Not Reeaaaally [connection between weight and what you eat]

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

I took nutrition class in college when I was a sophomore. Freshman year, I started out pretty heavy, then gradually lost a lot of weight (going from about 220 to 170 or so). It was influenced by a few different factors: having sole choice in my food options for the first time in my life (my mom loved fatty indulgent home cooking), walking everywhere on and off campus, and not having a lot of money for food or a job to earn more money for food and/or booze. After living at home and working during the summer, I was about 180lbs and taking the class; we had a food diary requirement for a full week, but our intake was required to measure at least 1600 calories to count toward the assignment. It took me about two or three days to break the 1530 mark until I figured out that adding a couple pieces of fruit per day would do it. I still walked around every day, but having a steady source of income for groceries and not having any real intense exercise regime made it so that I was pudgy, but not fat throughout that time.

Eating small in combination with not enough activity is often where my problem lies; I often eat past satiety (clean plate club member), and sometimes eat to the point of feeling STUFFED. Given that I’m living in an area where everything is walkable or bikeable, I am able to maintain a lower weight; however, I am making inroads to correcting some of the bad eating behavior I learned as a kid and am taking more time to actually exercise, even if it’s walking uphill on a treadmill while reading a book/watching tv.

22

Nah- a real warning has your butt sore for weeks.

Trust me.

23

Yeah well, believe what you want. I have been technically underweight most of my life, all the while eating like a horse.

Don’t believe me? One year I was working at a summer patio by the lake, 23 hrs in total, spread out over Friday night, Sat & Sunday. That’s pretty concentrated, but I had the rest of the week off. I would lose 5 lbs every weekend, dropping down to 93-94 lbs. I would spend the rest of the week eating as much as I could, so I could get back up to 99-100 lbs by Friday. When I would go out in the city, I would buy something from every street food vendor. It was a big joke to my friends, watching me struggle to break 100 lbs, which I never did all summer! But it was a big drag to me, I even stopped having menses.

(Yes, I was seeing a doctor regularly, who assured me I was in perfect health, just small boned and with the metabolism of a squirrel, not to worry. Told me I would settle out to a better weight eventually.)

When the stress in my life diminished I put on enough weight to begin having periods again, and stayed for many years at 105lbs. For all of those years anyone I ate with, or in front of, would comment on how remarkable it was that I could eat with such gusto and never gain weight. I could eat a half a pizza at three am and sleep like a baby.

So, believe what you like, but there are people who can eat like crazy and not gain weight, just as their are people who can eat very, very carefully and still gain weight.

As wild ass theories go, I give this one a 5. Come back when you can muster more outrage.

24

I believe you 100%. All I’m saying is, you are the EXCEPTION. Most ppl don’t have metabolisms like you.

25

Wait, don’t you need calories to build tumors? Or are they just built out of stuff your body already has?

26

Cancerous tumors consume massive amounts of glucose very quickly, ‘spending’ the extra energy on cell division (hence their often explosive growth). There is some evidence that people who are harboring cancerous growths have an increased appetite for sugars in order to feed their tumors, and that a diet low in total sugars can slow tumor growth.

I’m sure every calorie I take in goes to some use but what use depends on so many factors, for each individual. Body composition, metabolism, and appetite are all regulated hormonally and very complicated and we still don’t fully understand how they work. Plus there are about 1 million external factors.

Genetics do play a huge role here. There are anorexics who really, seriously do starve themselves at 500 calories per day, and are still bigger after months of this ill-treatment than people who are genetically bird-boned, skinny and healthy, and eat a normal amount of food. Most of us have a baseline body size. People who come from tall, big-boned families and are 100 lbs when they were 11 years old and pre-pubertal, are likely going to be in vastly different weight ranges their whole life than people who come from short, narrow families and are 100 lbs as mature adults - regardless of eating habits, activity, etc.

I’ll share my personal experience for the umpteenth time; skip if you’re sick of my yammering about weight and metabolism.

I am a thin person with a father and two sisters who are also unusually thin. I have successfully gained about 10 lbs more recently in my life but will always struggle to put on weight. Weight training (which burns calories, but fosters muscle growth at the biochemical level) is the only reliable way I have found to gain and maintain some body mass. I am the kind of big eater for my size that stands out - people are always amazed by the amount of food I will tuck away. I have tracked my calories with a variety of tools off and on for about 4 years, and when I bother to count now I get 3000+ per day.

Additionally I’m a fidgeter, my skin turns hot the touch and I get uncomfortably overheated after large meals, I walk and bike instead of driving, I mostly work on my feet, I do yoga and am becoming certified to teach yoga (which means I am doing even more yoga than usual), I enjoy outdoor activities and you can often find me gardening or hiking.

Every single one of these things have an effect on my weight. And yet you wouldn’t expect that someone my size would put away the amount of types of food I do. I agree that I am somewhat of an exception to most people I know.

27

I’ve always been thin. The most I have ever weighed is 115, which I hit once when I was on the pill and again when I stopped smoking. My usual is around 106-108.

I took a Nutrition class in college that required us to use a computer program to estimate calories in versus calories out. We were given pedometers and asked to record activity logs. We were also asked to keep a food diary. In all honesty, I thought I ate a whole lot more than what I actually did and I also thought I was more active than I actually was. My intake averaged around 1700 Kcal a day. Which, for my body size was accurate. I had estimated I was eating at least 2000 and just had a “fast metabolism” and was active enough to burn it all off. Also interesting to me was most days I was “sedentary” or “moderately active” to be considered “active” or “very active” you had to more than 2 hours of aerobic activity a day. There were very few days that happened with me even though I was working as a waitress on the weekends at a very busy restaurant/deli.

