But "calories out" isn't a consistent property between individuals. Different human beings vary massively in terms of their satiety response, their resting metabolism, their ability to synthesize and deploy nutrients, their gut microbiome.... So telling people "calories in, calories out" misleads about what actual weight loss entails. Two people can do the exact same physical activity and take in the exact same nutrients in the same time period and have drastically different levels of weight gained or lost.
Well, you did say that differences in metabolism aren't real. I don't think this seriously compromises the point of your article though, which was overall pretty good
I said, "talk about metabolism is mostly nonsense," which I'll stand by in substance (most of it *is*), but yeah, I'll admit that it was a poor choice of words. Everyone has a different metabolism, for sure...but unless that metabolism is zero, it's always possible (though admittedly often quite difficult) to eat less energy than you're burning.
I commute to work using transit, biking, or a combination of both. Depending on the day, my commute can take between 1.5 to 2.0 hours each way. It's worth mentioning that I work on the train for part of this time, but it is still quite long, all things considered.
"You know what would be faster? A car!" say most of my friends when I explain my commute. While I could explain that I enjoy biking or that I appreciate interacting with people on the bus or train, I often tell them, "I've actually optimized my day because I work on the train, and my commute counts as exercise. So when I get home, I'm actually ahead in terms of efficiency."
I saw a sticker ten or fifteen years ago that I still think about constantly. Had a picture of a bike and said, “This one runs on fat and saves you money,” followed by a pic of a car and the words “This one runs on money and makes you fat.”
Lifting is so addictive. Once you see those first new muscles pop, it's like a switch goes off. I'm almost done with my mandatory post-surgery "no lifting" rule and can't wait to go back to the gym. I never thought I'd hear myself say that, lol. But now I'm also studying to be a personal trainer, nutrition coach, and group fitness instructor to add to my yoga teaching certification. Life is weird, man! Congrats on the ongoing weight loss and muscle growth!
PS my best friend is a fat guy and fully agrees with you. He complains about the "HAES" mentality all the time, because he knows better, because he's been 300lbs+.
There is *some* truth to HAES—in the sense that you can always improve your health, regardless of what sort of body you have...it's just that, if you're overweight, you're likely to lose weight in the process, whether you want to or not. Haha.
You're right about the addiction, though. I was absolutely shocked about how big a difference lifting made in how I looked and felt, and how quickly. Anyone struggling to get healthier should absolutely give it a shot.
Your experience is kind of odd to me. I started cycling in 2020, and it was the first physical activity I really loved, and today it's pretty much all I think about and want to do, and I strenuously cycle ten to fifteen hours a week. I was 330-340 lbs at the time I started, and now I'm down to about 280. Ozempic helped for a year or so, but I've been stuck at this weight for a while.
I do feel better and look better, of course, but I've always, medically speaking anyway, been an extremely healthy person (except for things like blood pressure and cholesterol, of course) and honestly I don't feel a great deal better at baseline now than at my fattest. I definitely still retain a deep fear of hunger, and I still love food like little else, to which I attribute a lot of my difficulty losing more weight. I am definitely going to try cutting carbs by 30-50%, but I'm not super optimistic.
More specifically in this regard, take my blood pressure. Before I started cycling, I was doing run-walk and stair climbing, which was fine but not really enjoyable. This actually really helped my blood pressure even though I didn't lose much weight, and I got down to a normal blood pressure consistently for a year or so. But even then, I was doing moderate exercise for about half an hour a day, 3-5 times per week. I exercise far more now, but my blood pressure remains stubbornly just a little bit over normal; definitely better than at its worst, but still quite frustrating.
Don’t let me act like I’m some sort of fitness guru here (I’m just a guy feeling his way through the dark and sharing his experience), but I notice you haven’t said anything about lifting. As I briefly mention in the piece, weightlifting and cutting carbs really were the key for me. After a couple weeks or so of those two things, I was hit by an indescribable euphoria. All my back pain went away (presumably because my muscles were now strong enough to hold up body), as did all of my depression (probably because I had been mistaking the sugar crash from all the junk food for depression). I dunno, if you haven’t tried lifting and cutting carbs, I’d say they’re at least worth a shot.
I’d been making occasional halfassed attempts to get in shape since my mid-20s (mostly cardio stuff), but the weightlifting/carb-cutting thing was the one that finally made a real, lasting difference for me.
