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Old 05-08-2009, 01:00 PM   #1 (permalink)
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Newsflash! Obesity caused by overeating!

Overeating to blame for U.S. obesity epidemic | Health | Reuters

Quote:
Originally Posted by Reuters
By Megan Rauscher

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The major reason for the obesity epidemic that has gripped the United States in the past three decades is increased food intake, not reduced physical activity, according to a study released Friday at the European Congress on Obesity in Amsterdam.

The study is the first to quantify the relative contributions of food and exercise habits to the growing number of Americans with bulging waistlines.

"In the U.S., over the last 30 years, it seems that the food side of the equation has changed much more than the physical activity side," Professor Boyd A. Swinburn, director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Obesity Prevention at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia, noted in a telephone interview with Reuters Health.

Weight gain in the American population seems to be virtually all due to the consumption of more calories, with declines in physical activity playing only a minor role, Swinburn explained.

"We absolutely need to continue to promote increased physical activity and a healthy diet because they are both obviously beneficial factors in terms of obesity," he emphasized. "But when it comes to placing priorities, I think it needs to be on reducing energy intake. It's particularly important for policymakers to focus on the energy intake side of the equation."

In the study, Swinburn and his colleagues calculated how much adults need to eat in order to maintain a stable weight and how much children need to eat in order to maintain a normal growth curve.

They then figured out how much Americans were actually eating, using national food supply data from the 1970s and the early 2000s. This information allowed them to predict how much weight Americans would be expected to gain over the 30-year study period if food intake were the only influence.

Next, the investigators determined the actual weight gained over the study period using data from a nationally representative survey that recorded the weight of Americans in the 1970s and early 2000s.

In children, according to Swinburn and colleagues, the predicted and actual weight increase matched exactly, which indicates that the increases in energy intake alone over the 30 years studied could explain the added pounds, they say.

In adults, the data predicted that they would be 10.8 kg (23.8 pounds) heavier, but in fact they were only 8.6 kg (18.9 pounds) heavier. This finding, Swinburn noted, "suggests that excess food intake still explains the weight gain, but that there may have been increases in physical activity over the 30 years that have blunted what would otherwise have been a higher weight gain."

"To return to the average weights of the 1970s, we would need to reverse the increased food intake of about 350 calories a day for children (about one can of fizzy drink and a small portion of French fries) and 500 calories a day for adults (about one large hamburger)," Swinburn noted in a statement from the meeting.

"Alternatively, we could achieve similar results by increasing physical activity by about 150 minutes a day of extra walking for children and 110 minutes for adults, but realistically, although a combination of both is needed, the focus would have to be on reducing calorie intake," he added.
In a related story, water is wet.
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Old 05-08-2009, 02:08 PM   #2 (permalink)
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Come, now....

It isn't that cut & dry. They were wondering if it was primarily due to overeating or being lazy.

So basically: Americans have increased their food intake in a greater proportion than they have reduced their energy expenditure.

But I do agree this is all rather elementary.
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Old 05-08-2009, 02:40 PM   #3 (permalink)
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Portion sizes! WOOHOO!
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Old 05-08-2009, 02:51 PM   #4 (permalink)
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Supersize it!

All you can eat!

Double your drink for just $0.25!

250g for the price of 150g!
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Old 05-08-2009, 03:00 PM   #5 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ubiquitious "Underwear Goes Inside the Pants" Bit
Americans, let's face it: we've been a spoiled country for a long time.
Do you know what the number one health risk in America is?
Obesity. They say we're in the middle of an obesity epidemic.
An epidemic. Like it's polio. Like we'll be telling our grand kids about it one day.
The great obesity epidemic of 2004. "How'd you get through it, grandpa?"
"Oh, it was horrible, Johnny. There was cheesecake and pork chops everywhere."

Nobody knows why were getting fatter? Look at our lifestyle. I'll sit at a drive through.
I'll sit there behind fifteen other cars instead of getting up to make the eight foot walk to the totally empty counter.
Everything is mega meal, super sized. Want biggie fries, super sized, want to go large?
You want to have thirty burgers for a nickel, you fat mother fucker? There's room in the bag. Take it!
Want a 55 gallon drum of Coke with that? It's only three more cents!
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Old 05-11-2009, 05:15 AM   #6 (permalink)
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damn, this thread made me quite hungry!...must eat now
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Old 05-11-2009, 06:40 AM   #7 (permalink)
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Yes, overeating is a major contributor to being overweight. Everyone knows that. But so is genetic predisposition and inherited metabolism.

For example, my wife and I are pretty much equal in our levels of activity, and for sure I am more indulgent in what I eat than she is. Yet she struggles with her weight far more than I do. If I wanted to lose weight (and I do need to lose a few pounds), it wouldn't require much effort for me. Personal history has proven that all I need do is eat a lighter meal (lighter dinners would be more effective, but lighter lunches would be more practical), most (but not all) days of the week, and commit to doing some light to medium exercise, every other day or so. But for my wife, it has proven to require much, much more effort and commitment than that. And for me, I'd see results almost immediately, but for my wife, she sees results very slowly.

But as everyone also knows, life is not fair.

Last edited by Cynosure; 05-11-2009 at 06:42 AM..
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Old 05-11-2009, 06:46 AM   #8 (permalink)
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pasta DIET -- this diet works for me!!

