Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'll hold fast to the following, which I believe based on my own experience and that of those I know:
1) The degree to which people hold excess calories as fat is largely determined by genetics. My wife is over 60 and within 10 lbs. of her weight at 17. When she feels her belly is getting a bit soft, she lays off beer and chocolate for a month and she's right back to where she was. Also over 60, I always say "the very words "chocolate cake" will make me gain weight". Whether I weigh 185 or 155, I always have moobs and love handles.
2) As contrasted to how one's body stores excess calories, OBESITY is purely a matter of diet and exercise. I am an example. At 5'9" I fluctuate between 160 and 190 lbs. There was a time when I ate absolutely anything I wanted and I was at 230 at age 20, and headed further up if I didn't get a grip. Thank goodness, I did get a grip. I'd weigh over 300 now, if I were even still alive.
This is why in 1935 when it was the depths of the Depression and hardly anyone had all they wanted to eat, people ranged from skinny to medium in size. This is why when I was a boy in 1970, the "fat kid" might have been 20 lbs. overweight, whereas now the "fat kid" looks exactly like a beach ball.
Human genetics don't change in the course of 100 years. Take those obese people, put them on a non-mechanized farm of 1900 for a couple years (or just old-fashioned basic training) and they'll be "stocky" in the old time meaning of the word.
Human genetics don't change in the course of 100 years. Take those obese people, put them on a non-mechanized farm of 1900 for a couple years (or just old-fashioned basic training) and they'll be "stocky" in the old time meaning of the word.
Or maybe not. Today's obesity is different.
When I enlisted into the Air Force in the early 70s, there was no weight restriction for enlistment. The Air Force happily inducted anyone who was overweight, if otherwise healthy. They knew from decades of experience that a couple of months of controlled diet and daily exercise would whittle the fluff off any otherwise healthy 18-year-old boy.
It's not that way anymore. The Air Force discovered about 20 years ago that kids are coming in with fat that they can't lose in basic training. It doesn't burn off, at least not within conventional means and allotted time, the way it used to.
I don't think the Air Force has seriously investigated why. I suspect it's a combination of the types of food that have made them fat (such as Omega 6 fats from processed oils as opposed to Omega 3 fats from butter and lard) and likely their fat is old fat even from toddlerhood, whereas in the past a teenager's fat was likely accumulated late in childhood.
The Air Force isn't going into all that research. They just set up induction weight restrictions: Be within BMI limits, or you can't join.
Quote:
Originally Posted by msRB311
An additional problem I see is the accessibility to food. For many people food is everywhere so naturally more of it will be eaten. Decades ago there wasn't this much food available. Take out wasn't available the way it is today nevermind delivery services, fast food, snacks people have on hand, buffets at grocery stores, often free food at corporate offices. Also low income people have more access to ebt and snap benefits than ever before and they certainly don't seem to be buying the right kinds of foods.
There's also a drug epidemic. People eat when they're stressed out.
But what about all the science that shows that the body has the ability to adapt? Both at the calorie restriction and at the exercise end. Our bodies all have the ability to adapt and some people are more adaptive than others.
Losing weight for me isn't just as simple as eating less until I get to goal weight, because, if I do my body adjusts and reduces my calories burned. This was proven with the biggest loser show. Where many of the contestants lost about 1600 calories off their TDEE. Now of course, we all may have different trigger points for this. It is the same with exercise... I plateau quickly with increasing exercise. I can't just increase exercise to lose weight because, sooner rather than later my body will adjust. This has been documented in the works of Herman Ponzer which shows that hunter gatherers in Africa who walk all day have the same TDEE as office workers in the USA. I think this is obvious when looking at runners. Many runners are pudgy.
I suspect that some people who are overweight in this country are overweight as a direct result of dieting. Essentially training their body since they were young to become efficient in the face of calorie restriction or excess exercise. Essentially Yo Yo dieting is just training your body to become more and more efficient with any calories you do get.
This imho is a prime suspect in why we are all so overweight. Diets are an invention of the recent past. Home scales and dieting wasn't a big thing until the 70s and really got going in the 80s.
I can eat half a box of mac & cheese and not be hungry for the rest of the day, and I can also feel hungry without my body "forcing" me to eat anything at all. I can get absorbed in tasks and distractions and not eat when I should. I've never felt like my body "forced" me to eat anything.
I eat tons of processed foods and carbs and sugar and I am not overweight. And I don't exercise. But I watched my best friend for years, struggle with obesity. He worked out. He dieted. He had personal trainers. He did everything one can short of surgery (and by now maybe that, we've been out of touch for a long time.) It seemed so unfair that I was thin without trying and he was fat with every effort one can possibly make. Everywhere we went together I felt defensively angry on behalf of my beloved dear friend, knowing that strangers would look at him and conclude in their minds that he was living his life the wrong way, that his obesity was the result of his own poor choices, when it was something that he had fought his entire life. A fight I never had to put a moment's effort into myself.
