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[-] DupaCycki@lemmy.world 45 points 2 days ago

I feel like the number of people blaming genes for their unsuccessful weight loss attempts is far greater than the number of people who really do have bad genes for weight loss.

Or it might just be my personal experience with knowing people who failed to lose weight. Maybe not reflective of anything. I've heard this opinion may times before, but quite often it felt disingenuous.

[-] robear@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day ago

Id actually wager there's a huge individual component through our microbiome.

We determine calories by burning food to measure the energy released but that's no guarantee of what any individual is able to obtain from it.

[-] jj4211@lemmy.world 29 points 2 days ago

I think it's more about people thinking exercise is a pretty good tool for weight loss. It really isn't, though it's a really good idea for health broadly, but weight loss is not that significant with activity, at least to get from the low end of obesity to healthy weight.

Managing what you eat and how much you eat is pretty unavoidable if you want to manage weight, but people keep thinking a few minutes on a treadmill should take care of it.

[-] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

There actually is one excersize routine that one can do that will completely ignore/offset your diet. Competitive swimming. There is an issue. If you eat empty calories, you feel and perform like shit. Yeah, at my peak I was eating 20,000 Kcal a day, but there was no processed sugar, no bleached flour, no soda, no dyes, you basically had to make everything from scratch.

[-] adminofoz@lemmy.cafe 7 points 1 day ago

While i question your kcal count, i agree that swimming is one of the few great exercises for weight loss.

Also what most people consider very long distance running (like at least 20 miles per week, realistically even more) is great. IIRC your body doesn't even start to primarily burn fat until like 30 or 40 minutes into an intense workout and it's slow to burn any.

Pay attention you are at the gym. 90% of the people on treadmills are walking with the vast majority getting off after 20 to 30 minutes. Dont get me wrong. Its better than doing nothing, but its like bare minimum maintenence and definitely not even close to fat loss.

People burn through a small amount of their glycogen stores at the gym. Maybe 100 to 200 calories. Go home and drink a 500 calorie smoothie as a reward and wonder why they aren't losing weight.

[-] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

We had dieticians monitoring our intakes. We had special exceptions to eat in class, so that we could eat enough to maintain weight. Our coach was an Olympic medalist and trained all of us like he expected the same from us. I made first runner up for the national team my freshman year of college, but then focused on other things. Once I knew it was possible, an Olympic medal didn't seem worth the effort.

The main thing that is great about swimming long distance, as opposed to running, is that swimming is almost 0 impact. The other benefit is that you'll start burning fat quicker, because your metabolism has to kick into overdrive, as the water is leeching heat from you as quickly as it can.

[-] jj4211@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Well training for that is way more time and facility intensive than most folks can manage.

So the takeaway becomes "oh, if I move around in a pool for 20 minutes every couple of weeks that should be really good at weight management".

Yes swimming is nicely low impact so you can more credibly stand hours a day of that much intense activity and between the activity itself and the energy hungry musculature you get it can make a difference, but that is way way beyond realistic for all but a tiny bit of the population.

Realistically, realistic exercise is good for various things, like joint health (when done correctly), cardiovascular health, insulin response, and tons of other stuff. However it will not manage weight that well nor stave off all the associated health risks.

[-] Canconda@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago

IMO 95% of people who blame genetics are lying to themselves more than anyone.

The obese people I know all refuse to eat vegetables and at best go to the gym irregularly because none of their hobbies qualify as exercise. Live on the 2nd floor but take the elevator every day. Would rather drive than walk 10 mins.

[-] FatVegan@leminal.space 2 points 1 day ago

Fitness is 70-80% your diet.

Arrr these goah darn genes.

People either ask me how i'm staying thin or just straight up tell me that i'm lucky. When i tell them that i eat healthy and don't drink and so on, i already loat them, they don't actually wanna hear that. They wanna gear something like: oh i just take this magic pill every morning.

[-] Obi@sopuli.xyz 9 points 1 day ago

Ok but some motherfuckers really do have it different, I've known multiple people that eat/drink/don't exercise as much as anyone and still stay thin. They ain't healthy, but they stay thin most likely from a high resting metabolic rate of calorie burning (in other words, still CICO).

[-] Zoomboingding@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago

Yup that's been me, though after turning 30 it started catching up with me and I got a little skinnyfat. So now I work out 3 hours a week and I do a lot more walking (thanks Pokemon GO and Walkscape!)

[-] Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.ca 16 points 2 days ago

it's almost always the amount of trash they eat.

breads, sugar 'coffee', sugar food, cereals... it's all empty carbs. almost always... just watch people eating, you'll notice a trent that a LOT of people eat nonstop trash

[-] dontfearthereaper123@ani.social 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

But on the flipside that's pretty much all I eat and I'm skinny AF also I usually lose weight when I eat only fastfood like when dominos had a voucher exploit for a whole summer as a kid

Edit: js found out from another comment its probs my anxiety stopping me from gaining weight

[-] Nora@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago

Anxiety might help, but it's probably more likely that you eat "trash" but just not a lot of it. If you count your calories you probably eat a pretty reasonable amount for whatever your weight is. Especially if you're a tall man, you can potentially eat up to like 2500-3000 calories a day without really gaining weight.

Also a real killer for people is sugary drinks, alcohol, and other liquid calories. I dunno if you drink any, but those add up fast.

