Genetics plays a major role as well.
kalory wrote:
This has nothing to do with diet and EVERYTHING to do with exercise.
Genetics plays a major role as well.
kalory wrote:
This has nothing to do with diet and EVERYTHING to do with exercise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEJ6c5emPE8&feature=youtu.beslowerthanu wrote:
Genetics plays a major role as well.
kalory wrote:
This has nothing to do with diet and EVERYTHING to do with exercise.
Precious Roy wrote:
I was looking back at my HS and MS yearbooks a few years ago. Everyone was skinny back in the 80s. Overweight kids were maybe one in a hundred. We drank coke, ate garbage whenever we had the chance and spent plenty of time in front of the TV and playing video games. In the 90s, I was teaching drum lines at high schools and was shocked at how many kids were overweight and how many kids who put on weight over the course of their years in HS. I really think something has happened to change kids' metabolism over the years that we just do not understand yet.
For adults who put on weight as they get older, it is typically the failure to deal with a declining metabolism that gets everyone. When I was in my 20s, I would have a bowl of ice cream for desert every night and wouldn't gain an ounce. Now, pushing 50, I will gain two pounds if I go out and eat a three course meal at a nice restaurant. People have no time to exercise, work desk jobs they hate and meals are often the only time of day they have to enjoy something. So, the eat and eat and gain weight.
Every morning I drive passed a small gym whose members are made up exclusively of women. This is early around 5 am. It’s along the lines of a CrossFit gym from what I can tell. These women would probably burn the same amount of calories doing the yard work at their homes themselves. Instead they wake up unnaturally early to hot walk themselves with a group of peers. It’s strange. People are inclined towards laziness, food is abundantly available, obesity even slight overweight is the new norm. Thank you science!
Stoppit Smith wrote:
Plus, while you are all infusing your advice in the room, in the last 6 years, I have only seen one American make a mark while not in an elite race, competing against elites in an elite setting. Micah Tyhurst's 14:42 in Carlsbad in the regular men's 20-29 race still ranks at the top of great performances by a rising elite.
Unless you did what Tyhurst did, it's not worth the ink.
You're not qualified nutritionists.
Setting aside the fact that this is a massive non sequitur, even by your standards, you really need to get out of San Diego if you think that it's remarkable for someone to run 14:42 (on an incredibly fast course) without being in an elite race. Amateur runners are winning races in the mid 14s every weekend.
Good thread, with lots of good posts. I don't think there's one simple answer, but a sedentary lifestyle is a huge factor. Both of my grandfathers were as thin as a rail. Both worked their entire lives in blue-collar jobs.
800 dude wrote:
Stoppit Smith wrote:
Plus, while you are all infusing your advice in the room, in the last 6 years, I have only seen one American make a mark while not in an elite race, competing against elites in an elite setting. Micah Tyhurst's 14:42 in Carlsbad in the regular men's 20-29 race still ranks at the top of great performances by a rising elite.
Unless you did what Tyhurst did, it's not worth the ink.
You're not qualified nutritionists.
Setting aside the fact that this is a massive non sequitur, even by your standards, you really need to get out of San Diego if you think that it's remarkable for someone to run 14:42 (on an incredibly fast course) without being in an elite race. Amateur runners are winning races in the mid 14s every weekend.
Haha. Stoppit Smith had that Gaucho stank.
Definitely some good points in here. But one thing I think that is missing from the conversation is what impact the pharmaceutical industry has on weight gain. Seems like a missing factor in all of this. It explains why so many the world over are overweight as many medications will cause weight gain or otherwise screw with your metabolism.
But collectively, our genetic mix shouldn't be that different from the mix from our parents' generation, because that's where we got our genes. The mix could change slightly if some groups of people reproduce more than others, but evolution doesn't take place that quickly. Almost everyone I know is heavier than their parents were at the same age, so it doesn't seem like genetics are the main cause. I suppose one could argue that some people's genes predispose them to gain weight more than others do when doing things that their parents didn't or couldn't do, like eat more processed food or exercise less.
I believe this to be true. I remember reading a study years ago that stated the biggest risk factor to gain weight was living with people who were overweight.
JamesD2 wrote:
But collectively, our genetic mix shouldn't be that different from the mix from our parents' generation, because that's where we got our genes. The mix could change slightly if some groups of people reproduce more than others, but evolution doesn't take place that quickly. Almost everyone I know is heavier than their parents were at the same age, so it doesn't seem like genetics are the main cause. I suppose one could argue that some people's genes predispose them to gain weight more than others do when doing things that their parents didn't or couldn't do, like eat more processed food or exercise less.
