How come people get fat in their 30s

People like to make excuses. If more people knew how to lift weights, staying thin wouldn't be that hard at all. I'd say you could stay fit in a minimum of 25 minutes, five days a week. Can't people bring their family to the YMCA for an hour most nights? Odds, are you're just watching TV. Or to the track? Another reason is probably that gym memberships, even for the Y, are expensive for many people.

postcard wrote:

well said...if we even cut the workday by 2 hrs a day i think people would be healthier.

Problem is, there's little correlation between hours worked and BMI (or whatever measure you are using). For every fat lawyer working 12 hours a day, there's a thin consultant doing the same, and probably three obese grocery store clerks who work eight hour shifts then grab a huge burger and fries and sugar pop on the way home. The fact of the matter is, more income normally means more leisure time, and a lot of people devote that to fitness and/or eating properly. If you cut two hours a day from the workday, sure, I'd love it and probably spend half of it running and the other half catching up on the sleep that I'm missing now by running at 5:30 in the morning. But most people wouldn't do that or go to the gym. They'd go see a movie or get ice cream or go home and watch TV. That's just the culture we live in.

The reason people get fat in their thirties (in general -- I'm the same 145 pounds at 33 as I was at 29 as I was at 20, and much lighter than the 185 pounds I was in my mid-20s) is twofold and pretty simple. First, lower testosterone in men and/or pregnancy-related hormonal changes in women make it harder to maintain lean muscle mass, which in turn really kills the metabolism. So someone eating the same number of calories at 35 as they did at 25 (without weight gain) is going to gain weight unless they increase activity levels. Second, once kids come along, people generally eat crappier food, and more of it. The $50 that buys a decent sushi meal for two now will only get a burger and fries per person for a family of four. And when the only thing your kids will eat is mac-n-cheese, chicken nuggets and spaghetti, good luck trying to eat healthy. More than likely, you're fixing them their dinner, and then ordering Chinese because it's late after they get to bed and the last thing that you want to do is cook another healthier dinner.

the odds are against you wrote:

People like to make excuses. If more people knew how to lift weights, staying thin wouldn't be that hard at all. I'd say you could stay fit in a minimum of 25 minutes, five days a week. Can't people bring their family to the YMCA for an hour most nights? Odds, are you're just watching TV. Or to the track? Another reason is probably that gym memberships, even for the Y, are expensive for many people.

On paper that looks easy, but once you figure in making dinner, paying bills, doing homework, etc. etc. it would be really hard.

People just aren't going to do that. Think about it. You love running, that is why you run. If you hated it, you probably wouldn't go out of your way to do it.

I also think we, as runners, have a much more in-tune feel for our bodies. If we begin to get out of shape, we feel awful. I do not think most people feel this way. Or maybe they do, but they are so used to it they no longer notice... Who knows...?

Interesting tidbit though... My 2 year old daughter LOVES to go to the track. On Saturday morning, the wife and I were hung over from a party we had gone to the night before, and we were just lounging around the house. My daughter can barely string a sentence together, but managed to tell us she wanted to go to the track. My wife was like, "Do you want to go to the park, or the track?" Daughter says, "Track!" Wife says, "Swings and slides? Or track?" Daughter says, "TRACK!"

So we took her to the track and she ran around in circles on the track while my wife slept on the PV Mats and I ran 7 miles on the track. My 2 year old daughter ran 5 laps and then played in the sand pits. We finally left when the team showed up for practice. My daughter would have stayed all day.

Somewhere, humans lose that innate love of activity.

[quote]Not exactly in my book wrote:

Problem is, there's little correlation between hours worked and BMI (or whatever measure you are using). For every fat lawyer working 12 hours a day, there's a thin consultant doing the same, and probably three obese grocery store clerks who work eight hour shifts then grab a huge burger and fries and sugar pop on the way home.

