Re: Update on my weight regain

Polar Light said:

Quoted message said:

I have become relatively skeptical about all these claims about
metabolism, lately.

True. After all, it's a question of physics:

But it's not. I find it hard to believe people don't think the body can
adapt to survival by making choices of where to spend resources. Plus it
has been shown to happen, so there's not much to argue about.

Quoted message said:

if it takes a certain amount of
energy for something (chemical reaction, motion, temperature change, etc.)
to happen, how can it happen on a lot less energy? I've seen claims that
your metabolism 'will drop down to 50%', this doesn't make any sense, after
all if your body could be run on half the energy, why not do it all the
time?

When my car is low on gass i drive slower. Why don't i drive slower all
the time?

Quoted message said:

Our bodies must have been designed for irregular eating, otherwise why the
limitless ability to store fat? If we were designed to eat 3 or 4 regular
meals day in day out, we'd only be able to store a few pounds of fat for,
say, a period of sickness during which we couldn't eat.

But interestingly we don't store other things like essential fatty acids
and proteins. But we store fat.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Yes, anything will do for losing a few pounds, that's what crash
diets were created for: people who need to shake off a few pounds
quickly. The problem starts when obese people want to drop 50 or
100lbs on one of these plans, you can live on cabbage soup for a
week but not for 6 months.

Although I agree with you, what I did last week (and plan on repeating
this week) was not a crash diet. I ate, probably, around 1,500 cals
per day.

I just mentioned it 'coz people say it would 'screw your metabolism'. Any
diet or meal plan followed for only a short time is not likely to have
long-term ill effects unless you have a medical condition.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I've seen claims that your metabolism 'will drop down to 50%', this
doesn't make any sense, after all if your body could be run on half
the energy, why not do it all the time? If you could tweak your car
to run on 50% of the fuel, would you tweak it back to use the full
amount?

Not so sure about cars. Um, compare two cars, a Toyota Corolla with a
small engine, and a Corvette with a big V8. Both, really, do the same
thing, which getting the driver from point A to point B. But the
Corvette will burn a lot more fuel. Why do people choose Corvettes? I
would not choose one, but they have their reasons.

You're comparing two different cars, which is like two different bodies. I
wouldn't have lost 3lbs in a week eating 1,500 cals/day 'coz I have a
smaller body. But I was referring to the car you already have and being able
to run it on a lot less fuel whilst getting the same performance from it, as
it's supposed to happen with your body when your metabolism gets 'screwed up
by dieting'.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Our bodies must have been designed for irregular eating, otherwise
why the limitless ability to store fat? If we were designed to eat 3
or 4 regular meals day in day out, we'd only be able to store a few
pounds of fat for, say, a period of sickness during which we
couldn't eat. If there's any BMR change, it's likely to be +/- 10%
or thereabouts and only temporarily, it's not like if you starve
yourself for a week you'll have a lower BMR forever.

All true. I am not in the least concerned that one or two weeks of
eating once a day (with regular eating on weekend) are going to ruin
my metabolism.

I don't think you can really 'ruin your metabolism' as such. It does slow
down a little on low cal intake but you still lose weight, and so do
anorexics who eat almost nothing. And it picks up as soon as you eat more
cals, it doesn't stay 'lowered' forever. There are some people with
metabolic issues but they quite rare and have other causes.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Ignoramus8220 said:

Not so sure about cars. Um, compare two cars, a Toyota Corolla with a
small engine, and a Corvette with a big V8. Both, really, do the same
thing, which getting the driver from point A to point B. But the
Corvette will burn a lot more fuel. Why do people choose Corvettes? I
would not choose one, but they have their reasons.

Stick to discussing LC, you don't know much about cars. A Corolla and a
Corvette "do the same thing" only for a very broad definition of "the
same thing", and the reason one burns more fuel than another under
different conditions has little to do with metabolism.

KeS