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Adipose tissue retains an epigenetic memory of obesity after weight loss

(www.nature.com)
263 points paulpauper | 3 comments | 14 Apr 25 04:47 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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squeedles ◴[17 Apr 25 11:47 UTC] No.43715403[source]▶
As this article shows, there are incredibly complex feedback mechanisms around weight and metabolism, but thermodynamics are still fundamentally a thing.

After he died last year, I ran across this engineering and accounting approach to weight maintenance and loss written up by John Walker (one of the Autodesk founders). It worked very well for him and changed the way I thought about weight and eating. It is interesting reading because he is "one of us"

    https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/
Basically, he uses a first level approximation of the body as a control system with a feedback loop, and tries to pin down some techniques to bring the system to a known good state (target weight) and manage that loop for long term stability.
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dorfsmay ◴[17 Apr 25 12:32 UTC] No.43715852[source]▶
The problem with diets based only on calories is that they don't take satiety into account, nor health.

Calories is what makes you gain/lose weight, it's basic physics. Satiety is what makes you want to eat more/less. Nutrients are what is making you healthy.

Fiber and protein tends to make you feel full. Lack of them allow you to eat large amount of calories without feeling full. You need to keep track of micro and macro nutrient to stay healthy.

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1. taeric ◴[17 Apr 25 13:51 UTC] No.43716857[source]▶
I would slightly tweak your last. Different nutrients (vitamins/whatever) also impact your body in specific ways. Not just "makes you healthy" but "causes you to do certain things." Caffeine is the easy example here.

This gets back to the "feedback loops" above. There are certainly feedback loops. But you are unlikely to be able to prime any of them by just increasing an input. And increasing output is something you have to train the body to do.

On that last, I think it is easy to model weight gain as something you train the body to do, as well? Certainly fits the model of the article.

There are also flywheel levels of energy use for some folks. Consider the amount of calories a professional athlete goes through. We can say exercise doesn't help weight loss at the population level with relative certainty. It is also relatively safe to say exercise burns an obscene amount of calories in athletes.

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2. bluecheese452 ◴[17 Apr 25 17:50 UTC] No.43720116[source]▶
We cannot make that claim with relative certainty. We cannot make the opposite claim either, but it is more likely.
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3. taeric ◴[17 Apr 25 18:18 UTC] No.43720420[source]▶
Apologies, I see I used the wrong word. I meant to use confidence, not certainty. :(