• thebestaquaman@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      Or conclude that they were accumulating mass some other way, such as

      • Accumulating water
      • Being severely constipated
      • Some obscure bone disease that causes them to accumulate absurd amounts of minerals

      My bet would be on (1) and/or (2).

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        1 and 2 are very easily ruled out simply by increasing the length of observation. eventually, they’re gonna have to, uhm. piss or shit. for 3, well. uhm. yeah.

        though I did have an exasperated conversation with a friend of mine who insisted his insulin resistance kept him from not losing weight once he reached 270. he was confiding that his doctors didn’t understand and refused to check it (again.)(yes, that’s doctors plural. he bounced through three or four because they kept trying to explain that insulin resistance didn’t do that.)

        It finally got to the point where I was like “Then you should call some physicists because as we understand the laws of the universe, that’s a literal impossibility.”

        he… did not like that.

      • SSTF@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        Accumulating water

        Is there a condition that accumulates water like that where weight goes up consistently over a long period of time?

        • evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world
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          12 days ago

          In addition to failing kidneys, stuff that messes with the lymphatic system. Everyone’s cells and bloodstream is slightly leaky, and whatever leaks out gets picked up by the lymphatic system, filtered through lymph nodes, and returned to the circulatory system. A break in that chain due to injury/disease can cause fluid to accumulate upstream. Look up elephantitis.

          Also, liver/heart failure can create ascites, which is fluid accumulation inside the abdomen (looks more like pregnancy belly than obesity belly).

          Similarly, malnutrition in kids in poor areas often results in kwashiorkor, which makes them have big bellies but really skinny arms and legs. Its basically a protein deficiency from eating only corn or whatever.