Avant-garde with the Lard

 

You want to piss people off? I mean really piss them off?

Tell them Calories In, Calories Out is garbage.

Look, I have experienced hypermetabolic (literally) and hypometabolic states thanks to medications and my own biochemical baseline. I have dieted. Exercised. Hacked my insulin. Been starved by tumors. I've done everything right, tracked every calorie, every carb, and lost nothing. I've been fat and not so fat, but never skinny (even despite reaching the bottom of my ideal weight range).

I could die of starvation and I would still be fat. I do not say that lightly. I'm not minimizing the reality that people do starve to death in this world. I'm serious. This isn't hyperbole co-opting the suffering of others. I am literally saying, I could starve too (and I have) and I wouldn't become emaciated (and I haven't). 

That I'm not 600 pounds is a testament to how hard I've worked. Yes. I could be 600 pounds. For real. My body has that capability. I can't make myself skinny on my own steam anymore (because aging really works against you), but I can mostly prevent/slow weight gain. It takes more effort and attention to detail than what people who lose weight do, but I can do it. 

So bite me. It's NOT just what you eat. It's how well the engine burns fuel. If your engine sucks, it doesn't matter how much or how little gas you give it.

My engine is broken.

Go tell people that. Go into weight loss forums and say it. Tell the patient groups. Try saying CICO is garbage in public.

And watch your post get deleted. And people rant and rave at you. The absolute vitriol I can trigger is stunning. 

The NEED for weight to be a personal moral failing under total personal control runs DEEP.

I'm just over here with my APOA5 mutation, PCOS, history of long term high dose prednisone use, endocrine tumors, and then other tumors that basically give me anorexia for large chunks of time while somehow never making me skinny waiting for the rest of the world to fucking get a clue and actually get real about obesity.

It will happen eventually. Medications like Ozempic will force the conversation to change. If you can biochemically manipulate weight, then CICO can't be the end all and be all of weight loss. 

And there are pathogenic genetic mutations causing obesity that people can't diet past, but we're so sooo early on that, I don't think this aspect of bariatric medicine will get very far in my lifetime. But in the future? Yes. The future of resolving obesity will be about the DNA impacting your metabolism, your gut biome, and custom medications to fix the body's engine. 

CICO spoiler: I test the limits of Ozempic all the time. I can eat way more carbs with it and still lose weight. More importantly, I won't gain weight which is unheard of. The weird part is I can also strictly diet on Ozempic  (or starve if my health is interfering with eating) and not move the scale even an ounce. Weight loss is beyond my daily intake somehow. I can't find the cause and effect between intake and weight, even on Ozempic. It seems to be running on a schedule I can't access.

With Ozempic, I can eat like a regular person (health willing) and eat when I'm hungry and have ice cream and my system just works. It's like living in a whole new body, like someone took my broken tricycle and gave me a Ferrari instead. I don't know how to operate this thing! I've had to feel guilty about every 'bad' thing I ate, about every missed workout my whole life. 

Now I can have ice cream and I can't even compute... I'm not going to gain weight? Whaaaat?

I'd love to talk to people who are down with the genetics and biochemistry of obesity, who get that CICO isn't the full story, but I think I'm all by myself over here. No one can relate. In fact, they often want to fight me.

No one wants to admit that obesity isn't always a personal responsibility issue. 

Looking at the anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers with covid, when we do finally have a better grasp on the biochemistry and genetics of obesity...will society even accept it? I wonder. It might be more important to keep blaming obese people for their issues. There's a lot of psychosocial shit invested in maintaining that status quo.