No one in the class had an accurate pre-assessment of their in/out, and we were all Nursing majors who thought we would ace our assessments. The professor made the point that in all the years she taught the course, less than 5% of the students she had made accurate pre-assessments. Those students were almost always diabetic, body builders or had eating disorders.

28

Ding-ding-ding-ding!

29

The ppl who are posting saying that they have always been thin despite a massive appetite, and are using this as a way to argue against my OP are barking up the wrong tree. First of all, like I said, the majority of ppl DO NOT have metabolisms like that. And even IN those cases, which are at the extremes, the same principle hold true. That of less calories IN/OUT results in weight loss/maintenance. It’s just the case of those with high metabolisms that they don’t usually manage to consume enough calories to swing the metabolic balance in favor of “calories in”. As this last poster showed, most people just arent accurately cognizant of the amount of calories they consume. So I stand by my original assertion that MOST ppl have the body composition that they do as a result of their lifelong eating habits. Now this is NOT to say that things can’t influence what determines those eating habits; things that may even be out of the person’s control (genetic, etc.). But they are they way they are as a result of overeating. Or undereating. Or eating just enough. Oh, and as a side note, I admit erring on the tumor reference. Of course, nothing can grow in the human body with out fuel. It’s got to come from somewhere.

30

What sort of tacos? Meat, vege, heavy, light? I need to know before I can judge that as weird or normal.

Myself, I must have a sky-high metabolism. I eat all the time, I’m hungry all the time, and I’m normal weight, a bit on the skinny side. And twenty bean tacos after heavy exertion sounds in the normal range to me. Meat tacos would probably be a different story.

31

:eek: ** makes mental note to avoid MIS after a post-hike lunch. **

32

People.

Look at what a pretty word that is.
That’s all.

33

My two cents - I think thinner people are probably a little more accustomed to or don’t mind feeling hungry when compared to larger people. This is purely anecdotal, but I remember when I was younger and about 40 pounds thinner. I ate a meal and just didn’t have time or didn’t think to eat until the next one. It’s not that I forgot to eat - the “rule” was that, even if you were hungry, you didn’t eat until the next meal unless you were starving. And even then, to avoid ruining your appetite, you had something small instead of an elaborately-planned snack that could easily turn into a small (or not-so-small) meal.

Nowadays, snacks are encouraged. I can see the value - being hungry isn’t comfortable, and it’s hard to concentrate if you’re starving. But lots of people’s snacks look more like a meal. You can easily pack in an additional 500 calories a day or more just through snacks alone. Then there’s the increased consumption of soda. It’s incredible how many calories you can drink in such a short time.

And people vastly underestimate what calories look like. For example, I made scones for Father’s Day. They’re my husband’s favorite. They’re not large scones by any means, so visually, they don’t look very filling. But they’re really calorie dense. One is worth 450 calories. Same for a crab rangoon. It’s small, right? Maybe two inches wide, one high. But a single crab rangoon has 220 calories. People usually eat 2-3. And that’s just an appetizer.

Anyway, my point is that food is a really complex issue for a lot of people. I struggle with eating daily. I’m fatter than I should be and, even though I’ve read a LOT about nutrition, knowing what I’m supposed to do doesn’t magically make weight management any easier.

34

That’s my mother. Since she started having high glucose levels, if you ask her for chocolate she’ll say “oh, I’m so sorry, I don’t have any! My sugar, you know.”

Last time I went on a chocolate hunt around her house I found nine different tablets, hidden in her room, her office, the storage room, one of the bathrooms and the guest bedroom I didn’t normally use. Yeah, Mom, you’re sticking to your doctor-ordered diet. Me, I’m preparing for a marathon… what do you mean, you don’t prepare for marathons by sitting on your ass? It’s a “sit-a-thon”!

35

Actually, calling other posters’ names is fine, but calling other posters names is forbidden. :stuck_out_tongue:

36

This past year I’ve lost weight by eating more. This is because I kept a food diary and was stunned by how few calories I was consuming most days - even with overestimates and making sure I was counting everything, I was getting about 600 calories. And I’m moderately active, too.

But every now and then I’d eat a lot more calories in one sitting, usually a social occasion like a dinner party or a takeaway with friends, and booze at the weekends would top my calories up (but then I’d eat pretty much no food at all). So my body would go ‘energy! keep it, store it, we don’t know we we’ll get more again!’ I wasn’t overweight, but I was heavier than I’m comfortable with.

Realising this has meant that I’ve made an effort to remember to eat and keep foods in that are quick and easy so that it’s very little effort, and I’ve lost just over a stone (about 15 pounds). I still eat a lot less than I probably should, but I’m simply not suited to a big diet.

How old are they? If they’re in their early 20s, they’re still going through the tail end of puberty. Lot of men eat huge amounts till they hit 25 or so and suddenly start gaining weight without actually becoming more sedentary.

37

I meant, eating twenty of a light food after execise sounds normal. Eating twenty of a heavy food sounds extrordinary.

38

In what world are bean tacos a “light food”?

39

Indeed! And just think of all the calories that typing out all those other letters could burn…

40

I’d certainly believe that there isn’t much of a connection between what people eat and what people think they eat.