Loosing body weight question

[IDB1]

It also varies in the individual at different times in their life..

Through my 30's I was, pretty much, 16 - 17 stone.. turned 40 and shed around 2 stone with no effort, no change in diet, no apparent reason at all.
Got to the point where the wife was bugging me to go see the GP because dropping weight the way I did wasn't 'normal'..

Now I find that if I hit any high stress, not only do I get nosebleeds I also drop weight quickly.

The only way to do the weight-loss/fitness thing, and have a hope of maintaining it, has to be diet and exercise though..

Shedding weight can be very easy, keeping it gone is generally somewhat harder

 

[Neil]

What's not to understand - the laws of thermodynamics have never been shown to be broken.

CICO stands, period. Of course there are variables - the rate at which individuals burn calories, the degree to which calories are absorbed, hormonal response to intake, and what happens with surplus.

I'm totally with you (and going on the assumption that you've studied this more formally than I) but when one goes from 18 hours of structured training per week to nothing for an extended period and still consumes the same relatively balanced and measurable diet, I thought my weight would increase.

I think you're saying this varies person to person in the second paragraph, and, if you are, this is the part I don't know about.

The science is accurate, in terms of calories absorbed, versus calories expended, and then stored.

For various factors some people absorb more from intake as it passes through the gut, compared with others. Also, metabolic rate varies from invidiual to individual, and also can for the same person depending on various factors.

So the key things aboue how much you aborb and how much you burn can vary.

After that, it's down to what the calories or nutrients are used for, or partitioned - again, that will vary very much on individual, hormonal response, any anomalies, and certain genetic factors that can't really be reggae-ed with.

Even how excess intake is stored can vary quite significantly.

Other factors include hormonal response and "signalling" in terms of how satiated people feel from what they've taken in.

In terms of what you found, personally, in terms of reduced activity, and supposed no reduction in intake - well there may be reasons why you didn't gain weight, noticably. Body composition may have changed without any obvious, significant change in weight. Calories in may not have remained as high as you think - you may have been more satiated with what was going in, and simply not have consumed as much, but not been that conscious of it.

Or maybe there was something funky going on with your metabolic rate and / or rate of absorbption.

At the end of the day, though, CICO (when measured correctly) never is broken - for people who are, say, in a coma - fed by tube - medical staff would be able pretty accurately maintain a patient's bodyweight.

 

[Neil]

It also varies in the individual at different times in their life..

Through my 30's I was, pretty much, 16 - 17 stone.. turned 40 and shed around 2 stone with no effort, no change in diet, no apparent reason at all.
Got to the point where the wife was bugging me to go see the GP because dropping weight the way I did wasn't 'normal'..

Now I find that if I hit any high stress, not only do I get nosebleeds I also drop weight quickly.

The only way to do the weight-loss/fitness thing, and have a hope of maintaining it, has to be diet and exercise though..

Shedding weight can be very easy, keeping it gone is generally somewhat harder

Variation can occur with age, like you say - hormone levels change as you mature, which can affect loads of factors, not least, appetite and what happes with the calories you consume.

As to solutions, the science is easy - it's the behavioural issues that are the most complex and difficult to deal with. I think it's likely this, appetite issues, partitioning and hormone response that will likely be addressed by science, going forward - because the nuts and bolts is fairly easy to implement, when things go wrong it's adherence and behavioural issues.