Why Aren't Thin People Fat?

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

Thanks!  I will!

While I agree that people have a weight range and that this range differs between people, I have to say that just about everyone I know who is overweight eats too much, eats the wrong things, and doesn't get much exercise. It often just comes down to that, I'm afraid, and I worry that programs like this one will give people excuses to not try to change their diet to healthier foods or exercise "because they're fat because of genetics". Appetite may be linked to genetics but there is also a huge element of choice involved in how much and what people eat and what activities they might undertake to counter excessive calorie or "bad calorie" intake. The food industry, media, and other factors do have some things to answer for, but we are not slaves to these things. In short, in my experience people who make sensible food and exercise choices tend to be thin, and people who do not tend to be overweight. Sorry if this offends people - this is what I have seen to be true amongst people I know.

ETA: I do know one person who eats sensibly and is active but is just big, and she seemingly can't do anything about it - but I see this scenario as the exception rather than the rule.

I agree Ellie Jean.  I've lost and kept off about forty pounds for about 6 years now.  I had lost about fifty after being in the USAF, but I am not sure I will ever see that again.

I am in the "normal" range, just, and have run in races.  My roommate was in the low normal range and couldn't walk 2 miles. 

While I agree that people have a weight range and that this range differs between people, I have to say that just about everyone I know who is overweight eats too much, eats the wrong things, and doesn't get much exercise. It often just comes down to that, I'm afraid, and I worry that programs like this one will give people excuses to not try to change their diet to healthier foods or exercise "because they're fat because of genetics". Appetite may be linked to genetics but there is also a huge element of choice involved in how much and what people eat and what activities they might undertake to counter excessive calorie or "bad calorie" intake. The food industry, media, and other factors do have some things to answer for, but we are not slaves to these things. In short, in my experience people who make sensible food and exercise choices tend to be thin, and people who do not tend to be overweight. Sorry if this offends people - this is what I have seen to be true amongst people I know.

ETA: I do know one person who eats sensibly and is active but is just big, and she seemingly can't do anything about it - but I see this scenario as the exception rather than the rule.

Just curious, how many thin friends do you have? And how many fat ones?

To maintain my weight, I consume about 1200 calories a day. To maintain her weight, my workout buddy, who weighs about the same, eats about 1600 calories a day. We maintain about the same level of physical activity (admittedly, not very high.) If behaviour rather than genetics, is the driving force behind weight loss and maintenance, how can my situation be explained?

Of course, food and exercise affect weight - isn't that stating the obvious?  What real science (not just 'the people that I know') is now finding out (and has been for some time) is that the amount of sensible food, the amount of exercise, people's ability to 'just stop eating', make changes, the social/environmental factors etc etc are different for each individual person - meaning that it's just not always that simple.  (Along the lines of what Elliejean has said.)  What's really offensive is when people spout off like - 'Just pull yerself up by yer bootstraps, eat less, and exercise more.  I mean I can do it - why can't you?'  (implication:  I am superior and you are not)

Unless a person has walked in the shoes (been in the bodies, in the minds, and felt the feelings) of those individual overweight people that some people seem to think it's okay to judge in that fashion ('simple as that'), then you have no idea and are in no position to judge them.

Unless a person has walked in the shoes (been in the bodies, in the minds, and felt the feelings) of those individual overweight people that some people seem to think it's okay to judge in that fashion ('simple as that'), then you have no idea and are in no position to judge them.

 

Bless you, Mrs R. You said it so much better than I could.

I think it is way to complicated to ever really be easily measured the way people want it to be.

Clearly, what is important is health and that has so many aspects.  You can be overweight, active and healthy.  But then you couldn't just look at someone and judge them, so that isn't the easy way.   

Bless you, Mrs R. You said it so much better than I could.

Heh.  That wasn't my initial response. 

But fortunately, some others posted and I worked my way around to calm & measured. 

I have also always been big.  I weighed nine pounds at birth, was always taller and sturdier than my classmates at elementary school, never been smaller than a US 12 since the age of 16.  I was the biggest by a long mile on the softball team, though I did the same workouts as the other girls. And I walk everywhere, all the time (never had a car, in high school I walked 4 miles round trip to school every day, the same for a job I had a few years ago). Once in college I went on a diet/exercise program.  I did at least an hour of cardio and weights at least 4 days a week, and monitored my calorie and fat intake very carefully.  I was very disciplined and didn't cheat once.  After 6 months, I had lost 6 pounds.  I gave up.  My body simply doesn't want to be thin, it never has been thin, and I really don't think it can be thin.  I am OK with this.  I have to be, or I would spend my life hating myself and trying to be something I'm not, and this I will not do. 

One thing I heard a few years ago, and apologies for not having a citation for this, is that people who are inclined to be overweight have stronger cravings and are actually hungrier, more often, than people inclined to be thin.  So it is not just a question of us putting in as much effort as those others, we actually have to put in condsiderably more.  And for many of us, the meager results of those efforts just don't make the struggle worth it.       

...that people who are inclined to be overweight have stronger cravings and are actually hungrier, more often, than people inclined to be thin. 

