zekko said:
It has to be a lot more difficult for the girls, without the extra muscle mass to help burn the calories.
Is it? Correctly functioning appetite is regulated by how much food you need. If you don't have the extra muscle, you shouldn't crave more calories unless you short circuit appetite control by eating like complete crap chowing down on simple carbs all day instead of satiating foods. This surely isn't 100% all the time, but it's how the typical person eats.
When I was 150 lbs and a fart would put me on my face, I was fine eating 2000 calories a day. Now that I hang out from 210-220, I'm starving at less than 3000.
Chicks are simply out there guzzling wines, beers, and sodie pops and just ignore the calories. Instead of eating the meat like nature intended, they're eating all the french fries and throwing out half the burger... after chowing down that uber-expensive "spinach dip" they all just have to have. It's funny because a chick came over last night surprising me with a quad-stacker from burger king thinking it was funny because i eat so much meat, and then that's exactly what she did. I ate no fries, ate the meat, and had a protein drink. She ate half the burger, ate all the fries, and drank a beer. Two hours later she's hungry again, and I was just fine. She's skinny now at 25, but I'm sure she'll eventually start to balloon up because she'll never adjust her habits. This sort of scenario plays out again and again.
It's funny how often people go to a restaurant and get a "healthy food" that has just as many calories as the 'bad' food.
zekko said:
That's why I get kind of amused when I read about 28 year old guys bragging about their low body fat. Shoot, when I was 28 it was all I could do to put some fat on.
By 28 your metabolism has already tanked compared to 20 year olds. You have fat chicks that were skinny at 20 because they kept eating the same way with reduced exercise so it just sorta becomes exponential. And may of us sure as hell do pack on fat. I "took a break" over Christmas for 2 weeks and ate whatever carbs I wanted and put on 7 lbs. Normally I don't touch pretzels, chips, cookies etc except the occasional few. I grew up pounding down bbq chips and popsicles and was pretty chubby by high school. Zekko, if you had to try to put fat on at 28 then you were luckier than most.
And that whole "you lose muscle as you get older" thing is mostly mythical. [
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcopenia] People lose muscle as they age largely by not using it as much as they used to. In college, people ran around doing things and walked across campus and stuff like that. Later on they sit at a desk all day and their couch all night. Your body isn't going to hold onto muscle that you don't use. The actual age related lost muscle mass per year or decade is very low. There's guys in their 70s deadlifting in the 400s still. I've watched guys in their 40s and 50s pick up a barbell for the first time and get pretty darn strong. Even the metabolism slowing thing is affected by how people eat and try to diet. These thyroid disorders going around have their cause and effect reversed. People usually aren't fat because they have thyroid problems. They often have thyroid problems because they are fat. But which way do people *want* to believe?
backbreaker said:
I am a drug addict, and I will be the first to tell you to stop with the empathy. what most addicts need is a tough ass kick in the nutts. the earlier and harder the better.
Right, what I want to do is go back to my younger self and kick him in the ass. I was never on drugs, but there's plenty of other stupid sh1t you do that you regret. You know that golden rule thing that's always preached? I'd want that "tough love" stuff if I were messing up my life so if I'm to follow that rule, then I'm not going to give too much empathy and hugs to others. I turned my own problems around through study, work, and perseverance. I really don't want to hear how hard it is for anyone unless you end up in a car wreck or get cancer or something that you didn't just do to yourself.