No Animated GIFs What causes obesity?

[peeonme]

What causes obesity?
It would be easy to say overeating or the wrong diet. But, let me ask your opinion about this: I was in an all boys residential school. Our diet was very good, we all ate the same food. We all exercised, a lot. On top of this, we had work outs where we had to spend a day mowing grass, hauling coal, landscaping working in the central kitchen, not to mention our regular assigned duties in our cottages. No one sat around, there was no soda pop or snack food.

I was a skinny kid when I got there, I toned up a lot but was still lean. Some were pretty muscular and remained so and then there were the boys who were overweight, no muscle tone to speak of.
Most of us were in our early to mid teen age years. Most of us were there for over a year, yet I didn't see the obese kids lose weight.

My guess would be that the overweight boys came from over weight families and that there is some genetic predisposition involved.

What do you say?

 

[NotHardUp1]

It is any number of things -- a lack of exercise, a sedentary job, a bad diet, a culture of overeating, and so on. I think rarely it is a genetic cause, but most times, purely behavioral.

Also, societal conditioning. If a man or woman is already not valued by society because of looks, then becoming fat isn't any demotion socially. True, it is unhealthy, but loads of skinny people smoke, get drunk or high, eat junk food, drive fast, and do unhealthy things too.

And, it's pretty obvious that tons of people today are fat but didn't come from fat parents.

 

[peeonme]

It is any number of things -- a lack of exercise, a sedentary job, a bad diet, a culture of overeating, and so on. I think rarely it is a genetic cause, but most times, purely behavioral.

Also, societal conditioning. If a man or woman is already not valued by society because of looks, then becoming fat isn't any demotion socially. True, it is unhealthy, but loads of skinny people smoke, get drunk or high, eat junk food, drive fast, and do unhealthy things too.

Yes, but if you read my post you see that it was a controlled environment, why did the heavy boys stay heavy?

 

[gsdx]

Metabolism has a lot to do with it. Different people have different ways of burning the calories they consume. To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you eat. Your metabolism was much higher than the overweight boys. Your body used the calories. The overweight boys stored them.

 

[peeonme]

Metabolism has a lot to do with it. Different people have different ways of burning the calories they consume. To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you eat. Your metabolism was much higher than the overweight boys. Your body used the calories. The overweight boys stored them.

I agree, do you think it's inherited?

 

[gsdx]

^ Yes, it is. A lot of it is self-inflicted or 'encouraged' by the parents and family, but endomorphism is an inherited body type just as mesomorphism (think 'jock') and ectomorphism (think 'twink').

 

[unloadonme]

I'm sure metabolism and genetics have a lot to do with it, but basically one puts on weight if calories in exceed calories out.

 

[rareboy]

Obesity is an evolutionary trait....largely from our neanderthal ancestors that allowed us to store fat against harsh conditions.

This century, with the rise of sugar and fat saturated foods available all the time means that 90% of us now just take in way more calories than we can burn.

It is the same in the animal wold as well.

We have 3 cats right now.

One weighs 6 pounds, one weighs about 18 lbs and the other weighs 24 pounds.

They all used to eat exactly the same amount every day. And have exactly the same activity level.

The smallest one now eats 6 times the amount than either of the other two because she has an absorption issue, but they were a perfect example of how genetics can fuck us all over.

Half my family are skinny as rails. The other half of my family are Dutch with a slower metabolism. Guess which end of the gene pool I ended up being thrown into?

 

[peeonme]

Today we tend to hold those in disdain that are obese. Even on the news we see vids. of people from the neck down who are overweight when the topic of health comes up. Schools and work places kind be cruel. I believe that this drives some towards 'comfort foods'.
At 66 I find it hard to lose any weight, I am about 30 lbs. over where I should be. Now I think about the kids that were and still are tormented and ostracized over weight. I was never a tormentor but I didn't have much sympathy either. I remember gym teachers that made the heavy kids a target.

Do we worry about movies such as the Nutty Professor being offensive?

 

[NotHardUp1]

Yes, but if you read my post you see that it was a controlled environment, why did the heavy boys stay heavy?

Yes, but you didn't consider that they had already become overweight before you met them. There is much evidence that obese people don't lose weight because their bodies have converted to burning carbs, leaving the fat where it is. In other words, you ate the mashed potatoes and your activity level was enough to maintain equilibrium and weight.

Unfortunately, the fat boys did the same. They had already put on weight and would carry it as long as they performed work that only consumed the calories and nothing more.