[quote]

very true - but like the one guy said, how did we get to a culture that has us spending all of our daylight hours indoors?

wintertime it especially strange. humans were meant to be active in the daylight hours and sleep when it got dark. to be active now, we have to do it in the dark because we are stuck inside when it is daylight.

it's hard enough to exercise around day to day life for people who want to even without kids when you spend most of your day at your job.

now here's a question...how many of us could cut our workday and not loose productivity?? i suspect most of the people who can be on these boards during the day. but, that 8+ hour day culture is embedded into our lives from the time we graduate college.

i have days were i could work forever because i'm on a roll. but i also have day where i'm just not accomplishing much but i have to sit here and act like i am. nobody wants to admit this for fear of job security but i don't think humans were meant to be sitting in a chair, mentally on their toes for 8+ hrs a day. we just fake it.

we have no idea how a 6 hr workday would change the health of society but i think having more daylight hours outside of a cubicle could only benefit people.

postcard wrote:

now here's a question...how many of us could cut our workday and not loose productivity?? i suspect most of the people who can be on these boards during the day. but, that 8+ hour day culture is embedded into our lives from the time we graduate college.

i have days were i could work forever because i'm on a roll. but i also have day where i'm just not accomplishing much but i have to sit here and act like i am. nobody wants to admit this for fear of job security but i don't think humans were meant to be sitting in a chair, mentally on their toes for 8+ hrs a day. we just fake it.

we have no idea how a 6 hr workday would change the health of society but i think having more daylight hours outside of a cubicle could only benefit people.

Oh gawd are you kidding? I probably work about 4 hours a day maximum. I am productive around here, too. I bet I work more than most people in my office.

I know people who claim that they do almost nothing every day, yet get paid six figures to do it.

I don't even think stress is tied so much to actually working, as it is to the stress of acclimating to a specific work environment (i.e. feeling like you have to dress, act, be a certain way).

My productivity would not change if I took 3 hours a day to go run, lift shower and come back to work. The only question would be how it looked to my co-workers, clients, etc. As far as productivity goes, I could be just as productive.

Sir Lance-alot wrote:

He may make a few good points, but taubes is also full of a lot of crap. Just because someone writes a book doesn't make them a reliable source of information.

He gives you all the citations to primary materials, which is more rigorous than most diet publications. You can reach your own conclusions.

(for example, he has said EXACTLY the following: dieting and exercise won't make you thinner. Yes, cutting calories and working out more won't make you lose weight. Only following his silly anti-carb crusade will. But....he's wrong. )

I think he says populations studies show that putting people on a program of diet and exercise doesn't make them lighter. Of course fewer calories+exercise can work, for the 2% slice of the population who might even visit the LetsRun boards. But generally this prescription doesn't.

I take his fundamental proposition, buried under quite a bit of scientific literature review, to be this: nothing government or medicine has done in the last 50 years has slowed down (let alone reversed) the trend to obesity and correlated illnesses in the US. Let's take a look at the consumption of sugar and refine carbohydrates, which has increased and which has not generally be discouraged by government or medicine. Hmm, there seems to be something there. Maybe we should have some studies on that stuff.

Come on, people. It's called HFCS.

High-Fructose Corn Syrup, depending on how you look at it, is the reason European adults do not get fat like American adults.

That stuff is just evil. It makes you more hungry, and fills you up with less of what you really need.

Say no to processed foods/ingredients, get healthy.

Unfortunately, a lot of people simply expect to decline in athletic ability and fitness after 25. It's sad to watch. You can always make time to run but you are going to give up some sleep to do it. Some people are full of excuses and treat you like you are crazy if you stay fit, but I don't have too many friends like that.

If you think folks get fat in the 30's, wait for your 40s. There's a reason the Roman numeral for 40 is XL.

lohalloran wrote:

After 30 your body and all it's systems begin to decline by about 1% a year.

