Details of Personal History
Summary
・When I was a child, I was greedy when it came to food—whenever there was food in front of me, I just couldn’t stop myself from eating it . My first year of junior high school was particularly bad. From breakfast until late at night, I was eating over my body’s capacity to digest food, which caused me to have gastrointestinal problems.
Despite being in a growth period, my height shrank by nearly five mm over the following year. My hair and nails became thin and brittle, my muscle strength declined. It felt like I had some kind of malabsorption issue.
・By the time I entered college, I had become severely underweight, weighing less than forty kilograms. I joined a training gym to gain muscle and weight, but no matter how much I ate, I couldn’t build muscle and gain any weight. I came to realize that, in my case, forcing myself to eat more calories—especially fat—would never make me gain weight.
・Just as I was about to give up, I realized that if food isn’t properly digested, it’s meaningless. So, I tried reducing fats and vegetables as much as possible, and ate only easily digestible carbohydrates and protein (eggs, chicken, lean meat, etc.) in moderation.
One day, when I was eating a thick soup made with potato starch and a slice of lean meat, I gained over five kilograms in a couple of days, and at the same time, my muscle strength increased.
・Since I was extremely thin, I could clearly understand what had caused the weight gain. I also confirmed a few times that the same phenomenon happened under the same conditions—what I call "intestinal starvation".
・At first, I wondered, “Am I the only one who has experienced this?” But after witnessing a few people in similar situations who rapidly gained weight in a short period of time despite not eating much, I began to formulate my experience into a hypothesis.
・In Japan, as there is a saying “a big eater who stays thin,” some people eat a lot but never gain weight. On the contrary, there are others who do not eat much but are overweight. Moreover, I saw some people who gained weight little by little after they started dieting to lose weight.
Generally, such cases are explained using metabolism as an excuse or "it’s how they were born,” which I think is vague. However, I believe that all such contradictions could be explained based on my experiences.
【 Full text 】
<middle school years>
My parents were farmers, and my father worked really hard from early in the morning until late at night to put food on the table. Though our family was poor when I was a kid, when I started middle school, we were better off. My father couldn’t eat enough when he was a kid, so he was always telling us to eat more.
Since my father did physically demanding work, our breakfast table often included rice, miso soup, grilled fish, stir-fried dishes, sweet bread, and milk, etc.
While the rest of my family probably ate in moderation, I was too greedy to do the same, and always ate until I thought I was going to explode. I was always eating over my body’s capacity to digest food, so I never felt hungry throughout the day.
My older brother, on the other hand, had a good physique but would finish his meal quickly and never ate more than what his body needed.
With such habits, my first year of junior high school was particularly bad, I started to have gastrointestinal trouble from overeating.
Despite being in my growth period, my height shrank by nearly five millimeters over the following year, my hair started falling out, my nails became thin and brittle, and my muscle strength declined.
It felt like I had some sort of malabsorption. Most likely, my body could barely obtain the minimum nutrients needed to sustain itself, leaving nothing for growth.
<High school years>
After graduating from high school, I was hospitalized for gastrointestinal tests. When I underwent an endoscopy, I remember the doctor remarking, "Your stomach looks as thin as an elderly person's." Given how thin I was, it was no surprise to me that my internal organs were similarly affected.
<University years>
By the time I got into college, I had lost weight in the thirty-kilogram range because of the stress of entrance exams. I wore several layers of clothes to look bigger, however I couldn’t make any friends. I finally realized that I had to do something to gain weight, so I started training at the gym since I was big fan of fighting sports.
There were many ripped people working on bodybuilding and they mocked me at first like, “Are you eating meat?” “You must be eating only instant noodles.” ”Eat more protein and rice...” But I continued.
At that time, my body felt as follows:
■ I seldom felt hungry and most of the time, I felt heavy around my lower abdomen.
■ Six to eight hours after eating good protein such as eggs or meat, I could sense the moment my body was producing blood.
■ Soon after I went to sleep at night, I could feel my body regenerating from the day’s activities — likely a result of growth hormone secreted during the night.
■ Drinking milk on an empty stomach made me feel the calcium and minerals being absorbed into my blood circulation through my stomach lining (My nerves started calming down. The bottom of my teeth where minerals were taken from throbbed with a little pain).
I ate as much as I could everyday and went to the gym, but fifteen- kilogram dumbbells were the most I could lift. I actually sensed my small intestine working hard in order to take in more nutrition, but it seemed like it couldn’t. The next morning, I’d wake up with a heavy lower abdomen from undigested food and my muscles were just a little firmer.
Even after a few months, neither my muscle mass nor my weight increased at all. That’s when I thought, I will never gain weight from eating a lot of calories—especially from fat.
Just as I was about to give up, I realized that there was no point in eating a lot unless I could digest foods well.
So, I focused on consuming easily digestible protein and carbohydrates, like a rice bowl topped with chicken breast and a soft-boiled egg.
At the same time, I tried not to eat fatty foods, oily foods, and fiber from vegetables very often, because it was hard for me to digest all of that.
One day, I got home and lay down with fatigue after working out, and I felt a sharp pain around my lower abdomen that was pulling toward my insides. I felt like something had detached itself (sloughed off) from my intestines, and just after that, I could sense my blood flow increasing.
As I said earlier, I was able to experience the very moment my body was producing blood to compensate for the previous loss, but at that time, it was clearly increasing. The next day when I went to the gym, I was able to lift twenty kilograms of weight, even though fifteen kilograms was the best until then (my muscle mass also increased).
A few months later, there was a time when I was eating a thick soup made with potato starch and a single piece of lean meat. In just half a day, I gained over five kilograms — not just fat, but muscle as well.
While the actual weight gain took about three days, the cause for this happened within that half-day period.
Every time I ate meals containing good protein during those three days, I just felt my blood flow increasing, and the next morning, I noticed I had gotten more muscle and fat around my arms or back.
Since I was extremely thin, I could clearly understand what had caused the weight gain. I also confirmed a few times that the same phenomenon could happen under the same conditions — when everything I ate was fully digested throughout my intestines.
At first, I wondered, “Am I the only one who has experienced this?” But after witnessing a few people in similar situations who rapidly gained weight in a short period of time despite not eating much, I began to formulate my experience into a hypothesis.
In Japan, as there is a saying “a big eater who stays thin,” some people eat a lot but never gain weight. On the contrary, there are others who do not eat much but are overweight. Moreover, I saw some people who gained weight little by little after they started dieting to lose weight.
Generally, such cases are explained using metabolism as an excuse or "it’s how they were born,” which I think is vague. However, I believe that all such contradictions could be explained based on my experiences.