My parents (born 1924) were heavier than their parents. Processed foods became staples in the diet of urban Americans in the years following World War I. While not available in the Costco like quantities that are seen today, canned and packaged foods were low-priced and easily accessible at the corner store even during the Great Depression. Processed foods were viewed as better than fresh foods because the belief was that the bad stuff had been removed before the food was put into the can.
Cheap candy, on a shelf 3 feet above the floor, was also available at those corner stores when my parents were children.
Portion control does have to be a part of this. I started my career working for a food service disposable company (styrofoam cups). The huge sellers at the time (late 1980's) were the 8-12-16 ounce sizes. Sure we had 20 and 32 ounce but they were very small portion of business.
Now a 12 ounce coffee is a small and you'd feel totally ripped off with an 8 oz. Same with candy bars, burgers, etc...
On the other hand when I was growing up in the 80's Dairy Queen's size large was something like a 32oz, the medium was what is now the large and small is todays medium. The large you cant even buy anymore.
While I think portion control is one aspect, I've seen it go both ways where companies cut costs by shrinking their products, or leaving the size the same but reducing the actual product in the packaging.
There is a good bit of research that indicates our microbiome is linked to our weight. Theres studies showing you can take an overweight lab rat and give the gut flora from a rat at a healthy weight and it will lose weight and vice versa. So bringing it back to pharma, one thing that has increased all over the world is the usage of antibiotics which disrupts the microbiome. Some studies have shown that after a single week long round of antibiotics the flora of the gut never recovers or could take years. If there really is a strong enough link between the gut micriobiome and weight, it might not matter what the hell you eat, how much, or whether you exercise or not. Obviously, watching what you eat and exercise do help, but maybe not as much as they would.
Uncle Pervy wrote:
I believe this to be true. I remember reading a study years ago that stated the biggest risk factor to gain weight was living with people who were overweight.
The cultural aspect is undeniable. When very few people were fat overweight people stand out. It would be a natural tendency not be the one that stood out. Now everyone is fat and it has been normalized. Some even celebrate it as some kind of liberation. This has played a huge role.
Bets on how long until we have to cancel Wall-E? 5 years?
pharma wrote:
Definitely some good points in here. But one thing I think that is missing from the conversation is what impact the pharmaceutical industry has on weight gain. Seems like a missing factor in all of this. It explains why so many the world over are overweight as many medications will cause weight gain or otherwise screw with your metabolism.
It is a nonfactor that tends to get focused on by consiparcy kooks. People are eating ~500 more calories per day and getting about that much less calorie burn from not walking or working jobs where they are moving all day compared to the 1970s. That explains pretty much all of the weight gain. The rest is noise that people like to focus on cause who wants to talk about the reason we are fat is because we overeat and don't exercise (either by hitting the gym for an hour or by doing 3 hours of manual labor/day). Lot more fun to blame it on the meat industry, big diary, pharms, the government poisioning the water.
Uncle Pervy wrote:
I believe this to be true. I remember reading a study years ago that stated the biggest risk factor to gain weight was living with people who were overweight.
Of course, when your role model (parent) is shoving crap down their throat the child is doomed. At a picnic, I watched my colleague, an obese male whose wife is even heavier, give his kids (already overweight) money for candy when plenty of healthy lunch options were available. No lunch, straight to junk food. Child abuse.
Combination of sedetary lifestyle but people eating like they still perform manual labor on the farm or in the factory.
You can get away with little exercise if you eat accordingly. Most do not though.
800 dude wrote:
KaareV wrote:
USA is the fatest country, by far.
Even excluding Pacific island nations, Mexico is worse.
USA 36.2%.
Mexico 28.9%.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2228rank.htmlDepression makes people fat, people are lonely and bored and eat themselves to death to escape.
I mean, sure, ignore it the link if you want. You can google this stuff all day, but pretending it like its a nonfactor is certainly your choice.
I believe stress has something to do it. I know for a fact that on a daily basis I deal with stress way more than I did 20 years ago. Seems to me people are much more depressed and stressed now. Combined with eating out more and bigger portions no wonder we are fatter. I think back to when I grew up we ran outside all day playing. Dinner was home cooked with conversation with our parents. Look outside. You never see kids playing anymore.