Last night I watched the latest episode of BBC Horizon program. Last nights episode was tilted "Why Aren't Thin People Fat" The theme of the program was to see why some of us are over weight and some people seem unable to put weight on.

The episode focused on a group of volunteers who all fit the 'I eat what I want and never put on weight' profile. The experiment had the volunteers dramatically increase there calorie intake for four weeks while limiting exercise.. What they found that all of them put on some weight but the results were varied. What they found was that some of the volunteers had trouble actually eating the prescribed calories and would throw up if they forced it two much.

The most interesting results was for the volunteer who had the smallest increase in body weight actually put on more muscle than fat. With extensive testing they discovered that his metabolism had dramatically increased to deal with the added calories, his body was fighting to stop him putting on extra fat.

A professor from Columbia University was interviewed. His research was to determine why peoples weight does not fluctuate more. Through his research he has calculated that for the average persons weight gain over there adulthood would have them only increasing there daily recomended intake by the calories of one extra fried chip. His hypothesizes is that people are unable to regulate there eating habits that precisely and therefore the most rational exploration is our bodies have a predetermined weight it wants to stay at.

Some of the themes during the episode were
- It appears that some of our predisposition for body weight is determined before we are born. This is due to our mothers physical condition and age while pregnant.
- Our ability to know when we are full varies from person to person. This was demonstrated with a charming experiment conducted with preschool age children.
- The number of fat cells in determined during our adolescence and stay with us for life. This does not mean that you will be fat for life but if you were over weight as a teenager you will have a harder time keeping weight off when you are older.
- Chocolate is yummy and packed full of calories.
- What goes in our mouth is not the only deciding factor on our weight.
- yes, there is evidence that our mothers are some part to blame (as if we didn't know that already)

All the people that took part in the experiment had no trouble returning to there pre weight. Just another example that there body know were it wants to be.

Something i would like more from the episode is how the volunteers got there calories. There is strong evidence that calories from one food is used differently by the body than other sources. I believe that this should have been discussed in the program.

For more information [link]

Now to Last nights workout.

We had a new face at the gym last night plus an old one return. I took some time out of my program to help supervise. I wanted to make sure the new recruits weren't to eager. I still completed some work sets but my over all work load was less than normal.

Squats: I was going to have 140kg as my work sets but the first set was way to easy so jumped up to 150kg. Still having trouble getting a consistent depth.

Press: Skipped most of the warm up sets. Put 80kg on the bar. First rep was good and strict but the others required some assistance from my legs.

Deadlift: Only managed 4 x 140kg. Back is a good sore to day and I am hoping that hopefully this will encourage some adaptation.