today we watched a very interesting documentary in one of the nutrition tutorials, it was about an experiment done on a group of thin people to test how much weight they could gain. the subjects of the experiment are those who always eat whatever they want and can eat a lot but wouldn't gain a single kilo.
one of the subjects at the opening of the documentary said, "i'm on a 'seefood diet'... i see food, and i eat it". lol.
so the purpose of the experiment was to feed them double (and then more) of their usual caloric intake and see if they would put on weight. they had to consume some 10,000 calories/day every day for 4 weeks, and the target was to put on 20kg. theoretically, they should put on that amount of weight if they were consuming that many calories in excess. their weight and body fat percentage was measured every week and photos of them were taken weekly to document the changes. they were also not allowed to do any exercise during that period and had to wear a pedometer to track their activity level.
at the end of the 4 weeks, the "winner" of the group had put up 9.5kg which wasn't even half of the target weight. only 2 people out of the group of perhaps about 10 people or more had gained weight in the higher single digits. everyone else had weight gain of about 5-6kg only. and the "loser" had put on only 4.5kg. interestingly, the "loser" did not have much of an increase in body fat percentage... instead, he had put on muscle mass and his basal metabolic rate had increased 30%! that's like totally going against theory about how excess calories are stored as fat and basal metabolic rate can't be increased.
maybe the guy's a mutant.
anyhow, he's the exception out of the study and everyone else did put on some sort of weight and increased their body fat percentage. although, it's not that much weight to be putting on for that ridiculous amount of calories consumed. i probably just need to consume 1/10 of what they had and i'll put on 10kg -.-
a follow-up was done with the subjects after the experiment concluded, and basically all of the subjects had returned to their usual weight prior to the study without trying to lose weight. it was like their body's natural setpoint that they are supposed to be thin and they returned to that size. daddy and hubby totally belong to this category of people, they eat and eat and eat and don't put on any weight at all! life's so unfair!
and there's this evolution theory about why there are so many overweight and obese people today: throughout history of human civilisation, the lack of food was more common and in times of famine, it was the fatter ones who had more energy stores and could stay alive for longer than the skinny ones. so it's natural selection of the fatter ones who lived on to procreate and pass the fatty genes down to their offspring. it's survival of the fattest instead of the survival of the fittest. the expression of the fatty genes in the outward appearance of people weren't really observed until the past half century when food became more abundant. with the abundance of food, people consume more and those with the fatty genes store more fat and become heavier. (there's also a theory on how those with the fatty genes are predisposed to consume more when food is available due to a survival instinct).
i totally subscribe to this evolution theory. but sadly, the fatty genes aren't really helping with survival in today's modern world with abundance of food...
one of the subjects at the opening of the documentary said, "i'm on a 'seefood diet'... i see food, and i eat it". lol.
so the purpose of the experiment was to feed them double (and then more) of their usual caloric intake and see if they would put on weight. they had to consume some 10,000 calories/day every day for 4 weeks, and the target was to put on 20kg. theoretically, they should put on that amount of weight if they were consuming that many calories in excess. their weight and body fat percentage was measured every week and photos of them were taken weekly to document the changes. they were also not allowed to do any exercise during that period and had to wear a pedometer to track their activity level.
at the end of the 4 weeks, the "winner" of the group had put up 9.5kg which wasn't even half of the target weight. only 2 people out of the group of perhaps about 10 people or more had gained weight in the higher single digits. everyone else had weight gain of about 5-6kg only. and the "loser" had put on only 4.5kg. interestingly, the "loser" did not have much of an increase in body fat percentage... instead, he had put on muscle mass and his basal metabolic rate had increased 30%! that's like totally going against theory about how excess calories are stored as fat and basal metabolic rate can't be increased.
maybe the guy's a mutant.
anyhow, he's the exception out of the study and everyone else did put on some sort of weight and increased their body fat percentage. although, it's not that much weight to be putting on for that ridiculous amount of calories consumed. i probably just need to consume 1/10 of what they had and i'll put on 10kg -.-
a follow-up was done with the subjects after the experiment concluded, and basically all of the subjects had returned to their usual weight prior to the study without trying to lose weight. it was like their body's natural setpoint that they are supposed to be thin and they returned to that size. daddy and hubby totally belong to this category of people, they eat and eat and eat and don't put on any weight at all! life's so unfair!
and there's this evolution theory about why there are so many overweight and obese people today: throughout history of human civilisation, the lack of food was more common and in times of famine, it was the fatter ones who had more energy stores and could stay alive for longer than the skinny ones. so it's natural selection of the fatter ones who lived on to procreate and pass the fatty genes down to their offspring. it's survival of the fattest instead of the survival of the fittest. the expression of the fatty genes in the outward appearance of people weren't really observed until the past half century when food became more abundant. with the abundance of food, people consume more and those with the fatty genes store more fat and become heavier. (there's also a theory on how those with the fatty genes are predisposed to consume more when food is available due to a survival instinct).
i totally subscribe to this evolution theory. but sadly, the fatty genes aren't really helping with survival in today's modern world with abundance of food...
1 comment:
Ahahaha... interesting! I belong to the fat gene category for sure!
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