The One Thing "I Eat a Lot But Don't Get Fat" People Do ⋆ Whale whale whale, what do we have here ⋆ One brick at a time

Have you ever noticed how some people seem to eat a lot without gaining weight? There may be a scientific reason for this. Delve into a mysterious case of a whale with a suspicious harness.

The One Thing "I Eat a Lot But Don't Get Fat" People Do ⋆ Whale whale whale, what do we have here ⋆ One brick at a time
Photo by SwapnIl Dwivedi
  1. The One Thing "I Eat a Lot But Don't Get Fat" People Do
  2. Whale whale whale, what do we have here (VIDEO)
  3. One brick at a time

Thing 1 - The One Thing "I Eat a Lot But Don't Get Fat" People Do

This must've been a curse back in the day when we spent time running away from big cats.

Photo by SwapnIl Dwivedi

Picture this. You eat more food than you need.

Your body just starts moving more without you having to think about it.

This is part of Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis a.k.a NEAT - which is a lot easier to remember.

This is what most "I eat a lot but don't get fat" do without being aware of it.

Experiment

They had people overeat - 1000 calories more than they needed!

The study found that when people overeat, the amount of energy they burn through non-exercise activities (like fidgeting or maintaining posture) increases.

The amount of extra energy expenditure (a.k.a. fidgeting) varies by a lot from person to person - hundreds to a thousand calories per day.

As a result, some people gain a lot of fat, while others gain very little.

Now you know.

Meanwhile, my body: "oh neat, I'll use this food to produce maximum fat in case we can't find food ever again".

(source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4)

Thing 2 - Whale whale whale, what do we have here

Looks like a dear animal doing a good deed.

Then you find out it was wearing a harness with "Equipment St. Petersburg" on it and came out of nowhere.

You can't help but be a little suspicious.

Was the little spy good samaritan just doing a good deed, or was there something else going on?

You decide to keep an eye on it, just in case.

Thing 3 - One brick at a time

No one "builds a house." They lay one brick again and again and again and the end result is a house. A remarkable, glorious achievement is just what a long series of unremarkable, unglorious tasks looks like from far away.
Procrastinators are bad at remembering this.
- Tim Urban
Photo by Micah Carlson

Tim is a master procrastinator. And the ability to make regular small improvements is a superpower.

I do my share of procrastination. And it's not all avoidance.

Most of my procrastination is running thought experiments and failing a lot.

But at some point ink needs to hit the paper.

With incremental improvement and a deadline, you don't finish, you run out of time. And they can't tell the difference.

Cheers, Zvonimir

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