So yeah, I think I'm always going to have a hard time accepting the "diet and exercise, simple!" narrative. And the thinking some have, that shaming heavy people is not only fine but somehow good for them. I do not assume that I know a damn thing about a person's life or have any place to judge them at all.
That is of course not to say that diet and exercise is pointless or not to be tried, or that it doesn't work well for some. Of course it works well for many people. But it really isn't always that simple.
What you've explained is how a healthy person's metabolism is supposed to work when you're within age and not have insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is the problem when their insulin sensitivity no longer works and the body must consume to try to get nutrients into the body.
Your unscientific explanation of your current metabolic state is not the same as everyone. Age, metabolic conditions, long term diet regime, and lifestyle are all contributory factors to one's weight and health.
The body has 2 modes, build or store. When it's time to build any food consumed will convert to necessary body tissues. When the body is storage mode the body will convert to fat storage and you gain weight. Someone who has insulin resistance will be predominantly in fat storage mode as insulin is not working properly. That is why so many diabetics have poor joint health because the body cannot metabolize nutrients properly to rebuild joints and muscles.
But what about all the science that shows that the body has the ability to adapt? Both at the calorie restriction and at the exercise end. Our bodies all have the ability to adapt and some people are more adaptive than others.
Losing weight for me isn't just as simple as eating less until I get to goal weight, because, if I do my body adjusts and reduces my calories burned. This was proven with the biggest loser show. Where many of the contestants lost about 1600 calories off their TDEE. Now of course, we all may have different trigger points for this. It is the same with exercise... I plateau quickly with increasing exercise. I can't just increase exercise to lose weight because, sooner rather than later my body will adjust. This has been documented in the works of Herman Ponzer which shows that hunter gatherers in Africa who walk all day have the same TDEE as office workers in the USA. I think this is obvious when looking at runners. Many runners are pudgy.
I suspect that some people who are overweight in this country are overweight as a direct result of dieting. Essentially training their body since they were young to become efficient in the face of calorie restriction or excess exercise. Essentially Yo Yo dieting is just training your body to become more and more efficient with any calories you do get.
This imho is a prime suspect in why we are all so overweight. Diets are an invention of the recent past. Home scales and dieting wasn't a big thing until the 70s and really got going in the 80s.
Nope, or people would have been just as fat 60 and more years ago. Home scales and dieting were reactions, not causes.
One big negative event of the 70s, though, was the false information, widely spread, that saturated fat was the enemy and sugar was fine. That was a matter of cronyism between the FDA and the corn industry.
There have always been fat people just not as many as there are today.
It isn't really even debatable that the type of food and the availability of food today is a huge factor. I can order any type of food I want right now and have it delivered to me. This wasn't a thing even 10 years ago in some places even in the US.
Last edited by Mike from back east; 11-17-2023 at 01:07 PM..
Reason: Merged 2:1
How do you explain that up to 40 years ago we didn't have this level of obesity?
How do you explain that the obesity epidemic is traversing the planet in the wake of American foods?
Something's happening now that wasn't happening before. Something is happening in America that wasn't happening elsewhere until they started eating American food.
Let's see, what big nutritional changes were recommended back then?
Hmmmm. Oh, I know! THE FOOD PYRAMID, created and promoted by the US government, a template for the wildly unhealthy American diet.
It was not based on solid nutritional science, but cobbled together by the USDA, the government agency responsible for promoting the use of grains. They did a great job of increasing grain consumption, while damaging the health of millions of Americans.
Let's see, what big nutritional changes were recommended back then?
Hmmmm. Oh, I know! THE FOOD PYRAMID, created and promoted by the US government, a template for the wildly unhealthy American diet.
It was not based on solid nutritional science, but cobbled together by the USDA, the government agency responsible for promoting the use of grains. They did a great job of increasing grain consumption, while damaging the health of millions of Americans.
That's a legacy that will last generations.
Yes, that did happen. And sugar got a big pass while fat got demonized without science behind it (when they took out the fat, they added sugar). That wasn't the only thing, but I've been arguing that the change in the food supply was a big part of the problem that occurred.
Hey folks, if the government's best interest was to keep people healthy by pushing for a real healthy diet. There wouldn't be all the big pharma, health orgs, and expensive treatment options. The hospitals would be less occupied. People 40-50 years ago drank sodas, ate burgers, had chocolate bars too and wasn't obese back then. But they didn't have high fructose corn syrup, no GMO foods back then. These processed foods contributed to destroying people's health.
Hey folks, if the government's best interest was to keep people healthy by pushing for a real healthy diet. There wouldn't be all the big pharma, health orgs, and expensive treatment options. The hospitals would be less occupied. People 40-50 years ago drank sodas, ate burgers, had chocolate bars too and wasn't obese back then. But they didn't have high fructose corn syrup, no GMO foods back then. These processed foods contributed to destroying people's health.
They would also limit what people can purchase with EBT cards...but they don't.
I feel like in my area i see less fat people. I think education and income have something to do with staying in shape. People with less income and less education are more likely to be less motivated.
Last edited by Mike from back east; 11-17-2023 at 01:06 PM..
Reason: Merged 2:1
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
