IGX

Some more IF motivation...

http://muller.lbl.gov/TRessays/22-ThePhysicsDiet.htm



The Physics Diet

Want to lose weight? Easy! Just remember the first law of thermodynamics: conservation of energy.
by Richard A. Muller

Here's an old joke. The dairy industry hires a physicist to improve milk production. After several weeks, he's ready to lecture about his progress. He draws a circle on the blackboard and says, 'Consider a spherical cow.'

I've told this joke many times, but nobody ever laughs -- except other physicists. For the rest of you, I should explain that it is self-deprecating humor. It makes fun of our penchant for oversimplification.

This month I want to talk about diet and exercise for weight loss, and I'm going to oversimplify on purpose. Consider a spherical physicist.

Most dieters are so concerned about second-order effects, such as daily fluctuations in weight and changes in metabolism, that they lose track of the first law of thermodynamics: conservation of energy.

Want to lose a pound of fat? You can work it off by hiking to the top of a 2,500-story building. Or by running 60 miles. Or by spending 7 hours cleaning animal stalls. (It is amazing what scientists have actually measured. This last example is tabulated in the book Exercise Physiology by G. Brooks and T. Fahey.)

Exercise is a very difficult way to lose weight. Here's a rule of thumb: exercise very hard for one hour (swimming, running, or racquetball)– and you'll lose about one ounce of fat. Light exercise for an hour (gardening, baseball, or golf) will lose you a third of an ounce. That number is small because fat is a very energy-dense substance: it packs about 4,000 food calories per pound, the same as gasoline, and 15 times as much as in TNT.

If you run for an hour, you'll lose that ounce of fat and also a pound or two of water. By the next day, when you've replenished the water, you might think, 'the weight came right back!' But you'd be wrong -- you really did lose an ounce. It is hard to notice, unless you keep running every day for a month or more, and don't reward yourself after each run with a cookie.

There is a much easier way to lose weight, as we can learn from the first law of thermodynamics. Eat less.

A reasonable daily diet for an adult is 2,000 food calories. That's 8.36 megajoules per day, or about 100 joules per second -- in other words, 100 watts. Most of that ends up as heat, so you warm a room as much as a bright light bulb. Cut your consumption by 600 calories per day and you'll lose a pound of fat every week. Most diet experts consider that a reasonable goal. Don't drop below 1,000 calories per day, or you might get lethargic. But at 1,400 calories per day, you can easily maintain an active life.

Of course, there is a catch. You'll be hungry.

It's not real hunger–not like the painful hunger of starving people in impoverished countries. It's more of a mild ache, or an itch that you mustn't scratch. To be popular, a diet must somehow cope with this hunger. Weight Watchers does it with peer support. The food pyramid does it by encouraging you to eat unlimited celery. Some high-fat diets satisfy all your old cravings -- and figure you'll eventually cut back the butter you put on your bacon.

Last April, I had once again grown out of my belt. I wasn't grossly overweight: 205 pounds in a six-foot, one-inch body. That wouldn't be bad for a football player, but I'm 59 years old, and the excess pounds weren't in muscle. I had gained a pound a year for several decades. I felt heavy and old. I decided to try conservation of energy. I gave up lunch and snacks.

How to cope with the hunger? I attempted to enjoy it. I thought of the movie Lawrence of Arabia, in which T.E. Lawrence says, 'The trick is not minding that it hurts.' I told myself that the mild ache was only the sensation of evaporating fat. That interpretation has some basis in physics. When you lose weight, most of your fat is converted to the gases carbon dioxide and water vapor, and so you get rid of fat by breathing it out of your body.

Physics works, and I lost weight. By August, I was down to 175 pounds, a 30-pound drop. My belt went from 42 inches to 36 inches. My Zen-like approach to hunger also worked; I found myself declining offers of chocolate cake because I didn't want to lose the sensation of evaporation. I didn't change my level of activity, and managed to maintain my diet while taking trips to Cuba and Alaska -- and during a week-long backpacking excursion in the Sierra Nevada. A key innovation: I kept up the social aspects of lunch, without eating. I watched others gobbling cheeseburgers, while I sipped diet cola. It really wasn't that hard to do. And the mild afternoon discomfort was compensated by several positive developments. Dinner became truly wonderful. I hadn't had pre-dinner hunger for decades. A sharp appetite turns a meal into a feast. No more cheese 'appetizers' for me.

Moreover -- and this may sound silly coming from a physicist -- I was surprised that I began to feel lighter. I no longer walk down streets -- I float. Distant stores seem closer. And my knees have responded to the lighter load. Their aching, which I had mistakenly attributed to aging, went away.

Food is instant gratification. And fast-food chains and gourmet restaurants serve tasty food at remarkably low cost. It is a situation unprecedented in history and unanticipated by our genes. No wonder we are overweight.

Anybody can lose weight. Energy is conserved. Just stop scratching that itch. Of course, you'll have to sacrifice instant gratification. Is it worth it? You decide. Food is delicious and cheap. You might reasonably choose to take advantage of this unique historical circumstance, and decide to be fat.

