In my previous post, I may have it backwards. Mom, sis and I are perhaps MORE efficient at using calories, to the point of storing excess as fat better than dad or my brothers.

I had that thought last night while watching a documentary on latino orphans trying to reach the U.S. They were mainly thin, malnourished kids. But they focussed on one kid who was shorter and heavy. The other kids called him the chubby one. I doubt he was any better than the others at begging for food. Actually he should have been worse. Why give food to a fat beggar?

Assuming he wasn't taking in more calories than the rest of the orphans, why was he chubby? Did he parse his calories differently than the others, sending some to fat storage even though he wasn't ingesting enough to maintain himself?

Similarly, in photos of depression-era workers in a group, the men are uniformly lean with an occasional shorter, stockier worker amid the tall, lean guys. That guy must have eaten what the rest ate. Why was he heavier?

I know that Colpo cites studies which prove calories in equals calories out, debunking metabolic advantage. But that says nothing about where the calories are being sent, whether some might increase fat levels even when underfed.