Hacker Cinema
The Truth About Fat
2020 · Film · documentary · 53 min
Directed by Sarah Holt
Scientists are coming to understand fat as a dynamic organ—one whose size may have more to do with biological processes than personal choices. Explore the mysteries of fat and its role in hormone production, hunger, and even pregnancy.
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3 comments on Hacker News
This reminds me of Sheldon Cooper's suggestion to Penny on The Big Bang Theory when she was having financial problems: "You know, it occurs to me that you could solve all your problems by obtaining more money".
Weight depends on a complex interaction between many systems of the body. Losing significant weight and keeping it off in healthy way without side effects can be difficult.
There was a good look at much of this in the Nova episode "The Truth About Fat" in 2020. Old Nova episodes are usually behind a paywall if you aren't a member of your local PBS station but occasionally old episodes become free for a while. It might be worth checking occasionally to try to catch it during one of those free periods.
PBS recently reran the 2020 Nova episode "The Truth About Fat", which moved it from the "old episode you need to be a PBS member to watch online" to the "recently aired episode available for free streaming for now" category.
Weight loss and obesity discussions here often draw much interest, and this episode discussed quite a bit of interesting recent research on the topic that is relevant to many of those discussions so I felt it becoming available for free streaming again would be interesting to many.
> I don't disagree that it's more difficult for some people than for others, but ultimately it's as simple as calories in < calories out.
It's only simple if you only care about weight. If you care about both reaching a desired target weight and remaining healthy it is no longer simple. The path you take to the target weight matters a lot.
Nova on PBS had a good episode on the science of this in 2020 called "The Truth About Fat". It's currently not free except to people who are members of their local PBS station, but it is worth keeping an eye out for when it becomes free. (Episodes tend to be free for a while after broadcast, then become member-only for a while, and then it varies).