It's been seven months since I started my diet, and two months since I left it. I've begun eating a light lunch, and having an occasional small snack. I'm still at 175. But I never want to lose the delicious edge of hunger before dinner, or the floating sensation when I walk. Moving takes less energy now, so I have more energy. I no longer feel like a spherical physicist. And for losing weight, dieting sure beats cleaning animal stalls.

vern wrote:Here's a rule of thumb: exercise very hard for one hour (swimming, running, or racquetball)– and you'll lose about one ounce of fat. Light exercise for an hour (gardening, baseball, or golf) will lose you a third of an ounce.

i've never seen this math before. a bit disheartening, but the piece certainly reinforces the adage, 'you can't out run a donut'

thanx for posting.

Nice and Simple.

7 hours of cleaning animal stalls = 60mi of running?

dead man walking wrote:

vern wrote:Here's a rule of thumb: exercise very hard for one hour (swimming, running, or racquetball)– and you'll lose about one ounce of fat. Light exercise for an hour (gardening, baseball, or golf) will lose you a third of an ounce.

i've never seen this math before. a bit disheartening, but the piece certainly reinforces the adage, 'you can't out run a donut'

thanx for posting.

His position on human caused global warming is excellent too.

dead man walking wrote:i've never seen this math before. a bit disheartening, but the piece certainly reinforces the adage, 'you can't out run a donut'

Nice article but very misleading.

A glazed donut from Dunkin' Donuts is 260 calories: http://www.dunkindonuts.com/content/dun ... azed+Donut

If you can't out run or out exercise that then you have a very serious problem. Seriously, people need to try harder.

Wendler You Can Out Train Your Diet: http://www.jimwendler.com/2012/01/you-c ... your-diet/

Reminds me a little of the venerable hacker's diet.

http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/hackdiet.html

Heh hadn't read this in years. Still true.

There's an old Wall Street tale: a tyro asks an old-timer, ``How do you make money in the market.'' The wise man answers, ``Nothing could be simpler: buy low, sell high.'' The beginner asks, ``How can I learn to do that?'' The sage responds, ``Ahhhh...that takes a lifetime.'' Simple doesn't mean easy.

There is no magic secret to losing weight and keeping it off, just as there is no hidden key to instant wealth. Nonetheless, every year another crop of ``magic diet'' and ``secrets of investing'' books appear on already-creaking shelves. The human capacity to ignore inconvenient facts and avoid unpleasantness is immense. Success in any endeavour requires coming to terms with the true nature of the task at hand and, if the goal is worth the effort, getting on with it.

``How can I lose weight?'' ``Simple, eat less food than your body burns.'' ``How can I learn to do that?'' Read this book.

How to cope with the hunger? I attempted to enjoy it. I thought of the movie Lawrence of Arabia, in which T.E. Lawrence says, 'The trick is not minding that it hurts.' I told myself that the mild ache was only the sensation of evaporating fat. That interpretation has some basis in physics. When you lose weight, most of your fat is converted to the gases carbon dioxide and water vapor, and so you get rid of fat by breathing it out of your body.

In Stig Severinsen's book Breatheology he writes about a friend of his that was overweight and began performing pranayama (alternate nostril breathing) every day. He changed nothing else and lost weight. The story is on pages 50-52 of the book...here. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... =firefox-a

While he was living in India, he participated in a course on pranayama
(breath control) with exercises aimed at losing weight. There were no
physical exercises like yoga positions, running or weight lifting in the
course. The duration of the course was seven days and most exercises
were performed while sitting. The breathing exercises included steady
alternate breathing through the right and left nostril and also more
powerful inhalations and exhalations. These were conducted with cer-
tain positions of the hands -so called “hand locks”. There were largely no
restrictions to what the participants were allowed to eat; however, the
participants were asked to refrain from drinking coffee, tea, soda, alco-
hol and very fatty or heavily spiced food. The exercises were performed
twice a day and each session lasted about 35-40 minutes.
On the second day, his appetite disappeared and he did not even feel
hungry. Umesh continued with the exercises after the course and ate
normally. The exercises were to be followed for 40 days in a row. If you
forgot a session you should start over again on a new 40-day period.
Umesh lost 12 kg (26 pounds) after 14 days. Since then, more kilos fol-
lowed and subsequently his weight has been normal and stable. Since
the course, he performs 30 minutes of breathing exercises each morning
on a daily basis. Apart from the weight loss, his right nostril has opened
and he no longer suffers headaches or inflammation of the sinuses

Here is Lappa's take on hunger:
http://www.universal-yoga.com/?id=66007

2. Hunger is truth, and appetite is lies.

Appetite is a desire to eat something tasty, whereas hunger is on one side the readiness to eat any food (as, for example, after a long walk in nature or after active physical work). And on another side hunger is also an indicator of exactly what particular food is required by the organism at a particular time (high-calorie or rich in vitamins, sweet or salty, liquid or solid, usual or unusual, for example chalk or salt, etc.).

