How is Weight Gain Possible?
April 15, 2010 by Brian Kurtz
Sometimes I wonder why a persons weight is not self-regulating. Let me give you an example.
Let’s take someone that “should” weigh about 150 lbs who through poor food choices and a completely sedentary lifestyle balloons all the way up to 250 lbs.
Now this guy is pretty overweight. Not “The Biggest Loser” overweight, but certainly in some type of danger zone.
This guy has to carry an extra 100 lbs with him. All day. Every day. 100 lbs.
We tend to look over this sort of thing because just about every other person is carrying around an extra 50 – 100 lbs these days. But give it a few extra seconds to sink in.
What would happen if YOU took a 100 lb barbell weight plate, tossed it into a reinforced backback and then carried it around with you EVERYWHERE you went. Not just to and from work, and then to and from the store…I mean everywhere.
When you go to bed, you sleep with the pack on. When you get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom you have the pack on. When you bend over to tie your shoes, the instant you stand up you are squatting and extra 100 lbs.
Want to take a shower? Don’t forget your 100 lb backpack. Want to take a walk around the block with your kids? Want to go on a bikeride? Want to put up the Christmas tree? Want to clean the garage, clean the oven, clean the bathroom, clean the car? Make sure you pack that 100 extra lbs.
Oh, and just so the number is lost on you, remember that when you see guys at the gym doing the bench press with the standard barbell, those “large” weight plates typically are made to weight 45 lbs…so you’d need to pack more than TWO of those in your carry-everywhere bag.
So now that the thought has sunk in…what do you think would happen to your body if you carried and extra 100 lbs around with you everywhere you went? Do you think you’d lose some weight?
You bet you would!
That being the case, how come people are even ABLE to gain 100 lbs? You’d think that carrying around the extra weight would cause it to be naturally lost. You can talk all you want about how 1 lb of muscle burns more calories than 1 lb of fat but I’m still not seeing how the numbers add up.