilemma", which is written specifically about the American food industry.  The insight this book gave me into the corn economy alone was enough to put me off eating products with unnecessary corn-based ingredients forever.  The fact that corn-derived calories were the cheapest to produce and, when you had a theoretical maximum number of calories to "battle" against (population x daily calorie needs = max number of potential consumable calories) the only way to increase your profits was to a) increase the max number of potential consumable calories or b) make sure your calories were the ones people ate!

The fact of the matter is that few people have/remember their education about nutrition.  Food items = food, and if you sneak in a banana once a day with your prepackaged pizza rolls and white bread bagel with processed cheese spread and your hamburger helper, then you've been healthy.  I think it's been shown time and time again that eating "food" (actual food rather than processed "food items") isn't really that much more expensive, but it is more time consuming and more demanding, and people simply don't have the knowledge or the patience or the time to make healthier decisions. 

I wish I'd seen the show now.

I'm sick of people using the word "fitness" as a euphemism for "thinness".

Agreed. Doing what you can to be healthy is the most important. And not berating yourself if you can't actively maintain your health, for whatever barriers you experience.

I wish I'd seen the show now.

You can probably still catch it on I-Player, either on your TV or online, at least up until this evening.

Gah, I feel like I'm spamming this thread, but this topic is near and dear to my heart, so I apologize in advance.

I always thought that the attitude of people towards dieting is a manifestation of the just world fallacy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_phenomenon

"In a just world, those who work hard, get rewarded. Therefore those who stick to their diets, lose weight. Therefore, if you didn't lose weight, you didn't work hard enough! Therefore it's all your fault you fat lazy pig."

That attitude is pretty damn annoying in the general populace. The problem is, I think it's prevalent in legitimate obesity research: it's like science starts with the assumption that anyone can lose weight if they really really tried, so don't really study the physical reasons why that might be impossible.

My feeling is a bit different.  It's not about apportioning or shifting blame, although that's always what it seems to turn into; a choice between "it's not my fault, it's my genes/health condition/etc." and "fat people are lazy and stupid".  Rather than trying to assign blame, it's better to recognize that with the right help and amount of determination, it shouldn't be impossible to lose weight for anyone.  

But there's a huge spectrum of difficulty involved as well.  Some people lose weight easily.  For others, they will need loads of help, support, and determination, because they have way more to contend with (the aforementioned genetics/health conditions/etc. ).  So everyone who has a weight problem needs to decide at some point whether it really is a problem for them, and choose whether or not to deal with it and the level of obstacles they personally face in doing it.  But that's personal, and there's no call for anyone to judge from the outside.  I remember watching a Rosemary Conley episode where a girl lost a stone in a month.  Rosemary's words were "that's pathetic".  I thought, what a horrible cow that woman is.  14 pounds is 14 pounds, and in the right direction, regardless of whether Rosemary thought she should have lost more (and 14 pounds in a month is excellent progress).  People need encouragement and compassion when they're struggling with weight, not criticism and judgement.  It is, after all, an ongoing thing.  I've lost 115 pounds since 2006 - and put on 35 pounds during my pregnancy, which I hope to take off again as soon as possible (I'm really hoping breastfeeding will help).  But it's not something I'm ever going to be able to leave behind me.  I'm always going to have to watch my weight, and I'll never forget how hard it was.  

Which is good - reminds me not to take others' struggles for granted either.