This issue is so much more complicated than you acknowledge. We all have a personal story on a topic (fitness, schooling, fishing, snorkeling) that would seem to us to be the solution to a problem or answer a question. The problem is that when we take our own story and then try to extrapolate it to a population of millions it just doesn’t hold up. If it were only as simple as reducing calories by 150 and lifting weights that would be fantastic! It’s just not.
My real problem with this article, I guess, is that it demonstrates so much of what I find disappointing from folks who think they are actually helping. There are some nuggets of truth that do seem like common sense…I’d imagine less weight on a knee might be good for long term knee health, but the sprinkling of “common sense facts” you included really do nothing to scientifically prove your overall idea that this issue would largely go away solely by a couple of minor behavior changes.
Back to my garden to pull a few weeds. At least I’ll feel a little productive.
I’m not sure where you got “minor behavior changes” out of this? The behavior changes I’ve made have been fairly dramatic. I say it’s not easy, right in the title. It’s not. :)
People in Paris and Tokyo aren't fat. They walk incredible distances every day and don't eat garbage. That's all you need to know, in an even smaller nutshell.
And yes, they raise their eyebrows when you have that second piece of cake, or you eat while walking, or drink coke all day. We humans are social animals.
So long as we're talking about weight and health, here's some food for thought: out of being overweight or underweight, which one has the higher margin of error? There are people easily 50, 100, 200 pounds overweight and still going about their business working, making art, spending time with family, etc. You don't see anybody 50 or even 25 pounds underweight because, almost exclusively, they're dead or hospitalized. If you get ill suddenly and drop a bunch of weight, you're screwed if you didn't have anything to lose in the first place. The "health at any size" approach isn't perfect, but man, is it way healthier than the highly deadly mental illnesses that constitute eating disorders. I see the term "health" thrown around SO much when really it's meant as a substitute for the moral qualities our culture associates with being skinny, and to be honest, I don't think you've fully stopped conflating those either. I'm glad you feel so awesome doing midnight pushups and quivering with joy or whatever, but the venn diagram of thin and healthy isn't a circle. There's too many skinny cancer patients and drug addicts for that to be the case.
It’s weird to me that so many people talk about this stuff like it’s a binary choice between overweight or underweight. Like…dude, it’s possible to just be a healthy weight.
From what I know, you’re basically correct that being somewhat overweight can be an advantage going into a battle with life-threatening disease…but that benefit is somewhat mitigated by the fact that obesity carries with it a higher risk of all sorts of diseases in the first place. And speaking as someone who already suffers from at least a few obesity-related diseases (asthma, sleep apnea, high blood pressure)…I’ve found them a lot easier to deal with as a thin guy than as a fat guy. The ol’ internal organs have a much easier time doing their job when they’re not getting squished by all the chonk.
Research indicates that females who have experienced their parents' divorce are statistically more likely to struggle with weight issues... which clearly indicates that for many females' being overweight connects to psychology.
I agree that the remedy is simple while the execution of the remedy can be difficult. However, I do disagree that metabolism isn't a contributing factor. However #2, I believe we know that metabolism can be trained.
In my case I have always been athletic and prone to being skinny if not keeping on muscle. So I converted part of our garage into a commercial-level gym with a big TV where I play cable news programs and scream at the politics to help work up a sweat. I am 6' 3" and maintained a weight of 205 lbs for years. Then I was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer that has flooded my we a myriad of irritating symptoms including weakness in my muscles, a reduced ability to build and retain muscle, and a reduced ability to retain fat. So I am down to 170 and there is really no amount of weights or other exercise that can change that at this point in my health.
This situation has given me greater understanding of body chemistry differences impacting weight. I do believe that most overweight people have a history of poor eating habits combined with not enough physical activity... and that this is often connected to phycological or emotional needs. But I also think that genetic traits and general body chemistry plays a part.
I had an interesting conversation with my recently married daughter in-law who is overweight and who is also a registered nurse. My son, his father (me) and mother and his brother are all low BMI. I told her that I don't hold any judgement against overweight people... that much of their situation is likely the result of genetics. She surprised me to say that she believes that some "considerate fat-shaming" (as in I care about you, and being overweight causes more healthy risks) in society. She said she does agree that genetics plays a part, and some are unlucky to own body chemistry that more easily accumulates fat from excess calorie intake. She then said, but at least you have a choice to lose weight... just think of the man unlucky to be born short and how much ridicule and rejection he must deal with his entire life. No amount of exercise is going to change that.
