I swear I can smell a cinnamon roll and my jeans tighten. Meanwhile, my buddy just devoured a 12-pack of tacos and is somehow ready to run a 5K.
What kind of metabolism trade deal did I miss out on? Was there a sign-up list in high school I ignored?
Life’s not fair.
Comments
You’re spending less energy, or you’re consuming more. One reason for consuming more is you’re not counting liquid calories. Coffees, sodas, etc add up to a lot. There is some evidence suggesting liquid calories are worse as they are absorbed very quickly.
Different metabolism and energy spending
I… I can’t answer.. I am so fixated on the idea of eating like a raccoon in a taco bell dumpster that my brain keeps resetting.
Metabolism has a much lower effect than most people realize. At most, it swings 200 calories in either direction – basically the equivalent of two oreos.
Your friend doesn’t have a magic body that’s able to pound 12 tacos for every meal, they’re just eating a lot less when they aren’t around you than you think.
Honestly, it really comes down to genetics and metabolism. Some people just naturally burn calories faster, even at rest, while others have to work twice as hard to maintain the same weight. It sucks, but it’s one of those things we don’t have much control over. Doesn’t make it any less frustrating when you’re watching what you eat and still gaining while someone else eats whatever they want and stays lean.
Totally get that. My metabolism was the raccoon type when I was young, but it’s now more like I just look at a glass of water and gain weight. For me it’s actually genetic, most of my family has it, it’s like a light switch. I have found ways to up my metabolism, but it takes a lot of practice, persistence, and will power. And yes, listening to my doctor too.
You aren’t good at counting calories or you don’t exercise very often
Often the difference is what people eat during the rest of the day and evening. If you snack a lot while your friend only has one big meal a day it may look like they’re eating the same amount but only at the moment.
If your buddy is running a 5k, and you’re not, he just burned a fuckton of calories you didn’t. Calories can only either get burned or added to your body mass, not both.
Muscle also burns more calories just to maintain itself than other tissues (particularly fat). Someone who is regularly active will have developed more muscle because stressing your muscles out through exercise triggers your body to build more muscle, which means their body will burn more calories even at rest.
Someone in decent shape and reasonably active can eat 3000 or sometimes more calories in a day and be fine. Someone else sedentary and out of shape tries to eat the same and will pack on the pounds like nobodies business.
Do you see what they eat the rest of the day? For example, it looks like I eat big meals but I only eat once a day (plus I’m active).
I am just learning about this, so I don’t have much info, but what is your sugar intake like, and do you know if you’re sensitive to sugar? Insulin does very weird things to your metabolism.
Genetics. I’m 65 yo, 6’1″ and weigh 178 lbs. While l am a vegetarian, I eat terribly.
Maybe they still stay under their macros. Taco Bell isn’t healthy for you but it’s not as caloric as a lot of other fast foods
Theres a lot at play that others have mentioned. But one thing to also keep in mind is that a fit body burns more and requires more calories. An active body also needs and burns more calories. So a lot of times the people who can eat a little junk and stay fit literally need those calories.
enemas
>my buddy just devoured a 12-pack of tacos and is somehow ready to run a 5K
I mean, you just admitted your friend runs 5Ks like they’re nothing. Muscle mass burns calories just by existing, and he probably lives an active lifestyle if he’s game for that.
On top of that, just because he CAN eat that much doesn’t mean he does so regularly. So often you hear the “so and so is just blessed with an overactive metabolism” thing, only to find out that person doesn’t eat much outside of a slice of avocado toast and a salad each day outside of social situations.
Weight gain/loss is a game of averages, and unless you’re tracking his diet and fitness day-in-day-out you really don’t know whether you two are comparable.
>What kind of metabolism trade deal did I miss out on?
Metabolism is genetic, and a significant factor to weigh changes, so yeah, you can blame your parents for having inferior genes to your buddy’s fam XD
Differing metabolisms, different genetics. You may want to consider getting your thyroid checked.
Don’t be disheartened. You’re made to survive when the famine hits!
Body size and physique is cultural and part of local trend, like fashion. When I was young all women wanted a flat small butt yet for decades now women get butt implants a big round ass is fashionable. Trends change. Love yourself.
I eat about $25 worth of taco bell or an extra large deep dish pizza and 3-4 beers or glasses of wine every saturday. I also trail run 15-25 miles in the mountains almost every Saturday, average probably 60 miles per week and strength train 3x a week. Calories in, calories out. You never know what someone’s calorie expenditure is by looking at them.
