Why Are People So Fat?

Sounds like a weak excuse to me.

It is not WHAT a person eats, it is HOW MUCH!

I had my fair share of greasy hamburgers and deep fried chips when i was a kid, long before 'maccas' came along.

 

Yeah, that applies to people who have normally functioning metabolisms, which a lot of people who struggle with their weight do not. This is the very reason why some people can eat tons of shitty food, never exercise, yet remain skinny. The calories approach does not work the same for all people, as it does not address metabolic issues.

 

50 years ago, EVERYBODY had a "normally functioning metabolism"!

I would suggest that anybody that sits at a computer for 11 years and types 30,000 posts at an average of 7.5 a day, EVERY day, runs the risk of having a "calories OUT" problem.

Just a guess.

 

50 years ago people were not consuming the amount of sugar, vegetable oils and refined carbohydrates they are today. Metabolic issues are caused by the foods people eat. Most people are literally damaged from a lifetime of bad eating, and reversing those problems entail a lot more than simply eating less and moving around more.

 

as long as they jog 5 miles most days and run around their house, too, I think they are ok.....

 

Ever since the introduction of the "working mum" we have seen a rise in obesity in children too.

What I basically see happen, especially in a busy overpopulated city area is that people can spend hours a day wasting their lives on a simple commute to work and back. Literally hours. Now if the working mother happens to be one of these people the less times she's going to have cooking a healthy dinner for her husband and children. A simple phone call and 5 minutes later the whole family fed from a take away food store.

Along with rediculous pricing for nutritious food, like the cheeseburger v salad, a cheeseburger from MacDonalds in €1 in Germany and that salad can easily equate to €5 and over. Even in supermarket I can have a trolley of grocery goods and that trolley scans up to €25 sometimes, you feel pretty good about yourself not spending much but then you put your fruit and vegetable down on the scanning belt and all of a sudden your grocery count at €25 that could last more than a week has tripled on fresh produce that'll only last a few days. It's sad and very irritating but I am not a working mother at all so I have time to prepare decent meals when I am at home.

Like how is it cheaper to eat manufactured food when the real stuff grows in dirt you sprinkle water over? And it grows? For free. Confuzzled.

So yes in the last 50 years we are getting lazier with our jobs, prices are increasing, people are over eating the wrong foods, people aren't exerting stored up energy.. Yes... But also the hardened, stern mothers aren't around anymore to lay a back hand on the lazy kids and husbands to get outside so she have the kitchen to herself so that she can prepare a nice nutritious meal for her family.

 

and my parents enrolled me in tap, ballet and acrobatics for many years, so thank you my parents...you did alot of things right.,.....

Must jog dogs all 5 miles now....

 

Way back at the dawn of time there was no such thing as 'low fat' this, and 'low fat' that.

'Full Cream' milk with an inch or more of cream at the top of the bottle. Good old fashioned butter, no such thing as margarine.

We ate full fat cheese from the block in THICK slices. Bacon and eggs for breakfast YUM! Lamb chops fried in the pan. Gravy made with the FATTY juices from the pan.

Even bread and dripping for our parents before us.

Spent our days running around in bare feet, swimming every day until the water got too cold at Easter.

Going to the shops for mum, all of a mile each way.

Never heard of these new fangled words to excuse obesity.

 

I forgot the 3 teaspoon of sugar on my breakfast cereal, and another 3 in my cup of tea.

NO second and third helpings either!

What are "carbs"?

 

obesity was less common 50 years ago, but far from nonexistent...

http://www.dawn-centre.ie/index.php?page=Page&op=show&id=90

(i had some images of old black and white era actors to demonstrate this too, but apparently they were too fat to fit on hipforums; it keeps insisting that their image extension is not allowed)

 

"obesity was less common 50 years ago, but far from nonexistent..."

Note my words "virtually unknown".

34,376 posts, I am IMPRESSED!

 

i think people were well aware that it existed.

i was also noting your words "EVERYBODY had a normally functioning metabolism."

 

calorie surplus

 

The federal government recently admitted that the dietary advice they've been giving Americans for 40 years (limited cholesterol, limited eggs and butter, the Food Pyramid, etc.) had no basis in fact. They didn't explain why, so I can only assume they were corrupted by the agribusiness lobbies. I think they still are. You should ignore what the government says. They still think it makes sense to use taxpayer money to subsidize the sugar, dairy, and corn industries, which of course is a major reason as to why lousy food is so cheap compared to salads, fruits and veggies.

Also, I just want to say that a lot of people are convinced they know the truth and they don't mind telling you what it is, but the undeniable fact is that in no other area of science do we have to deal with so much bullshit. Paleo, gluten-free, low-carb, low-fat, low-calorie, Atkins, macrobiotic, Mediterranean, a thousand other diets. What to believe? They can't all be right. Maybe in the future our genes will be analyzed and it will tell us what's best for each of us.

I used to believe that weight gain = (calories in) - (calories out), like what ozjohn believes, but I am convinced now that it isn't so simple. It really does matter what you eat. I think there is plenty of evidence that that is true.

I currently believe that what is best for me is a low-carb diet. I avoid sweeteners, dairy, meat, potatoes, pizza, bread, all baked goods, and all kinds of rice. I eat lots of fish, eggs, avocados, nuts and veggies and very little else. But I am not so arrogant as to say that everyone should eat that way.

 

This is your opinion. I don't agree with it. But then again you don't even read what people actually say before you get on your soap box and spout off. I never said that today's food isn't more in abundance of sugar and HFCS. I specifically said that today's food contains more sugar than ever before and that this is largely the reason for not only the obesity epidemic, but the extremes of obesity that exist today in numbers not seen before.

I AGREE that people should be eating whole, unprocessed foods.

As far as fat, it's the type of fat people are eating that is making them sick and obese, most of which comes from omega-6 polyunsaturated fats, which are not by any means healthy.

Butter, just like coconut oil, is a whole food consisting of healthy, naturally-occurring saturated fats and is completely healthy. MARGARINE is what is unhealthy and lines arterial walls with plaque.

Carbs in and of themselves do not make people fat and I never said they did. An overabundance of refined sugars and processed carbohydrate foods do. For many people with blood sugar issues, low carb diets work the best for them since they lower insulin levels, which allows the body to burn its fat stores. Most people with severe insulin resistance issues need to drastically reduce all carbs, including some of the more starchy, healthy ones like white rice and potatoes.

Does rice and potatoes alone make a lean person fat (granted they're eaten under or at maintenance level caloric intake)? Probably not.

Can rice and potatoes make an already obese person have difficulty losing weight? Yes. (So can an overabundance of fructose from fruit.)

 

sunfighter,

"no basis in fact"

This applies to much of what we are dished up by 'experts', in particular the stuff claimed to be "peer reviewed".

I particularly like the "new research" and "recent studies" excuse from the talking heads in the media.

Cred level = NIL.

 

You are being anti-intellectual by saying that experts don't tell us the truth. That may be the case in a very small number of cases, but mostly the scientists are more likely to tell us the truth (as derived from the scientific method) than any other group of people. Where do you get your truth, if not from experts? What's the alternative -- DMT trips and Alex Jones?

 

No, they have to pass my BS Detector test!

Unlike some, I know when someone is trying to sell me a pup!

Some people never know when they are being lied to.

 

Actually, being anti-intellectual is blindly believing what experts tell you just because they're experts. It's also called not having a mind of your own.