[-] kossa@feddit.org 1 points 20 hours ago

With the "right" metabolism you can eat way more, than what goes as "normal rate", because your body just does not ingress all the calories.

So that's where those types who eat junk all day, never move and still be skinny come from.

[-] dontfearthereaper123@ani.social 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I eat upwards of 4000kcal a day usually less tho tbf and I am fairly tall but not giant. When I say I eat trash I mean proper trash and I binge it alot of the time I'm still technically underweight tho I think. IMO I've noticed I put on ALOT more weight when eating proper whole foods instead of js empty calories or fastfood or whatever and I can't eat as much whole food

[-] IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.wtf 5 points 2 days ago

How does that work though? Is there some genetic situation where consuming fewer calories than you burn doesn't lead to weight loss?

[-] kossa@feddit.org 3 points 20 hours ago

No, but running a deficit becomes much harder, when your body ingress all the calories from all food sources and has a low metabolism.

Some people are like "yeah, I lost weight by skipping my snack apple in the evening" while others would need to skip 2.5 meals per day. So the latter have a much harder time to maintain a deficit for long enough.

[-] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 5 points 1 day ago

I'd say that the genetics are probably more along the lines of "no off switch for wanting to eat." I.e. you just keep bingeing calories.

[-] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 day ago

Nope. It's usually people, like in this thread, not understanding what "bad genes" means.

You're a thermodynamic machine, not magic. If you eat less then you burn you'll loose weight.
You are also an extremely complicated machine, with complex chemical processes that govern long and short term behaviors.
"You" are a little slice of protein and fat the size of an avocado glued to the front of a more complicated machine. "You" are responsible for solving problems. The rest of your brain and endocrine system is responsible for managing most desires as well as most other things.

Some people have genetics where they run a mile and their body says "oh shit, this would be easier if I turned the energy fountain up to full wouldn't it?" And now they're burning more energy when they're asleep than they were before.
Other people have genetics that gives them a body that says "oh my God, you just ran nearly 2 blocks. Clearly you're in danger, so I'm going to increase the hormones that tell you to eat a lot more food. Don't worry, the pizza will be gone before you actually feel how much food that is".

You can override the endocrine system, but it's hard. The frontal cortex can change what you do, but the endocrine can change what you want.

Your body is a machine, just like a car. And different cars will start to ding and nag the driver for fuel or maintenance tasks at different points, with different levels of intensity. If your car is built for the Australian outback it might be way more aggressive about fuel warnings, and have a significantly larger tank.

All that's why excercise is a terrible way to lose weight. You lose weight by getting your eating under control and convincing the medieval peasant in your endocrine system that you're not in a famine. Excercise makes your body feel better, more capable, and healthier.
You can excercise all you want, but you can eat your way through any excercise routine in minutes.
A peanut butter and jelly sandwich is more than an hour of vigorous time on a rowing machine.

[-] exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 day ago

A lot of calorie expenditure is determined by hormones, and for a typical person, resting metabolism is a significant percentage of total calorie burn.

Some people respond poorly to dietary interventions because they end up with lower resting metabolic rate. Sometimes it shows up in the form of a person who is always feeling cold or exhausted.

Others have high stress hormones, which throw all sorts of metabolic loops out of wack.

And other hormones affect appetite or satiety after eating, so the biological disadvantage (whether genetic or environmental or both) sometimes comes in the form of greater difficulty with portion control or willpower compared to others. That's not a direct effect on calories in versus calories out, but it does have an indirect effect on overall success with a weight loss program, and it's grounded in an actual physical/physiological/biological difference between individuals.

[-] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 3 points 1 day ago

Some people respond poorly to dietary interventions because they end up with lower resting metabolic rate. Sometimes it shows up in the form of a person who is always feeling cold or exhausted.

Do you have a source where I can read more about this? Im always cold and exhausted.

[-] exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago

Those are classic symptoms of hypothyroidism, which can be diagnosed with blood tests.

The endocrine system is fascinating.

Js learned I'm skinny cause my anxiety is so bad lmao

[-] baronvonj@piefed.social 7 points 2 days ago

Our bodies each have an equilibrium of calories consumed/burned that it really wants to be maintained. If you start dieting to reduce calories consumed, then it automatically adjusts so that your body burns fewer calories just for existing, thereby reducing the deficit you created with your diet. So people see the diet not working and give up rather than taking the time to dial in a sustainable dietary calorie deficit that allows for weight loss without leaving you physically and mentally exhausted by your bodies compensatory reaction.

[-] qaeta@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 days ago

without leaving you physically and mentally exhausted by your bodies compensatory reaction.

Unfortunately, I get this feeling before even reaching maintenance numbers, let alone a deficit. Losing weight is absolutely brutal for me because there is no available option for "lose weight without complete and abject misery" for my body apparently.

Still doing it (with occasionally falls off the wagon, but get right back on), but fuck me does it suck.

[-] Malfeasant@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Same here. The most weight I lost was in the 4 months after my then wife told me she didn't want to be married anymore, while I figured out she had already been cheating on me for months, I was already in such misery not eating didn't add any more... I lost 40 pounds in 4 months... Haven't been able to continue...

[-] Soapbox@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 days ago

It does seem to be a thing. Just not as common as some people want it to be.

this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2026
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