This is close! keep in mind that habits have been developed based on a body that is performing at a peak. after thirty you still have to make those 1% adjustments each year(even if you exercise alot). But, for those who dont exercise it is imperceptible that the body has stopped demanding the energy to grow and bulk any more. by the time you realize youre different, its too late and it gets chalked up to "im older now".

How then do you explain the relatively low levels of obesity in the Japanese, whom work far longer hours in sedentary jobs than Americans?

Methinks diet is the bigger culprit here

RD JR. wrote:

Setting an example does nothing for kids.

Both my girlfriend and I run races of all types and workout regularly. Her kids won't walk to the bus stop. Too many other examples impact their life other than parent figures.

Thats good of you to be taking care of another man's kids.

heg wrote:

Come on, people. It's called HFCS.

High-Fructose Corn Syrup, depending on how you look at it, is the reason European adults do not get fat like American adults.

That stuff is just evil. It makes you more hungry, and fills you up with less of what you really need.

Say no to processed foods/ingredients, get healthy.

That's BS. Corn syrup is just a cheaper substitute for sugar. I intake as much corn syrup as the next guy (1 or 2 sodas per day), and I'm probably considered underweight. People love to blame anything but themselves (McDonalds, Corn Syrup, etc.) People don't exercise enough for one reason or the other.

I'm out to run 10 miles at 8pm after getting home from work at 6:30, feeding my daughter, and putting her to bed.

Or maybe it is the hormones in beef/chicken, the fact that we drive more, lower smoking rates, less social services, less vacation, longer work days, or a slew of other things. I have heard them all blamed with "Studies" to back them up. It is probably a combination of all of them.

heg wrote:

Come on, people. It's called HFCS.

High-Fructose Corn Syrup, depending on how you look at it, is the reason European adults do not get fat like American adults.

That stuff is just evil. It makes you more hungry, and fills you up with less of what you really need.

Say no to processed foods/ingredients, get healthy.

Somewhere, humans lose that innate love of activity.[/quote]

...which varies hugely. Some people never have it. I would say a lot of people, including a lot of runners, kid themselves they love activity but they only really do it to see how good/famous they can be. Thats why the large majority drop it soon after their peak, only to return again to lose weight - again, not because they love it.

Rainy Day wrote:

heg wrote:

Come on, people. It's called HFCS.

High-Fructose Corn Syrup, depending on how you look at it, is the reason European adults do not get fat like American adults.

That stuff is just evil. It makes you more hungry, and fills you up with less of what you really need.

Say no to processed foods/ingredients, get healthy.

That's BS. Corn syrup is just a cheaper substitute for sugar. I intake as much corn syrup as the next guy (1 or 2 sodas per day), and I'm probably considered underweight. People love to blame anything but themselves (McDonalds, Corn Syrup, etc.) People don't exercise enough for one reason or the other.

I'm out to run 10 miles at 8pm after getting home from work at 6:30, feeding my daughter, and putting her to bed.

Getting sufficient sleep is key to good health too though. And also eating right before bed is terrible for you. My Dad died at the age of 59 from esophageal cancer so you'll have to argue to someone else about how eating right before bed is ok. Reflux/indigestion doesn't have to be obvious to be bad. Eating right before bed is one of the worst things you can do for your health. And subtract 2-3 hours from the little sleep you think you do get because while your food digests your body is not sleeping soundly.

In my opinion, many of the societal norms that have been mentioned can be traced as a cause. People spoil their kids by giving them too much attention and buying them what they want and having an extravagant christmas and working til their 65 so they can pay for college and afford a big house so each kid can have their own room and live in a sheltered cookie cutter neighborhood.. and they call it "raising a family". Riiiiiight. People will live for their children in order to spoil them. Most of it is not necessary.

People don't exercise. People don't eat right. Even people who think they're healthy have bad habits (like sleeping less than 8 hours or eating right before bed). And people definitely work too much and live too far away from their workplace. It's all what society has evolved in to thinking is normal. It's a shame.