1.. You walka pasta DA bakery.

2.. You walka pasta DA candy store.

3.. You walka pasta DA Ice Cream shop.

4.. You walka pasta DA table anDA fridge
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Old 05-11-2009, 08:22 AM   #9 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shell View Post
pasta DIET -- this diet works for me!!

1.. You walka pasta DA bakery.

2.. You walka pasta DA candy store.

3.. You walka pasta DA Ice Cream shop.

4.. You walka pasta DA table anDA fridge
LOL! Excellent! Like a "see food" diet.
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Old 05-11-2009, 10:05 AM   #10 (permalink)
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Guys, I just lost almost 30 lb. Well, finished losing 2 months ago, now trying to maintain. I now weigh what I weighed when I graduated law school 25 years ago. Yes, to some extent overeating makes you thick, heavy, fat, overweight -- whatever word you want to choose. But other stuff does, too. How much you exercise and what you eat are pretty important, too, not just the amount.

I eat pretty much all day long these days, but it's fruits and vegetables for the most part. I eat almost no carbs, almost no processed or prepared foods and no red meat. Basically it's grilled chicken, fish or turkey; lots of vegetables, lots of fruit. Lunch today was a can of tuna (in water), a fresh cob of corn (nuked raw) and about 3/4 lb of fresh stringbeans (also nuked raw), followed by a couple of pieces of fruit for dessert. That's a lot of food. But it's all high in fiber, very tasty, and takes a while to eat. My "treat" is a drink when I get home, change into shorts and tshirt, and stretch out at the computer; there's nothing like some Glenlivet to relax with, in moderation.

It took me almost 5 months to take that weight off. But from my experience I can say that what you eat is almost as improtant as how much you eat.

High fructose corn syrup is deadly, and it's everywhere. Carbs, even low-fat carbs, go right to your waist if they're not whole grain - most carbs are from processed flour. You'll notice, of course, that our government subsidizes production of a lot of this stuff ,which is why it's so cheap and why people (especially poor people) get so much of it. But that is a discussion for another day.
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Old 05-11-2009, 10:30 AM   #11 (permalink)
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You eat fruits and veggies all day but almost no carbs? That's like saying you also eat nothing but meat all day but almost no protein.
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Old 05-11-2009, 10:47 AM   #12 (permalink)
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You can eat all the carbs you want as long as you use them. About 1/3 of my diet consists of carbs (mostly, but not entirely, starches and fibre).

I switched to 1/3 protein, 1/3 carbs, 1/3 fat since I started weight training two months ago. I just had a body comp. done and within that time frame, I lost 2 lbs. of fat and gained 2 lbs. of muscle.
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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Old 05-11-2009, 02:09 PM   #13 (permalink)
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Will, I eat no processed carbs. No bread, no mashed potatoes, no granola, etc etc. The carbs I pick up during the day are purely incidental. (like the carbs in corn on the cob, or the fructose in the fruits). I eat no "white carbs" at all, or at least I try not to.

But the fact remains that what I eat is more important than how much.
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Old 05-11-2009, 02:14 PM   #14 (permalink)
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Oh, PROCESSED carbs. You eat plenty of carbohydrates, you just make sure they're good carbohydrates. Without any carbohydrates, you'd be low on energy and end up getting pretty sick. Which is why I always warn people about the dangers of going low-carb. Or low-anything, for that matter.
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Old 05-11-2009, 04:31 PM   #15 (permalink)
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I eat what I want but just eat less.

Then, I do some exercise.
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Old 05-12-2009, 09:35 AM   #16 (permalink)
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I do not exercise.

I can breakfast with chips and eat BBQ drumsticks and ice cream before bed.

I can eat nothing but pizza and drink nothing but coke for a month.

I eat what I want, when I want. I don't gain weight.

I don't do any of the above, but I could. My metabolism is the stuff of legend. The downside is that I can't gain muscle mass either. I'm 140 pounds at 5'11".
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Last edited by LoganSnake; 05-12-2009 at 09:37 AM..
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Old 05-12-2009, 09:59 AM   #17 (permalink)
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LoganSnake, that won't last forever. Strange things start happening to one's body after a few decades.
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Old 05-12-2009, 10:04 AM   #18 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by loquitur View Post
LoganSnake, that won't last forever. Strange things start happening to one's body after a few decades.
Like the chicken-nugget sized blockage forming in his heart.
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Old 05-12-2009, 10:34 AM   #19 (permalink)
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Yes, I had a high metabolism (the stuff of legend as well: I have frightened small children at all-you-can-eat buffets) and had been around 155-160 lbs. since high school. I only exercised for a couple of years in university (I should have kept that up).

Two years into my 30s and BAM! 185 lbs.?! I lost about 10 lbs. in less than a month simply by cutting out crap food.

The average sedentary person begins to lose muscle mass after the age of 30. Our metabolism slows down as a natural process of aging.
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Last edited by Baraka_Guru; 05-12-2009 at 10:36 AM..
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Old 05-12-2009, 10:43 AM   #20 (permalink)
 
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Oh yeah,
I used to struggle to keep a healthy weight until menopause happened.
5' 7" ...110, to 120 lbs.

I struggle to keep it below 200 lbs., now.

I look like all those, old black and white photos of my dead relatives.

is okay.
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