[aruanan]

LOL and food still tastes good, ain’t it the truth! The bane of all mankind!

I just figured out that a 25 pound weight gain (I'm talking about a 25lb load of fat in the adipose tissue, not 25 pounds of adipose tissue) over a period of 10 years comes out to about 200 kcals/week. An apple is about 80 kcals. Think of how tightly regulated energy input versus energy expenditure is that it is such a small percentage of total weekly input that insensibly leads to what was a typical weight creep over a period of decades. For someone with an 1800 kcal/day, 200 kcals per week is an excess of only about 1.59%! When you consider how much inexpensive, highly nutritious food is so easily available and how we nowadays expend so little energy compared to the average person 100 years ago, it's a wonder that more people aren't horribly obese and a tribute to spontaneous energy regulation by the body.

[brytlea]

I still wonder about some people’s tendency to stay thin. I know, in horses and dogs, some are just not thrifty (that is, it’s hard to keep weight on them). In my experience, especially with dogs (I show and breed, so I’ve had quite a few thru my front door over the years) some eat very willingly, but still don’t keep enough weight on. More often than not it’s boys, not girls, who stay thin almost regardless of what or how much I feed them. Something accounts for it, but I don’t really know what. One particular boy was not overly active (he was as much a couch potato as anyone in the house) and he LOVED to eat, and yet, he was always thinner than I would have liked. He had no illnesses, just stayed very thin (a good weight really, but not a good show weight).
So, go figure. It may have been calories in, vs calories out, but for some reason he burned them faster/easier/better. I would like to be like that! As it is, I think I’ll go back on a 1200 a day diet and see what happens.
Geeze, that’s not much food! ;)