sidewalksocialscientist
Full Member
Did anybody see this? It is still on the BBC iPlayer if you want to see it BBC iPlayer - Horizon: Why Are Thin People Not Fat?
And if you don't want to see it, here are my extensive notes on it...
One and a half stone can correspond to a difference of two dress sizes.
Participants ate a lot of chocolate to make up calories, since it is very calorie-dense
Despite having eaten the same calories, some participants gained much more than others, who gained very little weight.
Genetically-determined tendency to gain muscle rather than fat when we overeat, even without working out.
Ethan Sims – making prisoners overweight
Each inmate was to gain 25% of their bodyweight
Some prisoners could not reach the target, however much they ate. Two got stuck at 21%, one at 18%.
Starving
In 1968, under the supervision of a Scottish med student, a 450lb man starved off 275lbs. It took a year and two weeks without food – only water and vitamins.
Evolution
Dr Eric Ravussin – since food has been scarce for most of our history, people with a tendency to lay down fat stores were able to survive and procreate. Now, wide availability of food makes these genes show. The obese are “the people who would survive a difficult and tough environment”
But in today’s environment, the slim live longer, healthier lives.
Dr Rudy Leibel – human weight remarkably stable
Weight fluctuates so little in the long term that the difference could be as few at 7kcals a day.
We stay the same weight for most of our natural lives. We have a natural weight.
Dr David Allison – factors on bodyfat
Effects begin in womb. Older women have children more likely to be overweight/obese. Mother’s weight and nutrition during pregnancy have an effect too (I would question whether biology or social).
Prof Jane Wardle – eating behaviour, why eat more?
Assumption that it’s just willpower or self-control, but there’s more to it than that.
Children given a plate of 340kcals worth of chocolate cakes and biscuits after having eaten lunch and feeling full. Some push plate away and don’t eat at all; some eat away. They’re not just copying each other. Jane Wardle believes patterns are already established.
Chances are if you have a tendency to carry on snacking after you’re full as a toddler, you’ll keep doing it in later life. Question of nature/nurture.
FTO Gene – adults with one variant weigh, on average, more than everyone else. Children who eat more tend to have higher variant of FTO Gene; children who ate little had the ‘protective’ variant of FTO Gene. This affects our responses to available food in modern soc.
Dr Philipp Scherer – fat cells
Fat cells increase in size and number. We overeat and our fat cells get bigger. They increase in size up to a point, then you start increasing your number of fat cells. The new fat cells stay and you cannot lose them.
It’s much easier for the body to make extra fat cells during childhood and adolescence, so a fat stage when growing up means you’re much more likely to be an overweight adult, since the fat cells stay.
[FONT="]Dr Leibel – hunger[/FONT][FONT="]
Despite having enough calories, formerly obese people will still feel hungry, because the body regards the former obese size as their normal size.[/FONT]
Discussion?
And if you don't want to see it, here are my extensive notes on it...
Horizon: Why Are Thin People Not Fat?
BBC Two, 9:00pm Monday 26th January
BBC Two, 9:00pm Monday 26th January
Participants ate a lot of chocolate to make up calories, since it is very calorie-dense
Despite having eaten the same calories, some participants gained much more than others, who gained very little weight.
Genetically-determined tendency to gain muscle rather than fat when we overeat, even without working out.
Ethan Sims – making prisoners overweight
Each inmate was to gain 25% of their bodyweight
Some prisoners could not reach the target, however much they ate. Two got stuck at 21%, one at 18%.
Starving
In 1968, under the supervision of a Scottish med student, a 450lb man starved off 275lbs. It took a year and two weeks without food – only water and vitamins.
Evolution
Dr Eric Ravussin – since food has been scarce for most of our history, people with a tendency to lay down fat stores were able to survive and procreate. Now, wide availability of food makes these genes show. The obese are “the people who would survive a difficult and tough environment”
But in today’s environment, the slim live longer, healthier lives.
Dr Rudy Leibel – human weight remarkably stable
Weight fluctuates so little in the long term that the difference could be as few at 7kcals a day.
We stay the same weight for most of our natural lives. We have a natural weight.
Dr David Allison – factors on bodyfat
Effects begin in womb. Older women have children more likely to be overweight/obese. Mother’s weight and nutrition during pregnancy have an effect too (I would question whether biology or social).
Prof Jane Wardle – eating behaviour, why eat more?
Assumption that it’s just willpower or self-control, but there’s more to it than that.
Children given a plate of 340kcals worth of chocolate cakes and biscuits after having eaten lunch and feeling full. Some push plate away and don’t eat at all; some eat away. They’re not just copying each other. Jane Wardle believes patterns are already established.
Chances are if you have a tendency to carry on snacking after you’re full as a toddler, you’ll keep doing it in later life. Question of nature/nurture.
FTO Gene – adults with one variant weigh, on average, more than everyone else. Children who eat more tend to have higher variant of FTO Gene; children who ate little had the ‘protective’ variant of FTO Gene. This affects our responses to available food in modern soc.
Dr Philipp Scherer – fat cells
Fat cells increase in size and number. We overeat and our fat cells get bigger. They increase in size up to a point, then you start increasing your number of fat cells. The new fat cells stay and you cannot lose them.
It’s much easier for the body to make extra fat cells during childhood and adolescence, so a fat stage when growing up means you’re much more likely to be an overweight adult, since the fat cells stay.
[FONT="]Dr Leibel – hunger[/FONT][FONT="]
Despite having enough calories, formerly obese people will still feel hungry, because the body regards the former obese size as their normal size.[/FONT]
Discussion?