Further, there is research that, like the Adkins Diet, the metabolism must be forced to undergo redirection so that it cannot depend upon carb intake. When this happens, the system converts to burning fat, normally something Nature is against, as your fat is your safety reserve and it should be consumed by the body last. In the case of the modern diet and body, more and more fat is stored as a safety, so the natural process must be interrupted.

Additional exercise helps, but it is harder for fat people to be as active with that extra weight, so it is better to focus on diet as well as exercise.

 

[HoodedRat]

Too much food, too little exercise.

Calories in > Calories out.

I doubt there were many fat prisoners in Auschwitz.

I expect heredity is less important than habit; fat people tend to have fat pets as well as fat kids.

Eat less, move more.

About half of all my friends and acquaintances are seriously obese. None of them seemed to particularly care about their weight until it started causing health problems such as type 2 diabetes. Now they just seem resigned to being ill for the rest of their lives.

 

[peeonme]

Yes, but you didn't consider that they had already become overweight before you met them. There is much evidence that obese people don't lose weight because their bodies have converted to burning carbs, leaving the fat where it is. In other words, you ate the mashed potatoes and your activity level was enough to maintain equilibrium and weight.

Unfortunately, the fat boys did the same. They had already put on weight and would carry it as long as they performed work that only consumed the calories and nothing more.

Further, there is research that, like the Adkins Diet, the metabolism must be forced to undergo redirection so that it cannot depend upon carb intake. When this happens, the system converts to burning fat, normally something Nature is against, as your fat is your safety reserve and it should be consumed by the body last. In the case of the modern diet and body, more and more fat is stored as a safety, so the natural process must be interrupted.

Additional exercise helps, but it is harder for fat people to be as active with that extra weight, so it is better to focus on diet as well as exercise.

That is what made me curious about being overweight, if a good diet and exercise were all it takes then the boys who arrived 'fat' should have lost some weight on a healthy diet and plenty of exercise. It was common to run 2 -5 miles per day along with push up and all kinds of other things such as jumping jacks, squats etc. Most of the fat boys had no muscle tone, they struggled though every thing. I was skinny, maybe average when I think of it and I toned up readily.

We as a society tend to think it's as simple as cutting calories and and moving more.

 

[NotHardUp1]

There is also the problem of obese people cheating, working less and eating more.

Most of the time, when studies literally control the access to food, the obese person looses steadily from merely the curbing of intake. Very, very few defy that math.

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

Could it be epigenetics rather than bad nutrional habits of this generation alone?

 

[NotHardUp1]

It is well known that fat children have an incredibly hard time losing once adults, but it still seems to be from diet and long set patterns more than genes.

 

[Vannie]

Kit Kats

 

[Latimer]

Anyone who doesn't want to be fat needs to give periodic fasting a try.

 

[tarallucci]

I think it's a combination of habits and genetics.

 

[Pierresro]

While there probaly are some who eat wrong part of the problem are portion size. My Partner like me Traveled all over for his job. When we lived in London His companies main office was in New York City. When there he would always visit a woman we have known ( A straight woman) since 2 months after we became a couple. Across from her apartment comple is a a row of stores and a nice Italian Restaurant. they would usually order a NY size Pizza but one Trip my partner said Id like an order of Brochetta and for a main Pasta with Pesto. The first cam eout it was a loaf of Italian Bread 26 slices done great he had two slices our friend took it home. Then The Pesto he said to the waitress I just wanted pesto for me she says thats what this is its 1 1/2 pounds of pasta and home made Pesto. This is the main problem in America. Of Course there are some people with thyroid problems that through everything off. The Day I went into the army years ago I weighed 155Lbs and I am 5´7 today years later I am 160Lbs and of course 5´7!

 

[Dominus]

Used to be a fatso here. Almost 200 LB at 5'8. Even developed type 2 diabetes. Since, I've lost almost 40 pounds. I'm now in the low 160s and continuing downward. Here is what I have learned through both lots and lots of research and personal experience.

(1) Blaming your overweight or obesity problem on metabolism is a cop-out excuse. Before you want to hang me to the alter of the fat-acceptance god, let me explain.

I used to use this excuse, too. Until this question came up in my mind during my research: What exactly is body metabolism? I don't mean the scientific definition of it. I mean specifically, what is a person's body metabolism to regular folks like you and me? Once I found out the answer, I realized blaming it on body metabolism has always been and will always be just a cop-out excuse.

