darkSpyro

Quote: somePerson

Quote: Ninpire

You're thinking too much. Like the post above me, a body is only not natural when they get plastic surgery or something

No, I was looking at tumblr feminist.

That's just ego. They're bull******* themselves in order to feel better. People do it all the time really, it's not something that's exclusive to tumblr feminists.
It's the same reason why a lot of socially awkward gamers make themselves believe that they're somehow a lot smarter than the average person. They feel insecure about their social situation (or lack thereof) so they find a way fitting for their perceived self-image to make themselves feel special.


Quote: Carmelita Fox

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This pic is pretty far off actually. Your body-type has got nothing to do with how much muscle and fat you have. They're all about your skeletal proportions, for example, how long your arms and legs are when compared to the width of your shoulders and hips.

Actually, I might make a post about this on the fitness topic when I get home. This is something that people usually interpret incorrectly.

Quote: valskeletor

slightly off topic question: is there any proof that your genetics can influence how fit you are? because ive heard mixed reports and i'm not sure if it's a hereditary thing or if it's related to maybe being raised around unhealthy eating habits as opposed to literally inheriting bad fitness genes so to speak

Genetics don't have much to do with it, other than your gender and your skeletal proportions. When it comes to weight loss, the "low/high metabolism"-thing is also just a myth. I'll explain that one last because it's going to take more text to make my point about it.

When it comes to your proportions, the two things people often get mixed up are "how fit you are", and "how fit you look like you are". It's a lot easier/faster for a short person to build a great physique, because their muscles require a lot less volume to look big compared to the rest of their body.
In a similar manner tall people might seem like they just don't gain fat at the same rate, but the same amount of fat spread out on a larger area looks like a lot less fat. Tall people also have larger organs, and thus require more energy to keep them working.

As for your gender, the only big differences stem from your hormone levels. Testosterone aids muscle growth, and men naturally have a lot more testosterone. Women who work out to add muscle without testosterone supplements simply can't compete.

And now for the one I mentioned earlier. This "low/high metabolism"-crap...

Consider the fact that food is not magic. A hamburger has the exact same amount of calories, no matter the gender, body type, bodyfat percentage, social class, skin color, privilege, attitude etc. of the person who eats it. There's nothing subjective about it, it's pure math. An exact amount of matter that goes in your stomach and has it's useful parts converted to energy.

The human body is not magical either. Organs work. They're mechanical. They're made out of moving, biological parts. The amount of work/the amount of energy they need can be calculated.
Go over this energy requirement, you have excess energy which gets converted to fat and is "saved for later".
Go under this energy requirement, your body has to convert a part of itself into energy to gain enough of it. This is either fat (if you have it), or muscle (if you don't have fat or you didn't get enough protein from your food).

The amount of fat gained from the same amount of excess energy is always the same, as fat cells require a certain, fixed amount of atoms to create. This amount does not vary from person to person.

The smaller you are the less energy you need, as there are obviously less moving stuff to keep working in a smaller body. This energy expenditure is known as "Basal Energy Expenditure" (BEE) and is the largest energy sink in the human body (the second largest being physical activity).
A smaller body is also satisfied with less food, because a smaller person's stomach has less volume. It is the volume of the stuff you put into you that counts towards the "satisfaction" you get from food, not the calories that it has in it.

It is true that metabolic rates do vary a bit. However, these difference are not large. The largest variable that counts towards your BEE is, and always will be, the size of your body.

In general, I think people who seriously blame their genetics for their perceived "inability" to lose weight or gain muscle either:

A: Do it on purpose to try to rid themselves of any blame by putting it on something they can't control.
When it comes to weight loss this is pretty dumb, because even if their apparent "slow metabolism" was enough to make a tangible difference to their BEE, they still wouldn't gain any fat if they didn't eat too much.
When it comes to gaining muscle and strength it makes a bit more sense because you can't really do that much to change your natural hormone levels if they're low, and you can't do anything about your body type. I do still think it's stupid to try to find excuses, because no-one can work out for you. It's something you just have to do yourself, whether it's easy or not.

B: Do so mistakenly due to misinformation/lack of information.

Okay, this post turned out a bit longer than I thought, but I hope it didn't deter you from reading.