The brain-body gap explanation for obesity

During the Covid lockdowns, like millions of others, I watched YouTube to kill time. This included fitness content. I was among the 40–60 percent of people who gained weight during the lockdowns (in their infinite wisdom, the “experts” decided a virus with a ~100% survivability rate for healthy adults necessitated shutting down the economy). I finally lost the weight, and more, around early 2023. This got me into studying metabolism. I had already written a ton about IQ when I started my blog, but other aspects of human biology, such as weight, I ignored. Twitter, unlike Instagram, is not a visual medium, but it’s still impossible to escape the grip of fitness culture. Political commentary is juxtaposed with dieting advice and viral “before and after” transformations. But as I continued to consume fitness content, either of my own volition on YouTube or through recommendations on social media, I kept wondering how some people were able to lose weight and become lean, whereas most…