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Genetics could be part of it. I think it is a lot more complicated and I think it is a combinatorial problem. Here are several variables that have far more effect on the rate at which food is processed, absorbed and stored as fat:
1) Your gut biome - if you get your gut biome completely destroyed, you are going to have a really difficult time actually absorbing enough nutrients to survive.
You can get gut biome transplants from skinny people and you will typically remain skinny.
2) The amount of muscle mass you have on your frame - if you are excercising / working and have large amounts of muscle mass you will burn more calories than someone with virtually no muscle mass that sits in front of the computer all day long.
Just by default, more muscle means burning more calories.
3) Eating large amounts of sugars in all of its forms including starches - while all food spikes your insulin levels, sugars in all of their forms spikes your insulin levels so incredibly high the food you intake gets mostly stored as fat rather than processed.
And it gets worse.
There is such a thing as a hunger hormone called ghrelin. Ghrelin is released under certain conditions and, while this isn't a huge problem if you are intermittent fast, if you want to do a full fast for more than a week, you will hit a ghrelin wall on day 3 and day 5 or your fast. If you can make it to day 7 and beyond you are home free EXCEPT if you cheat by eating even a crumb. The tiniest amount of food on a full fast will trigger a ghrelin response and you are fucked and will not be able to continue your fast unless you want to deal with withdrawal like symptoms.
It gets even worse: Sleepwill affect how and what you eat. If you are a programmer and tend to work at night (or any night job) your hormone cycles will re-adjust them selves and make you crave all kinds of bizarre things at night.
It gets even worse: If you are trying to do intermittent fasting (eating once every 24 hours) and you don't know how to cook, you will eat restaurant food and that will fuck with your daily hormone cycles because the nutritional value of restaurant food is not designed to satiate, it is designed to bring you back in for seconds (high in addictive properties, low in saitative properties). To actually do intermittent fasting, you have to learn how to cook first because your body will tell you what it's craving based on the nutritional requirements.
It gets even worse: If you want to regain control over your eating, not only do you have to balance all of the above in some way, you have to convert to a keto style diet. Basically, you need to know how to cook meat and green veg, which are the only two things that should be on your plate. This can be cheap if you know how to cook, however, the reason poor people eat mostly starches is because starches are the cheapest calories on the planet, so you will be spending a bit more money cooking meat + green veg.
So, you are right, but its NOT only gentics. The amount of permutations of just the things I have listed that you can do to loose weight is vast. But really gaining control for most people will be a multifactor strategy.
// EDIT: Also, there is no such thing as losing weight. Instead, what you need to do is regain control over your daily hormonal rhythms. You don't control your weight, your hormones do. If you want your weight to re-adjust, you need to either control your hormonal rhythms or increase your caloric output. But, there is no such thing as losing weight in the same way that you cannot think and stop your heart or think and stop your breathing. These are all controlled by subsystems that are not under your concious control.
Ok, so how does it work if you're fasting and you take vitamins, thyroid meds, or one of those vitamin C "emergen C" packets with water. Does that trigger the ghrelin?
Disclosure: I am not a doctor, I have NO IDEA how medication affects the body. Dr. Jordan Peterson was put on statins the other year and he nearly died from the addiction. I know you cannot eat Grapefruit if you take certain medications. Medications in genreal have HUUUUUGE potential effects on the body, YOU MUST ALWAYS CONSULT WITH THE PHYSICIANS AND DOCTORS AT ALL TIMES.
Like, please don't listen to me or the internet. I am in excellent health, I have a sedentary job and it has taken me about 2 years of research and trial and error to figure out fasting vs intermittent fasting vs etc. Only in the last 6 months do I feel I have regained control over my apetite. I eat once a day at 6pm, I can have anything I want but I usually cook up a stew, chilli, steak, various asian stir fries, soups and such and I DO NOT FEEL HUNGRY. Last week I did not feel like eating for two days, so I didn't. My weight is coming down, but the most important part of eating once a day is that IT IS NATURAL AND NORMAL + I don't crave anything at all at 3am any longer, I don't crave donuts or cake or chocolate or soda and such.