Excellent article and good timing. I’ve got the old story of, when I was young I could eat whatever and not really gain much. Now that I’m not so young, my whatever attitude caught up to me. I’m working on it, and making some progress. It’s empowering. I think kicking refined carbs is key as is taking the long view. Yeah junk food can be fun but I don’t need it. The occasional treat is better for my body and psyche than treating treats like they’re a core food. Also I’m enjoying cycling and walking and trying to get back into weightlifting a bit as well. Thank you for the encouragement and dose of sanity.
If you ever want links to send people who you're arguing with but your brain is processing too slowly for, I highly recommend following Jordan Syatt (he's on I believe all social medias @syattfitness). He posts a lot about basically the same stuff you've said here, along with some great workout tips for proper form and exercises you shouldn't waste time with (which gave me an excuse to no longer do burpees!).
I used to be one of those "BMI is garbage" people and would confidently point out that the BMI said a prime Reggie Bush was dangerously obese. Then I read one of his posts where he points out that, 1) yes, BMI is not the ultimate measure for elite athletes, but also, 2) you are not an elite athlete. That was hard for me to hear, especially because they had just released a new college football video game for the first time in 11 years, which awoken all my childhood dreams of playing elite college football (at 35 [when, even in my prime, I was less athletic than the 3rd-string punter on the worst team you've never heard of (and I don't have any eligibility left, anyway)]).
BMI is sort of like IQ in that it’s just a loose estimate of many things, condensed into a number. And yes, it can be fun to dunk on it, and yes, it doesn’t capture everything, and yes, it lets certain outliers fall through the cracks…but if you look at the numbers, it correlates *pretty well* with the things it’s intended to predict, which is all it was ever intended to do. It’d be a mistake to put *too much* stock in it, but it would be just as big of a mistake to disregard it entirely.
I suppose you can put “RottenTomatoes score” into that bucket, as well
But "calories out" isn't a consistent property between individuals. Different human beings vary massively in terms of their satiety response, their resting metabolism, their ability to synthesize and deploy nutrients, their gut microbiome.... So telling people "calories in, calories out" misleads about what actual weight loss entails. Two people can do the exact same physical activity and take in the exact same nutrients in the same time period and have drastically different levels of weight gained or lost.
This is absolutely true, and I don’t think I said anything that contradicts it.
Well, you did say that differences in metabolism aren't real. I don't think this seriously compromises the point of your article though, which was overall pretty good
I said, "talk about metabolism is mostly nonsense," which I'll stand by in substance (most of it *is*), but yeah, I'll admit that it was a poor choice of words. Everyone has a different metabolism, for sure...but unless that metabolism is zero, it's always possible (though admittedly often quite difficult) to eat less energy than you're burning.
I commute to work using transit, biking, or a combination of both. Depending on the day, my commute can take between 1.5 to 2.0 hours each way. It's worth mentioning that I work on the train for part of this time, but it is still quite long, all things considered.
"You know what would be faster? A car!" say most of my friends when I explain my commute. While I could explain that I enjoy biking or that I appreciate interacting with people on the bus or train, I often tell them, "I've actually optimized my day because I work on the train, and my commute counts as exercise. So when I get home, I'm actually ahead in terms of efficiency."
I saw a sticker ten or fifteen years ago that I still think about constantly. Had a picture of a bike and said, “This one runs on fat and saves you money,” followed by a pic of a car and the words “This one runs on money and makes you fat.”
It’s a touch on-the-nose, but it ain’t wrong.
Lifting is so addictive. Once you see those first new muscles pop, it's like a switch goes off. I'm almost done with my mandatory post-surgery "no lifting" rule and can't wait to go back to the gym. I never thought I'd hear myself say that, lol. But now I'm also studying to be a personal trainer, nutrition coach, and group fitness instructor to add to my yoga teaching certification. Life is weird, man! Congrats on the ongoing weight loss and muscle growth!
PS my best friend is a fat guy and fully agrees with you. He complains about the "HAES" mentality all the time, because he knows better, because he's been 300lbs+.
There is *some* truth to HAES—in the sense that you can always improve your health, regardless of what sort of body you have...it's just that, if you're overweight, you're likely to lose weight in the process, whether you want to or not. Haha.
