• Question: why do people eat and eat and NEVER get fat?:)

    Asked by lindseymerrygold to Christine, Edd, Jess, Nicolas, Zara on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Zara Gladman

      Zara Gladman answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Well, some of the people who eat and eat probably do a lot of exercise, which balances out all the calories they’re consuming.

      Other people are just lucky 😉 I’m pretty sure genetics and the metabolism will play a role. People with a higher metabolism might be able to eat more without getting fat, because they burn the calories faster than people with a lower metabolism.

      Either that or they have hollow legs…..

    • Photo: Edward Codling

      Edward Codling answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      The equation for putting on weight is pretty simple:

      weight gain = calories taken in through food – calories used in exercise and normal living

      It really is as simple as that!

      People have different metabolic rates (basically how much energy the body uses to do simple things like walking, thinking (the brain uses a lot of energy), and digesting food). If you have a high metabolic rate then you will burn more calories than someone who has a lower metabolic rate – even if both people do the same exercise. Then obviously some people do more exercise than others and hence burn off more calories.

      However, the best thing to do is to eat a healthy balanced diet and do regular exercise. You can’t do anything about your metabolic rate (it typically slows as you get older anyway), but you can live healthily without going on any special diets as long as you do plenty of exercise. You shouldn’t try to lose weight just by not eating – this is a very bad idea and can lead to lots of health complications later in life.

    • Photo: Jessica Chu

      Jessica Chu answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Hi Lindsey,

      It has been suggested that there is a gene that is related to our weight:
      http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article1647517.ece

      But there are external factors too – like amount of exercise we do and what we eat. But here is the article about the gene!
      I have heard some talks suggesting that when you’re a baby still growing inside your mum- scientists found that those mums that ate less .. their babies (when growing up) tend to be able to keep more fat compared to those that ate normally or more. This might be because our body (when still developing inside the womb) can sense there is not enough food coming in so naturally it will want to store up some food!

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