Here is what I found:
1) HEALTH / MEDICATION: I am in excellent health and I do not take any medications at all.
2) VITAMINS: Vitamins I take daily: vitamin D, B, full set of omega supplements, magnesium, niacin, zinc, selenium and iodine.
RESULT: Absolutely no effect on ghrelin, my appetite or anything at all with respect to what I eat, how I eat and so forth. In other words no effect on intermittent fasting, the body doesn't notice it.
CAVEAT: I take the vitamins at the time that I eat so maybe that is why it doesn't affect intermittent fasting.
3) DAILY SWEETENED DRINK: I don't drink any soda, alcohol or anything extra because I don't crave it and the lock downs have made going out not possible so its kind of serendipitous.
Instead I do this:
a) Make a huge pot of tea for the day and sip that all day long.
b) I use zero calorie sweetener based on monk fruit. You have to be careful with Stevia products as they are cut with all kinds of things, I use this stuff here: https://www.lakanto.com/collections/shop-products/products/lakanto-golden-sugar-free-sweetener
So, I buy a big bag of loose tea once in a while, make a huge pot of sweat tea using Lakanto monkfruit sweetener (there are other brands) and I no longer have to try to source zero calorie drinks.
4) FOOD: I eat once a day at 6pm. I am starting to get to the point of not even feeling like I need to eat every day. But, being able to make almost anything from stews, chillis and soups (european and eastern) means I'm always full. I still eat rice once in a while or use bread for a sandwich, but I honestly mean that eating once at 6pm is more than enough.
But again, I work behind a computer and don't have to lay tiles or pour concrete so the fit is right.
ONCE MORE: If you are on medication DO NOT LISTEN TO ME OR ANYONE ON THE INTERNET. PLEASE REFER TO YOUR DOCTOR, medication is serious business.
He wasn't put on statins, he was put on a benzo, he got addicted to it and the withdrawal symptoms almost killed him.
Thanks crunchy. I did intermittent fasting with an 8 hour window to eat before and that worked well. I'll probably try going to a once a day meal program. I drink soda water mostly.
I'll see about getting the monk fruit sweetener for tea.
I never really researched intermittant fasting so youve given me some new information to check out. I dont think Ive ever heard of ghrelin.
it is a combinatorial problem
If you are a programmer and tend to work at night
The amount of permutations
Uh, I think I know what you do for a living lol.
Ha!
Yeah, in summary form:
- Intermittent fasting is based on the idea that our european ancestors only had access to large quantities of food for about 2 months during the summer. 200 000 years ago, they were hunting and fishing for the other 10 months and eating 3 meals a day was not a thing. They ate once a day if that, maybe once every other day or whatever.
Anyone working a modern office life does not expend anything near the calories that requires 3 meals a day either.
Apparently a full fast is really good for health in all manner of speaking beacuse our ancestors often starved for long perious of time. We are actually designed to starve.
I take a bunch of vitamins daily, not because of the fast but because I keep on reading we are deficient at minimum of Vitamin D.
I make a huge pot of tea + sweeten it with a zero calorie sweetener based on monkfruit (I use the Lakanto brand: https://www.lakanto.com/collections/shop-products/products/lakanto-golden-sugar-free-sweetener).
I mostly eat keto which is just meat + green veg. I cut out starches almost totally but occasionally add some rice or use bread in a sandwich.
I eat once a day at 6pm.
It's actually really hard to get everything right. It really turns out that no matter how hard I try I cannot control what I eat or how much. Instead, by cutting out sugars and starches (replacing sugar drink with tea + monkfruit zero cal sweetener) my insulin spikes basically stopped which helped a huge amount. Then, I had to learn to cook NORMAL food using only keto (after you cut our sugars and starches, you only have meat + green veg left anyway, so it's keto by default) and it turns out that was the final piece that we necessary because it is SUPER IMPORTANT to always be eating interesting and satisfying things that match your bodies cravings.
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