Your metabolism is the total energy consumption of energy to maintain your current being. Seems simple, right? But think about it for a moment. Yes, it is true that the fat kid has a lower body metabolism than the lean kid, but why is that? If it was as simple as this, the fat kid should be dead. It cost real energy to keep a person alive at a normal temperature.

Let's take a step back. Have you ever noticed that fat people are always cold? Fat cells store fat. They don't really require that much energy to stay in being. Muscle cells, on the other hand, require a lot of energy to maintain. The bigger the muscle cells, the more energy they require to maintain themselves. Fat cells, on the other hand, require about the same energy to maintain whether it's got a lot of fat in it or not.

The totality of the energy consumption of your body to maintain itself is your body metabolism. In other words, the fat kid has a lower body metabolism than the lean kid because his muscle cells aren't as big as the lean kid's. There is no magic to this. And stop blaming it on your genetics. Anybody can have a higher body metabolism. Just gain muscle mass.

(2) Even though doing math with calories in and calories used is outdated, the concept is still useful to some degree. I know this because I used to eat like a fatso when I was fat. I ate until I was satisfied. The problem was over the years I had inadvertently trained myself to be satisfied on a much larger portion than I needed. Once I realized this, I started mentally train myself to pay attention to portion sizes. Nowadays, I still eat until I'm satisfied. But where I am satisfied nowadays is a lot smaller than where I was satisfied back when.

We have an aunt who is a little on the heavy side. She is always a mystery to us in that every time we eat together she always eats very little and usually only fruits and salads. My husband and I once talked about it and he could not understand why she is still big even though every time we see her eat she's always eating a tiny portion. I told my husband I absolutely don't believe that's how she eats normally. In other words, she's just eating that little in front of other people for show. Sure enough, since then we have had good authority on this that her normal portion size is probably bigger than both of ours combined. She just doesn't eat like that in front of most people. We gotta give it to her, though. She actually has the mental power to control her intake every time we go out together. Last time we went out together, she had a small salad and then said she was full. I thought I saw her husband rolled his eyes LOL.

I bring that up because of the leader of the fat acceptance movement Tess Holliday. She claims to not eat very much. I don't believe for a moment that she somehow breaks the laws of thermodynamics.

(3) What is more important than doing math is actually paying attention to what you are consumming. A sugar portion with X amount of calories will metabolize in a much negative way for your body than a non-processed meat portion with the same X amount of calories. And FYI to some people here, sugar is a type of carb. Even though Atkins wasn't the first researcher to figure out the correlation between carb intake and weight gain, he was the first to, I think, to publicize this widely.

Here is a problem that vegans have that most people don't know and they almost never talk about. Vegans have a lot of problems with rotting teeth. Why? Because they are essentially eating sugar. In a much less concentrated amount than sugar as we know it. But in order to support what their bodies need, they still consume enough sugar carb to affect their dental health.

In short, I don't believe for a moment that every single person with a weight problem has a genes problem or thyroid problem. Stop using such excuse and work on increasing your metabolism. How? By gaining muscle. And also watch what you eat. You CANNOT compensate a bad diet with exercise.

One more thing. Last month, we had some friends come and stayed overnight for our epic halloween party. In the morning, we all went to breakfast together. My friend, who is a little on the heavy side, said he noticed I've gotten a lot fitter. I thanked him for my compliment. At the time, I had finished my breakfast. I had only eaten half the portion they gave me. I wasn't consciously stopping myself. I was genuinely full. So was my husband after having only eating half the portion. My friend commented that we both look so fit because we seem to be starving ourselves. At the time, I didn't feel like explaining to him about eating healthy and whatnot, so I just smiled and agreed.

My point is there is a misconception, especially among fat people, that any restriction in portion size = starving oneself. We have people who 100-200 pounds overweight and yet are so afraid of starving to death. I blame this way of thinking on the culture. It is like a billionaire who is always afraid of becoming homeless so he keeps hording money and never spends it. Makes no sense to me, but that's how people think nowadays.

Added by edit.

Ever since I became fit, all my previous problems have gone away. Autoimmunity disorder has disappeared. Blood pressure is normal. I don't feel tired during the "midday slump" anymore. Type 2 is gone completely. Even my lactose intolerance has gone away, which not too long ago gave me explosive diarrhea on a regular basis.

So, please don't tell me you can be healthy at every size. Tess Holliday, you hear that?