Work Suddenly Is
Aug. 3rd, 2007 10:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanarillBecause James left today, and I just got all of the projects he didn't finish. James was the other co-op.
I now have two more projects:
1. Make sure that the booth corrodes evenly. Hopefully it does. Otherwise where in a booth a part is makes as much difference as which booth it's in.
2. This bloody urea testing has spawned. Huzzah! More Bloody Urea Testing.
In other news, as a celebration of James' last day, the Corrosion Lab went out to eat. Mmmm, Chinese foods. Tofu in particular. Fried. With chili peppers.
Also, on the bone marrow front: I will vanish next Friday. I will probably visit a sorority sister of mine as long as I am in Grand Rapids. And giving blood so that later they can pump it back into me. Ewww . . .
On to more stuff!
Really, fat is very simple. It’s a way for bodies to store energy in a form so dense that a single gram of fat supplies around 9 kCal – enough to raise your entire body about one-seventh of a degree C. This may not seem like a lot until you realize that a gram weighs about as much a large paper clip. Fat is a very energy-dense substance.
This is, or was, actually a good thing. When our ancestors were evolving, food was a seasonally scarce commodity: plentiful in spring and again in fall, but scare during high summer and winter. The body’s ability to store energy eaten in spring and fall and then use it during the summer and winter were the difference between survival and death. And if you can store your energy in less space, then you can be smaller, which means you’re less likely to get eaten by large predatory lizards.
However, one thing that fat is not is easy to get rid of. This is because, while fat is very energy-dense, it’s also very stable. It takes a lot of energy for your body to break down fats–not as much as it gets when it does digest the fat, obviously, or the trick wouldn’t have evolved. But enough that if there’s an option, your body much prefers to break down other, more energy-accessible foods. Usually, this is plant matter: simple sugars and complex carbohydrates, which don’t have as much energy per gram but what energy they do have is easier to get at. A calorie remains a calorie, though, and regardless of what form it is when you eat it, your body will turn it into fat if your don’t use it.
This is also how the Atkins diet works. Your body likes to have about two days worth of carbohydrates stored; if there’s more than two days worth, it begins converting to fat. Conversely, if there aren’t carbs to burn, your body will begin using fats. The problem with this is the waste products. Certain really unpleasant compounds are produced from burning fat, which are used to help digest carbs. But without carbs, they build up in your body faster than you can get rid of them. It does work, you do loose weight, but at the cost of your long-term health.
In fact, the only healthy way to get rid of fat deposits is to use more energy each day than you eat. Your body will make up the difference from fat, but because there are carbs present the unhealthy things will react and turn into other things that are still unhealthy but thankfully easy to get rid of. You can do this one of two ways: eat less or use more energy, i.e. “diet and exercise.” You cannot lose weight with a snowflake’s chance in Hell of keeping it off unless you do both, and you can’t hope to keep the weight off unless you make sure to use, on average, the same amount of energy you eat each day.
If you’re hungry while on your diet, eat leafy greens to fill you up. Practically all of the energy is accessible, but they are about the least energy-dense things on the planet, second only to sand. No, you are not allowed to have salad dressing; salad dressing tastes good because it’s full of fat. But if you want, you can have Balsamic vinegar with your greens.
Can’t I have any fat at all? You ask. What about “good fats”?
You will often hear of “good fat” and “bad fat.” And it is true, the body does need some fat. A lot of fat–the cell membrane of every single cell in your body is made of fat. But I’m not talking about essential fats, which your body will mostly make for itself. I’m talking about the kind that you don’t want.
But to understand these, you have to look at carbon. And especially carbon . . .
Huzzah! As usual, questions allowed. I'll do my best, but I Don't Diet. My weight stays pretty much the same these days, no matter what I do or do not eat. There's a reason for this too, but it boils down to "my body likes to be the weight I am." Bodies really like to have stored fat. It's like a security blanket. When nuclear war breaks out, you'll be glad of it . . .
I now have two more projects:
1. Make sure that the booth corrodes evenly. Hopefully it does. Otherwise where in a booth a part is makes as much difference as which booth it's in.
2. This bloody urea testing has spawned. Huzzah! More Bloody Urea Testing.
In other news, as a celebration of James' last day, the Corrosion Lab went out to eat. Mmmm, Chinese foods. Tofu in particular. Fried. With chili peppers.
Also, on the bone marrow front: I will vanish next Friday. I will probably visit a sorority sister of mine as long as I am in Grand Rapids. And giving blood so that later they can pump it back into me. Ewww . . .
On to more stuff!
Really, fat is very simple. It’s a way for bodies to store energy in a form so dense that a single gram of fat supplies around 9 kCal – enough to raise your entire body about one-seventh of a degree C. This may not seem like a lot until you realize that a gram weighs about as much a large paper clip. Fat is a very energy-dense substance.
This is, or was, actually a good thing. When our ancestors were evolving, food was a seasonally scarce commodity: plentiful in spring and again in fall, but scare during high summer and winter. The body’s ability to store energy eaten in spring and fall and then use it during the summer and winter were the difference between survival and death. And if you can store your energy in less space, then you can be smaller, which means you’re less likely to get eaten by large predatory lizards.
However, one thing that fat is not is easy to get rid of. This is because, while fat is very energy-dense, it’s also very stable. It takes a lot of energy for your body to break down fats–not as much as it gets when it does digest the fat, obviously, or the trick wouldn’t have evolved. But enough that if there’s an option, your body much prefers to break down other, more energy-accessible foods. Usually, this is plant matter: simple sugars and complex carbohydrates, which don’t have as much energy per gram but what energy they do have is easier to get at. A calorie remains a calorie, though, and regardless of what form it is when you eat it, your body will turn it into fat if your don’t use it.
This is also how the Atkins diet works. Your body likes to have about two days worth of carbohydrates stored; if there’s more than two days worth, it begins converting to fat. Conversely, if there aren’t carbs to burn, your body will begin using fats. The problem with this is the waste products. Certain really unpleasant compounds are produced from burning fat, which are used to help digest carbs. But without carbs, they build up in your body faster than you can get rid of them. It does work, you do loose weight, but at the cost of your long-term health.
In fact, the only healthy way to get rid of fat deposits is to use more energy each day than you eat. Your body will make up the difference from fat, but because there are carbs present the unhealthy things will react and turn into other things that are still unhealthy but thankfully easy to get rid of. You can do this one of two ways: eat less or use more energy, i.e. “diet and exercise.” You cannot lose weight with a snowflake’s chance in Hell of keeping it off unless you do both, and you can’t hope to keep the weight off unless you make sure to use, on average, the same amount of energy you eat each day.
If you’re hungry while on your diet, eat leafy greens to fill you up. Practically all of the energy is accessible, but they are about the least energy-dense things on the planet, second only to sand. No, you are not allowed to have salad dressing; salad dressing tastes good because it’s full of fat. But if you want, you can have Balsamic vinegar with your greens.
Can’t I have any fat at all? You ask. What about “good fats”?
You will often hear of “good fat” and “bad fat.” And it is true, the body does need some fat. A lot of fat–the cell membrane of every single cell in your body is made of fat. But I’m not talking about essential fats, which your body will mostly make for itself. I’m talking about the kind that you don’t want.
But to understand these, you have to look at carbon. And especially carbon . . .
Huzzah! As usual, questions allowed. I'll do my best, but I Don't Diet. My weight stays pretty much the same these days, no matter what I do or do not eat. There's a reason for this too, but it boils down to "my body likes to be the weight I am." Bodies really like to have stored fat. It's like a security blanket. When nuclear war breaks out, you'll be glad of it . . .