The program touched upon this.  The thin people in the experiment just really weren't all that bothered about food, didn't indicate they had overwhelming cravings for anything, and were just kind of 'meh' - take the food or leave it.  They all really struggled to consume the amount of calories that the study required, and once it was over, they all lost what weight they had gained quite quickly in a matter of a few weeks.  Some of them said they never exercised.

It was also trying to account for where the calories went, if they didn't gain the expected amount of weight.  The one guy's body had a measurable increase in metabolic rate that appeared to just process the extra calories into muscle.  (And he wasn't a muscle-bound guy to begin with, just thin!)  Another scientist suggested that maybe, even if they weren't exercising, thin people might be twitchier or more fidgety - lol!  That is so my husband!

So it is not just a question of us putting in as much effort as those others, we actually have to put in condsiderably more.  And for many of us, the meager results of those efforts just don't make the struggle worth it.       

My doctor in the US once told me - and he meant it in the kindest, most doctorly way you can imagine - that really for me to lose all my excess weight & keep it off, I'd just have to reconcile myself somehow to pushing away from the table still feeling hungry - for the rest of my life.

I don't like the focus on weight as the main measure of health. As a kid I was always the heavy end of the see saw and I was not plump or particularly tall.

I do wonder whether going through a time of prolonged hunger affects the body's ability to store energy. I went through a really tough time when I was 17-18 and I never had enough to eat. I didn't lose much weight during this period, but once I could afford to eat again I seem to put on weight very quickly, as if my metabolism has shifted into overdrive. Unfortunately it seems to have stuck there, as if I still need to store up in case of bad times.

The thin people in the experiment just really weren't all that bothered about food, didn't indicate they had overwhelming cravings for anything, and were just kind of 'meh' - take the food or leave it. 

I don't think I've ever felt 'meh' about food!

I do wonder whether going through a time of prolonged hunger affects the body's ability to store energy. I went through a really tough time when I was 17-18 and I never had enough to eat. I didn't lose much weight during this period, but once I could afford to eat again I seem to put on weight very quickly, as if my metabolism has shifted into overdrive. Unfortunately it seems to have stuck there, as if I still need to store up in case of bad times.

I'm curious about this too.  As a teenager I suffered from an eating disorder and I am sure this is part of the reason why my metabolism works like a clapped out Skoda.

... I am sure this is part of the reason why my metabolism works like a clapped out Skoda.

Lol, I loved that!

I wish I had seen this programme, as it sounds really interesting.  I agree that there is validity in the idea that we are all built differently and some people are pre-disposed to be heavier and some thinner.  What worries me about something like this study or programme is people using it as a crutch. 

Personal experience:  I was always a skinny kid.  Low on the weight charts and height charts growing up.  I loved junk food and would eat as much candy as I could get my hands on all through Highschool.  My bedside drawer was always filled with candy and most days the first thing that passed my lips was candy.  I was relatively active in highschool running cross country and track and field.  I never topped 115 lbs.

In college, I still was active - running, swimming, gymming, walking, but not nearly the same level as in highschool.  I was also drinking and eating crappy food all the time.  I started gaining weight.   Now at age 29, I weigh approx 136-140 lbs depending on the day and I am 5ft 1in tall.  By basic BMI calculations, I am overweight.  Just before my wedding last year, I did get down to 128 lbs and just snuck in at a BMI of 24.  But that took a lot of work both diet and working with a personal trainer 3-5 times a week.  I still don't think it's my ideal weight either.  I think 122-125 is probably more realistic.  I am 100% certain that my weight gain is down to over indulgence and not enough exercise.

So what am I trying to say....I do not think that all overweight people are pre-disposed to be overweight through genes.  I hope this study doesn't just give people an excuse to say "I knew it - it's in my genes, I am meant to be overweight".   I think that there are people who genetically are overweight and have been bigger than most of their peers all their life, but still have good overall health (i.e. exercise, eat nutritious food, good tests like BP and cholesterol etc.).  They should embrace this study and hopefully feel a sense of relieve at not having to try to attain an unrealistic weight.  But for those like me....It would probably be very dangerous for me to attribute my weight gain to genes.  I think it would be a a very unhealthy thing to do in the long run.

I hope this makes sense, I realise it's a bit disjointed. And I hope I didn't offend anyone. 

I don't think I've ever felt 'meh' about food!

Me either! 

I do wonder whether going through a time of prolonged hunger affects the body's ability to store energy. 

I would think so.  Certainly this is the indication why crash diets don't work, because your body (down to the cellular level) thinks it's starving, your metabolism slows and tries to hold onto whatever it can, then once the crash diet stops - the pounds pile back on faster than ever, because your body is then trying to make up for what it lost.

I dunno - maybe I should take comfort in the fact that if some apocalypse happens, and should the world food supply dwindle away to nothing, I know who's more likely to still be alive in a year or so - and it ain't the thin people!  Call it insurance!    On the show, they were talking about an extremely obese guy who participated in some study to see how long he could go without both food & water (and still survive) and it was like a crazy long period of time, that you didn't think was possible.  He lost a lot of his excess weight.