Read this and other stories in the pages of the medical journal Duh.

[alexandraerin]

So, there's this crazy study out that says that obese teenagers' metabolisms aren't affected by moderate amounts of aerobic exercise in the same way that thin teenagers' metabolisms are... that while the obese teenagers gain important health benefits from exercising, their metabolisms don't kick into high fat-burning gear and thus they don't tend to lose weight from it.

It's almost like two people could eat the same things, exercise the same, and have the same habits and yet have entirely differently shaped bodies based on uncontrollable inherited conditions! And to get even crazier, it's almost as though those habits have a bigger impact on one's health than what size and shape one's skin is in!

Crazy!

Usually when somebody brings up the immutability of obesity in a conversation like this, someone chimes in with "Maybe there are some people who are fat because of a gland problem or something but that's super rare and it doesn't account for most people who are fat." That's a Conversation We Won't Be Having Here, but just to be clear: I'm not saying that most fat people have a problem. I'm saying most fat people have a different metabolism than skinny people do.

Not a worse metabolism. A different one.

One that seems to be shared by a large proportion of the population, which suggests that it's not entirely inimical to the survival of individuals or the species as a whole.

What a world, what a world.

Comments

[gothmog-dave.livejournal.com]

Your point about skinniness not equalling healthiness, as well as the overall point about different people having different metabolisms, certainly is illustrated by myself - I'm 6'2" and weigh something like 130 lbs, which is hellishly underweight for my height. Unlike you, addiejd, my appetite isn't being curbed - I can pretty much eat constantly and still lose weight if I'm not careful - but like you I lack the energy to exercise or stay awake during normal daylight hours, which is a bit odd considering the weight I am not putting on is presumably being burnt as energy.

Anyhow, my point is that there is something intrinsic about my metabolism which means I find it almost impossible to gain weight even when I want to, so it only stands to reason that along the spectrum of body metabolism, some people will be the exact reverse and this will be an intrinsic part of them.

[stormcaller3801.livejournal.com]

IIRC, you might not have metabolic issues in terms of burning through food- you might have a problem absorbing calories and nutrients from the food you eat. A while back there was a study showing that, surprise surprise, the ability to absorb nutrients from food as it passes through the intestine is variable. I can't recall if it's intrinsic to the person or a function of the bacteria, but regardless, the end result is that some people will absorb more than usual (and thus gain weight) and others will absorb less than usual (and thus lose weight) even when eating the same food.

So it may be that you need to eat more because your body simply is not making efficient use of what you eat.