Could be a huge number of things like body composition or how active you are. I have to work to gain weight which comes with its own problems. I’ve lost 3 pounds overnight just sleeping.
I wish I saved this video on youtube, but there was this engineer ( I think ) and she was trying to lose weight and consistently exercised, but found that over time, it wasn’t very viable due to time-constraints and just trying to do it everyday was difficult. She used all kinds exercises including HIIT and many different kinds of diets, keto, carbs and all kinds of fad diets. They all had similar results, initial success, but massive failure in the end. She found that the total amount of muscle gained and the energy they burned was the amount of calories of an apple/year.
But then, she went on a trip, ate all kinds of foods, reporting that she didn’t really lower her consumption and probably ate more during that time, but she apparently lost weight. She began to study that because that was fascinating to her, and wondered what really drove that. She figured out it was the fact she was WALKING every where during her trip.
This takes her down a rabbit hole about NEAT exercises and found an exercise routine to add 10-15k steps per day. She also discovered that after 3-4 weeks of dieting, her metabolism got lowered which helped her realize why her “consistent exercise and dieting” failed and why so many fail to keep weight off apparently. She also discovered that after dieting and exercising for 3-4 weeks, it’s ok to let go of dieting restrictions for a while, preferably a week, regain some weight in the process, but ultimately raising her metabolism back up to go for the kill shot.
Her routine was : 15-30minutes walking in the morning and night, gets you like 9k-15k steps. Listen to podcast or audiobooks and walking to a park or something to make it easier. Lowered her sugar consumption, but still enjoyed food. Realized when she stopped losing weight, to readjust her diet to regain her metabolism and not lose sight of the big picture by the short-term weight gain.
TL:DR
Metabolism can be trained. You can lose weight while still enjoying the foods you love. Walking is a powerful weight loss exercise. Increase your NEAT exercises.
Because your friend burns more calories than they consume
Contrary to several other comments here, weight regulation varies wildly between individuals. You can look up the Bouchard overfeeding and caloric restriction studies, both of which used pairs of identical twins to determine the genetic component of weight gain and loss.
The researchers calculated the basal metabolic rate of all participants, kept them in a metabolic ward for months, and either overfed or underfed each participant the same amount of calories to observe any changes.
The results- even when caloric surplus/deficit was tightly controlled, weight responses in each pair of twins varied widely and were very similar within pairs, and fat distribution was even more similar within pairs. Anyone who explains weight management as “calories in, calories out” is grossly oversimplifying the issue.
There are many options. Possible your friend is eating high volume low calories in other meals. Or they are more active. Or they have a chronic disease. I have a chronic disease so I eat more than other people and weigh less. Partially because I’m sick partially because I absorb nutrients worse than others.
Those people you’re comparing yourself to? You aren’t always getting the full picture
How often are you doing 5ks?
Thin people eat more than usual at social gatherings. Fat people tend to eat less than they usually do.
Because you need to exercise. Fatass
A lot of people have said it already but calorie counting is the biggest thing. In terms of losing weight, it is legitimately calories in and calories out to lose or gain weight. Age is something people bring up a lot like oh that kid is 18 of course he can eat like a cow and never gain weight. So you’ve never seen an overweight 18 year old? Or a skinny 30 year old for that matter.
I’ve dealt with this on my own accord. When I was 20 I was a lean 150lbs around 12-14% body fat. I worked out a lot mostly running and calisthenics and was pretty active throughout the day. I was 22 when both my kids were born and I started gaining a lot more weight around 170lbs. I was slower at running, couldn’t do as many pull ups, push ups were harder so what gives ? I eat the same as I did before. Absolutely not. I was eating essentially an extra serving per meal and more snacks in between and working out a lot less. On my old schedule exercise was about 4-5 times a week for about an hour and my job was very active. Now after my promotion I had at a desk more often and worked out maybe 1-2 times a week. It’s easy to slowly build up to that level of normalcy with diet and exercise. This happened over the course of about over a year. Now I’ve started simply eating smaller portions and exercising 3 times a week for an hour. And I’m down to 155 lbs
He probably skipped dinner that night while you doubled down
Well like you said , he’s running 5ks, most likely getting a lot more exercise than you
I think that the types of foods makes a difference.
The large people that I know are constantly eating all day, some are hiding and in denial.
The smaller people that I know who eat a large meal, they stop eating afterwards for many hours.
I think it’s hard to argue against physics.