You're right about the addiction, though. I was absolutely shocked about how big a difference lifting made in how I looked and felt, and how quickly. Anyone struggling to get healthier should absolutely give it a shot.
Best of luck in your studies!
Your experience is kind of odd to me. I started cycling in 2020, and it was the first physical activity I really loved, and today it's pretty much all I think about and want to do, and I strenuously cycle ten to fifteen hours a week. I was 330-340 lbs at the time I started, and now I'm down to about 280. Ozempic helped for a year or so, but I've been stuck at this weight for a while.
I do feel better and look better, of course, but I've always, medically speaking anyway, been an extremely healthy person (except for things like blood pressure and cholesterol, of course) and honestly I don't feel a great deal better at baseline now than at my fattest. I definitely still retain a deep fear of hunger, and I still love food like little else, to which I attribute a lot of my difficulty losing more weight. I am definitely going to try cutting carbs by 30-50%, but I'm not super optimistic.
More specifically in this regard, take my blood pressure. Before I started cycling, I was doing run-walk and stair climbing, which was fine but not really enjoyable. This actually really helped my blood pressure even though I didn't lose much weight, and I got down to a normal blood pressure consistently for a year or so. But even then, I was doing moderate exercise for about half an hour a day, 3-5 times per week. I exercise far more now, but my blood pressure remains stubbornly just a little bit over normal; definitely better than at its worst, but still quite frustrating.
Don’t let me act like I’m some sort of fitness guru here (I’m just a guy feeling his way through the dark and sharing his experience), but I notice you haven’t said anything about lifting. As I briefly mention in the piece, weightlifting and cutting carbs really were the key for me. After a couple weeks or so of those two things, I was hit by an indescribable euphoria. All my back pain went away (presumably because my muscles were now strong enough to hold up body), as did all of my depression (probably because I had been mistaking the sugar crash from all the junk food for depression). I dunno, if you haven’t tried lifting and cutting carbs, I’d say they’re at least worth a shot.
I’d been making occasional halfassed attempts to get in shape since my mid-20s (mostly cardio stuff), but the weightlifting/carb-cutting thing was the one that finally made a real, lasting difference for me.
This issue is so much more complicated than you acknowledge. We all have a personal story on a topic (fitness, schooling, fishing, snorkeling) that would seem to us to be the solution to a problem or answer a question. The problem is that when we take our own story and then try to extrapolate it to a population of millions it just doesn’t hold up. If it were only as simple as reducing calories by 150 and lifting weights that would be fantastic! It’s just not.
My real problem with this article, I guess, is that it demonstrates so much of what I find disappointing from folks who think they are actually helping. There are some nuggets of truth that do seem like common sense…I’d imagine less weight on a knee might be good for long term knee health, but the sprinkling of “common sense facts” you included really do nothing to scientifically prove your overall idea that this issue would largely go away solely by a couple of minor behavior changes.
Back to my garden to pull a few weeds. At least I’ll feel a little productive.
I’m not sure where you got “minor behavior changes” out of this? The behavior changes I’ve made have been fairly dramatic. I say it’s not easy, right in the title. It’s not. :)
Excellent, common-sense approach.
People in Paris and Tokyo aren't fat. They walk incredible distances every day and don't eat garbage. That's all you need to know, in an even smaller nutshell.
And yes, they raise their eyebrows when you have that second piece of cake, or you eat while walking, or drink coke all day. We humans are social animals.
So long as we're talking about weight and health, here's some food for thought: out of being overweight or underweight, which one has the higher margin of error? There are people easily 50, 100, 200 pounds overweight and still going about their business working, making art, spending time with family, etc. You don't see anybody 50 or even 25 pounds underweight because, almost exclusively, they're dead or hospitalized. If you get ill suddenly and drop a bunch of weight, you're screwed if you didn't have anything to lose in the first place. The "health at any size" approach isn't perfect, but man, is it way healthier than the highly deadly mental illnesses that constitute eating disorders. I see the term "health" thrown around SO much when really it's meant as a substitute for the moral qualities our culture associates with being skinny, and to be honest, I don't think you've fully stopped conflating those either. I'm glad you feel so awesome doing midnight pushups and quivering with joy or whatever, but the venn diagram of thin and healthy isn't a circle. There's too many skinny cancer patients and drug addicts for that to be the case.
