I linked this article in another thread, but thought I'd post it again more explicitly here. It's old, but it's surprisingly under-read despite being a seminal piece of literature in the field. I'm always shocked how poorly science is disseminated to the public, particularly when it's translational and provides answers to such a relevant topic.
Briefly, the premise: 16 volunteers were housed in a research facility for 8 weeks and fed a 1,000kcal surplus for the duration of the study. Since 1lb of fat is ~3,500kcal, each person should have gained approximately 16lb of fat. As expected, subjects displayed dramatic variance in the amount of fat gained. They analyzed every conceivable mechanism that excess substrate could be processed, stored or excreted in an effort to explain the disparity. Read the paper for their conclusions.
Levine et al 1999
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https://connect.garmin.com/modern/profile/domingjm
Briefly, the premise: 16 volunteers were housed in a research facility for 8 weeks and fed a 1,000kcal surplus for the duration of the study. Since 1lb of fat is ~3,500kcal, each person should have gained approximately 16lb of fat. As expected, subjects displayed dramatic variance in the amount of fat gained. They analyzed every conceivable mechanism that excess substrate could be processed, stored or excreted in an effort to explain the disparity. Read the paper for their conclusions.
Levine et al 1999
---------------------------------------------------------------
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/profile/domingjm