Appetite is the result of old rakish desires and the absence of the will-humbleness. Food preoccupation or appetite may also be connected with the unconscious striving «to tune out» from stress influences and become distracted by the sensations of eating. A similar situation may cause other desires that are not conditioned to the real needs of the body, such as a desire to have sex, etc. This is usually connected with the psychic overloads of a modern stile of life.

Animals eat only when they are hungry, whereas humans, corrupted by abundance, have long ago become an exception to this rule of nature.

Restraint and self-control in any life situation liberate one from obtrusive desires and allow the body to live with preservation of natural motivations, achieving complete hunger. The state of hunger produces an exact intuition-based knowledge of the quality of food needed by the body. Eating food based on the feeling of hunger quickly eliminates «extra weight», facilitates the cleansing of the body and returns ancient natural health. In this event, food is only taken when it is really needed.

Dave Chesser wrote:Wendler You Can Out Train Your Diet: http://www.jimwendler.com/2012/01/you-c ... your-diet/

did you read wendler's post?

his text ultimately contradicts the headline. that is, wendler concludes that you can't outrun a donut.

I can attest that since I became dependent only on hunger to motivate me to eat (taste buds still not recovered from radiation) I've had no trouble keeping from gaining weight. In fact I have to deliberately try to eat more. Without taste to get me to go back for seconds, I just stop eating once I'm full.

You can out-exercise one donut... the problem is people eat a half dozen of them.

I think the original article is superb. Eat less. Huzzah.

dead man walking wrote:

Dave Chesser wrote:Wendler You Can Out Train Your Diet: http://www.jimwendler.com/2012/01/you-c ... your-diet/

did you read wendler's post?

his text ultimately contradicts the headline. that is, wendler concludes that you can't outrun a donut.

What? Not true.

Schlegel wrote:You can out-exercise one donut... the problem is people eat a half dozen of them.

Yeah, well that could be a problem.

Articles like this just go to show what scientists outside of exercise science don't know. How about "A Personal Trainer's Take on Particle Physics"?

Dave Chesser wrote:

dead man walking wrote:

Dave Chesser wrote:Wendler You Can Out Train Your Diet: http://www.jimwendler.com/2012/01/you-c ... your-diet/

did you read wendler's post?

his text ultimately contradicts the headline. that is, wendler concludes that you can't outrun a donut.

What? Not true.

yes, true. wendler concludes:

Age is another thing that is impossible to out train without a healthy diet. Eating like shit will catch up to you eventually – either in the waist or in the doctor’s office. Not to mention joint pain, stomach problems, reflux, etc. At a certain point, you should eat like a grown up.

If that physicist did some vertical lifts and worked the heavy bag, he could definitely have lunch and not put back on the weight.

The Rant routine?

Schlegel wrote:taste buds still not recovered from radiation...Without taste to get me to go back for seconds, I just stop eating once I'm full.

So if you were to eat something spicy, the only way you would know it was spicy was if it burned when you shit?
Serious question.

ButterCupPowerRanch wrote:

Schlegel wrote:taste buds still not recovered from radiation...Without taste to get me to go back for seconds, I just stop eating once I'm full.

So if you were to eat something spicy, the only way you would know it was spicy was if it burned when you shit?
Serious question.

No, heat is actually sensed by all the nerve endings in the mouth. I can feel the burn. Maybe it's because of all the new tissue in the mouth, but I'm more sensitive to hot peppers than I was before.

So much for the "no dumb questions" thing.
Not sure what I was thinking.
Thanks, though.

bump

I didn't see this first time around. Good article. I think it has a lot of merit in that (in America anyway) we are a nation of sedentary workers. In fact, modern conveniences have eliminated a lot of the "work" we used to do simply maintaining our houses and yards. Small indulgences add up to a lot more when one is relatively inactive. The majority of us are relatively inactive and will never be more than that.

Losing weight can be done without exercising at all. Simply STOP EATING SO FUCKING MUCH.
When will the American people wake up to that absolute fact? I predict never.

I really liked this. He hits a few things in a way I'd not really considered.

• Basic math: Most people have to lose a moderate amount of weight, say 25 lbs. At an ounce/day, that's approximately 2 lbs/month and 25 lbs./year.

• Psychology: Acknowledging hunger and psychologically re-framing the hunger feeling in a positive way.

• Simplicity: He found a convenient batch of calories he could eliminate without all kinds of thinking about types of food, timing of meals, etc.

Don't tell me you don't get it yet either.

I heard Steve Maxwell talking about giving one's stomach a rest from digestion, because that uses up energy and fatigues your body just as much as anything, and this idea has clicked well with me, and given me a positive way to think about hunger. Coincidentally, I started skipping breakfast by accident over the past four or five weeks, and I've felt fine. I'll have black coffee for the first four to five hours of the day, and break my fast in the early afternoon. As a result, my hunger is less noticeable, and my energy levels seem more stable. This is a big deal to me, because for many years I've dealt with hypoglycemic-like problems (e.g., sluggishness, moodiness when crashing, and constantly chasing the next meal to get a blood-sugar spike).

Now, yesterday I ate a nice big omelette with bell peppers and onions for breakfast, and all day after that I couldn't satiate my hunger. I was just ravenous. Could there be a correlation here?