# Obesity without overeating - please explain **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 24, 2003, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-without-overeating-please-explain/190638 "2003-07-24T15:47:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ghundina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ghundina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ghundina)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-without-overeating-please-explain/190638/21 "2003-07-26T09:41:42Z")
I’m not sure I understand what “metabolism” is, and how you can change it. I remember learning about the basal metabolic rate in biology class, but how different is the BMR, really, for different people? When you break it down to the cellular level, isn’t it all about cellular respiration, excretion of waste, etc? Maintaining body temperature? It makes sense that it would change if you were ill or on medication, but otherwise, I’d think that most people would fall in a pretty narrow range. And how can exercise change your _resting_ metabolic rate? The more I think about it the more baffled I am… Hope someone with a better understanding of biology can help! ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-without-overeating-please-explain/190638/22 "2003-07-26T11:39:02Z")
- - - This gets into my own non-medically-based observations, but as I have seen it, most fat people either 1) don’t get any exercise, or 2) overeat and get very little or no exercise. - Now _why_ they don’t get exercise can be a number of reasons, some with direct medical causes that make exercising difficult or painful. And I can easily imagiune a condition where somebody’s body goes wrong and automatically takes 75% of whatever they eat and stores it as fat, so that means those people are left basically starving the weight off, which certainly isn’t comfortable. But you are correct in asserting that nobody gets fat from breathing. ~ ---
**Author:** ![yola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/48db29/32.png) [@yola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yola)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-without-overeating-please-explain/190638/23 "2003-07-26T11:55:39Z")
Be interesting, how Madonna’s kids turn out, with what we now know now about genetics. ---
**Author:** ![suezeekay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@suezeekay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suezeekay)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-without-overeating-please-explain/190638/24 "2003-07-28T04:34:57Z")
DougC, I’m just wondering how you know what most fat people do? I was thinking last week about suggesting to the networks that they do a reality show where they follow around normal weight and fat people (who are healthy otherwise) and observe what they eat and how much they move. This is because I realized that I had certain beliefs about fat people that are based on absolutely nothing substantial but the same old stereotypes. It would be interesting to see what percentage don’t “overeat” which I define as eating more than 10-15 calories per lb of suggested weight (depends on your age). ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-without-overeating-please-explain/190638/25 "2003-07-28T10:41:35Z")
There have been studies that show that fidgeting can keep weight down. There could be something in this - I’m a fairly fidgety person, and even when I’m sitting around I’ll be jiggling my feet, drumming my fingers or whatever. Over the course of a day that must burn quite a few calories. [cite:](http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9901/08/fidgeting.weight/) > [@](#): > > The study, published Friday in the journal Science, involved 16 volunteers fed 1,000 extra calories a day for eight weeks as instruments measured their energy use. > > At the end, some of the subjects gained as much as 16 pounds, others as little as two. > > The difference, says Dr. Michael Jensen of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, was the “fidget factor.” > > “It is some sort of physical activity that they (the low weight-gainers) are doing more throughout the day than the others,” he said. “It could be fidgeting or moving around or just being a little more restless.” ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-without-overeating-please-explain/190638/26 "2003-07-28T14:23:21Z")
It would take a whole hell of a lot of fidgeting to burn an extra 1000 calories a day. That’s the equivalent of running what, 5 miles? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-without-overeating-please-explain/190638/27 "2003-07-28T14:39:51Z")
**ultrafilter** the table [here](http://www.valuesourcenutrition.com/supplement_articles/burn1.html) seems to suggest that a 160lb woman would need to run 7 miles(!) to burn an extra 1000 calories. But, I’ve seen similar studies (might be the same one, different presentation) that “identified” that a major cause of calorie burn was indeed fidgeting. _Lose Weight By Drumming Your Fingers_ – my first best seller. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-without-overeating-please-explain/190638/28 "2003-07-28T15:30:57Z")
I dunno, that seems like an awful lot of calories. I’d say it has to do with differences in people’s ability to absorb food, rather than burning 7 miles worth of calories by fidgeting. Plus, see the article that I posted earlier. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-without-overeating-please-explain/190638.md?page=1)