It’s weird to me that so many people talk about this stuff like it’s a binary choice between overweight or underweight. Like…dude, it’s possible to just be a healthy weight.
From what I know, you’re basically correct that being somewhat overweight can be an advantage going into a battle with life-threatening disease…but that benefit is somewhat mitigated by the fact that obesity carries with it a higher risk of all sorts of diseases in the first place. And speaking as someone who already suffers from at least a few obesity-related diseases (asthma, sleep apnea, high blood pressure)…I’ve found them a lot easier to deal with as a thin guy than as a fat guy. The ol’ internal organs have a much easier time doing their job when they’re not getting squished by all the chonk.
Research indicates that females who have experienced their parents' divorce are statistically more likely to struggle with weight issues... which clearly indicates that for many females' being overweight connects to psychology.
I agree that the remedy is simple while the execution of the remedy can be difficult. However, I do disagree that metabolism isn't a contributing factor. However #2, I believe we know that metabolism can be trained.
In my case I have always been athletic and prone to being skinny if not keeping on muscle. So I converted part of our garage into a commercial-level gym with a big TV where I play cable news programs and scream at the politics to help work up a sweat. I am 6' 3" and maintained a weight of 205 lbs for years. Then I was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer that has flooded my we a myriad of irritating symptoms including weakness in my muscles, a reduced ability to build and retain muscle, and a reduced ability to retain fat. So I am down to 170 and there is really no amount of weights or other exercise that can change that at this point in my health.
This situation has given me greater understanding of body chemistry differences impacting weight. I do believe that most overweight people have a history of poor eating habits combined with not enough physical activity... and that this is often connected to phycological or emotional needs. But I also think that genetic traits and general body chemistry plays a part.
I had an interesting conversation with my recently married daughter in-law who is overweight and who is also a registered nurse. My son, his father (me) and mother and his brother are all low BMI. I told her that I don't hold any judgement against overweight people... that much of their situation is likely the result of genetics. She surprised me to say that she believes that some "considerate fat-shaming" (as in I care about you, and being overweight causes more healthy risks) in society. She said she does agree that genetics plays a part, and some are unlucky to own body chemistry that more easily accumulates fat from excess calorie intake. She then said, but at least you have a choice to lose weight... just think of the man unlucky to be born short and how much ridicule and rejection he must deal with his entire life. No amount of exercise is going to change that.
Excellent article and good timing. I’ve got the old story of, when I was young I could eat whatever and not really gain much. Now that I’m not so young, my whatever attitude caught up to me. I’m working on it, and making some progress. It’s empowering. I think kicking refined carbs is key as is taking the long view. Yeah junk food can be fun but I don’t need it. The occasional treat is better for my body and psyche than treating treats like they’re a core food. Also I’m enjoying cycling and walking and trying to get back into weightlifting a bit as well. Thank you for the encouragement and dose of sanity.
I’ve found I appreciate good junk food *way* more now that I only eat it on my occasional “cheat days”
If you ever want links to send people who you're arguing with but your brain is processing too slowly for, I highly recommend following Jordan Syatt (he's on I believe all social medias @syattfitness). He posts a lot about basically the same stuff you've said here, along with some great workout tips for proper form and exercises you shouldn't waste time with (which gave me an excuse to no longer do burpees!).
I used to be one of those "BMI is garbage" people and would confidently point out that the BMI said a prime Reggie Bush was dangerously obese. Then I read one of his posts where he points out that, 1) yes, BMI is not the ultimate measure for elite athletes, but also, 2) you are not an elite athlete. That was hard for me to hear, especially because they had just released a new college football video game for the first time in 11 years, which awoken all my childhood dreams of playing elite college football (at 35 [when, even in my prime, I was less athletic than the 3rd-string punter on the worst team you've never heard of (and I don't have any eligibility left, anyway)]).
BMI is sort of like IQ in that it’s just a loose estimate of many things, condensed into a number. And yes, it can be fun to dunk on it, and yes, it doesn’t capture everything, and yes, it lets certain outliers fall through the cracks…but if you look at the numbers, it correlates *pretty well* with the things it’s intended to predict, which is all it was ever intended to do. It’d be a mistake to put *too much* stock in it, but it would be just as big of a mistake to disregard it entirely.
I suppose you can put “RottenTomatoes score” into that bucket, as well