About Obesity

About Obesity

You cannot outrun your fork.

When at the gym, I see it all of the time. Many fat people suffer and toil, to no avail. And some are very strong and somewhat fit. So why are they obese?

Hyperinsulinemia.

They have full capacity to retain most or even all of the energy they consume. It is excess energy, converted from food to glucose to triglycerides. The triglycerides are stored as what we call fat.

The obese person can work out for an hour a day, and never lose an ounce of fat.

They will lose lots of water, and burn up lots of stored energy. The average person has 5 to 6 hours of instant energy stored as glycogen in their muscles and liver. 5 to 6 hours.

So, if the person exercised an hour per day, for 5 days, for him to start burning any meaningful amount of fat, he would have to fast for 4 or 5 days.

That’s why exercise alone won’t make you lose fat. You can burn energy, and lose the water associated with the release of that energy- glycogen, takes 3 or 4 grams of water for each gram of glycogen in storage. So, the fat guy struggles like hell to lose weight by hitting the gym.

The gym is a good place to be. I’m not discounting the many health benefits found in exercise. It just isn’t the end all we believe it to be.

Then we have the not so muscular fat guy. He sweats and sweats and struggles and fails. He may even starve himself in the vain attempt to lose weight.

Nobody wants to lose weight. What we really want to do is lose fat.

Both types of outwardly obese people cannot beat their fork when it comes to their obeseness.

THE SKINNY FAT GUY

Here is a conundrum. And it is perplexing to so many people. How can a thin looking dude become a Type 2 Diabetic?

Easy. Remember a few paragraphs ago I discussed glycogen? This energy is stored chiefly in skeletal muscles. And when a person without much muscle consumes too many things that convert into blood glucose- he first uses that glucose for immediate functions. The action of insulin will put the excess glucose, as glycogen in skeletal muscle.

The strong far guy? He has plenty of muscle mass buried under his fat.

Have you ever seen those world’s strongest man shows? They are large men than can throw beer kegs around like they are light, fluffy pillows. They are big and fat. Some are ripped, but many have plenty of fat. Like linebackers.

The muscle mass uses a lot of glucose from the blood, and their muscle mass also stores a hell of a lot of glycogen.

Muscle mass, to remain muscle, uses energy just by being there. The more muscles, the higher your metabolic rate, and the more glucose you will use. (We will not talk keto, just yet)

The skinny fat guy, he is in poor shape, with little muscle and cannot use much glucose. And he cannot store much glycogen. Unlike the fat guys- he does not have much storage for energy as fat. He is in trouble. The excess energy as triglycerides spill into the blood. The same as the out of shape fat guy.

The result? Higher triglycerides and higher blood sugar. And inflammation ensues.

Both the obese and out of shape and the skinny fat guy are at serious risk. They are prime candidates for metabolic diseases.

The strong fat guy? As he gets older, if he slows down his exercise, or gets hurt, as if he is a manual laborer, he will stop moving and doing the tasks of the physical nature that prevented severe metabolic disease from showing up.

His need for muscle declines, his use of muscle declines. He will become metabolically ill.

Old guys get fat, few fat guys get old.

Please continue to learn, by visiting the Caloric myth page