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The brain controls body weight and obesity by regulating intestinal fat absorption
(english.elpais.com)
this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2024
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That's pretty interesting. This could be the basis of a new weight-loss drug that works by limiting calorie absorption rather than regulating hunger cues.
I'm going to be mildly annoyed if the fat acceptance latches on to this as yet another study validating their belief that they can't lose weight.
Limiting oil absorption in the intestines sounds like a recipe for greasy diarrhea like Olestra caused.
It's lame how Olestra got such a bad rap. Like, it's an oil that your body doesn't absorb so it doesn't make you fat. It's totally fine in moderation but what do you think happens when you binge eat it??
It is. Ask anyone with pancreatic insufficiency.
I was gonna say, we already tried this.
Ooh, diarrhea chips!
Just ask anyone with gallbladder problems....
I actually went and skimmed the study, this is a very good article I would say in terms of lack of sensationalizing. That is exactly the main takeaway; perhaps we can get food (fat specifically) to ‘pass through’ us without being absorbed by the body. A fascinating possibility, if perhaps wasteful.
On the very first page of the study:
Essentially what they’ve discovered is that they can interrupt a process that occurs normally in everyone, whenever there are fats in your intestine. The headline alone gives the impression of possibly being related to “set-point” theory, in which thinner people’s brains are just tuned differently. So yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see this start popping up in the spaces despite not supporting the stance at all
These drugs already exist. But they have a bunch of side effects.
Rebound effects from thinking you can eat more because of the drugs and fat stool are the most obvious ones.
They already exist? I've never heard of them.
For a lot of people it's a poverty and lack of healthcare thing...
Even just annual checkups are a huge help because weight is being tracked and someone gets early and continuous warnings their health is being impacted.
They have as much control as someone trying to lift themselves up by their bootstraps.
If they can't escape poverty and gain access to healthcare... They're less likely to maintain a healthy weight.
That's valid. I was thinking more about the nuisances on Tik Tok who peddle straight-up health disinformation.
Yeah, that's bullshit.
Poverty isn't exactly helping, but there are more than enough people with enough resources and excessive body weight.
In the US, ¾ of the population is overweight, are you suggesting ¾ of the population is poor?
I used to be fat. It's not a monetary issue. In fact, I lost weight when I moved out and had very little money.
Completely unrelated to the weight loss issue, yeah absolutely. Depends on your definition of "poor" a bit, for example federal statistics list the official poverty cutoff at around $15k a year in income which is stupendously low, and even with that being so much lower than what's realistically survivable in most places they still report 11% of people being in that bracket. Less than half of Americans have more than $1000 in savings. Most of America is extremely broke as fuck.
One person says losing weight is possible because they did it once. Another person says they cannot lose weight because they've been trying for years and it's not happening. Which one is true? Must be the one that I'm most closely aligned with!
Everyone can lose weight though, and we all know what works to do it. You simply eat less food.
The hard part for everyone is manifesting the willpower to resist hunger. Often it takes a life-threatening health scare to manifest that willpower for people, and then they diet and lose weight to avoid dying.
One person ignoring the statistics offered by another to roll in the manure of their own smugness.
?
What about that phrase made you interpret it as "everyone"?
This makes it sound like your young and still had the metabolism of a teenager... Losing that is what makes most people gain weight. While some people can be overweight with it, it's still literally the easiest time in your life to lose weight.
It would have been much harder if you were fully grown.
From my own experience I'm approaching 40 and I can estimate my weight based off the calories I've consumed and how much I've worked out since the last time I weighed myself within a couple pounds. It's not exactly in line with any of those estimator apps but it is fairly consistent I assume this is because I have a slower metabolism. Pretty much everyone I know who struggles to lose weight makes terrible choices even when they're trying. You can account that to cravings or impulse control or whatever but everyone that stuck to an appropriate plan has succeeded. It's a matter of figuring out how your body works and sticking to a plan but it is not easy.
For you, yeah.
For most people even, sure.
But not everyone, there's an absolute shit ton of natural human variation on top of conditions/diseases that effect that.
Like, some people react to a normal diet by their body drastically cutting energy expenditure to try and maintain fat reserves.
Billions of years of evolution says carrying around as much fat as possible is the optimal choice, and different people have different traits to maintain those energy reserves which used to be the most important part of physical fitness.
Like, of any possible addiction, an addiction to a high calorie diet should make the most sense to people.
That's where the part about understanding how your body works comes into it. It's certainly harder for some people than others but your body cannot maintain fat without the building blocks to do so and you can restrict these between diet and exercise.
Latches on to what exactly?
I guess the idea that some people are fat for reasons outside of their control? When it comes to fat people, people don't like to hear "excuses," regardless if it's "I don't have enough time to work out" or "my body is unable to do xyz effeciently and causes weight gain." Fat is seen as a character flaw. And because for a lot of people, it is a simple "calorie in vs calorie out," the idea of it not working for someone is seen as a failure of character. So this "belief" is making it easier for... Fat people to be fat I guess.
Weird that this didn't trigger concerns of anorexics latching onto this study validating their belief that they can't eat/eat certain foods because their body absorbs more than others. But, like they say, you can never be too rich or too thin. 👍🏾