Ten Overlooked Contributors to Obesity

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imported_goku

Diamond Member
Mar 28, 2004
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3. Comfortable temperatures: When you?re too hot or cold, your body uses energy to warm you up or chill you out. Make the temperature controlled and comfortable and you lose the calorie-burning bonus. (Since 1978, the number of homes with central air conditioning has increased more than 30 percent.)

Daymn! I knew it!!! I figured that if you were comfortable you burned less calories, I observed this a while back but was never able to comfirm it! :p
 

bennylong

Platinum Member
Apr 20, 2006
2,493
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Hispanic people are fat? Must be because of the cheese, just like those fat people in Wisconsin
 

RelaxTheMind

Platinum Member
Oct 15, 2002
2,245
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76
Originally posted by: LoKe
I can't have been the only person who read that as "Ten Overclocked Contributors to Obesity". :Q


I would then be the second... Even after several passes still looked like Overclocked.
 

Vic

Elite Member
Jun 12, 2001
50,422
14,337
136
11. Stress: Adrenaline triggers the fight-or-flight response and readies the body for physical activity. When no resulting physical activity takes place, the evolutionary programming from those earlier hunter-gatherer times assumes this is because we are unable to acquire food (when in fact we're worried over bills or paycheck or something like that, which has become our modern equivalent of hunting and gathering). Your body then slows down the metabolism to conserve energy, increases production of fat because it is a more efficient form of energy storage, and stimulates the appetite in order to encourage the drive to seek food. So people get stressed out, don't exercise, grab a candy bar, get fat and get diabetes.
 

everman

Lifer
Nov 5, 2002
11,288
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Number 1, 2, 5 have some credence. Everything else is crap. Just because your parents are fat doesn't mean you can't have some self discipline (once you're old enough to understand that). Fewer smokers, wtf? Temperature, again wtf?

Natural Selection: overweight people out survive their leaner counterparts because they can draw more energy from fat stores...but not today in a time of plenty

So you're saying it did, and now does not, ok...then how is this a factor?

So really beyond the three good ones, the rest are about personal decisions made by people. Nobody is forcing you into McDonalds or to cook unhealthy food at home, or drinking sodas every day.
 

mattocs

Platinum Member
Jan 25, 2005
2,246
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Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
1. Twinkies
2. Ice Cream
3. McDonald's
4. Pop Tarts
5. Fried *
6. All You Can Eat Buffet Only $9.99!!!
7. HBO
8. "Light" Beer
9. Late Night Infomercials Curing Fatness With a Pill
10. Global Warming (It gets blamed for everything else...)

Hey hey, how did you get my list of favorite things!?
 

Stunt

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2002
9,717
2
0
#1 contributer to obesity = FOOD.

Solutions:
The "As much as you want diet".
a) from morning till noon eat as much asparagus as you want....as much as you want.
b) from noon till 8 drink as much water as you want...as much as you want.
c) from 8 till bed you cry...as much as you want...because you're starving...
:D

The Diet Patch
* Similar to the nicotine patch...but you place over your mouth.
:D
 

Ricochet

Diamond Member
Oct 31, 1999
6,390
19
81
Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
Originally posted by: Amused
Originally posted by: Aflac
9. Natural selection

:laugh:

diet and exercise, however, can be controlled. Most of these cannot.

Actually, many of them can be controlled. :p

You can get more sleep.

You can turn the thermostat up in the summer, and down in the winter and save money too.

You can stop taking unnecessary meds.

You can have children earlier.

You can discourage fat prople from breeding. ;)
They tried that in the '20s with prohibition.

What?? Haven't heard that one before.



 

Vic

Elite Member
Jun 12, 2001
50,422
14,337
136
Originally posted by: Stunt
#1 contributer to obesity = FOOD.

Solutions:
The "As much as you want diet".
a) from morning till noon eat as much asparagus as you want....as much as you want.
b) from noon till 8 drink as much water as you want...as much as you want.
c) from 8 till bed you cry...as much as you want...because you're starving...
:D

The Diet Patch
* Similar to the nicotine patch...but you place over your mouth.
:D
Actually, what you eat is more important than how much you eat. Even more important than that is metabolic rate. And genetics does play a definite role.
 

The Pentium Guy

Diamond Member
Jan 15, 2005
4,327
1
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... if fat people stopped complaining about how fat they were and started exercising....... then we might not have this problem
 

yowolabi

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2001
4,183
2
81
Here's my problem with the OP's list...

All of that stuff may play a role , but they're definitely a much smaller role than the big two. Getting more sleep and not adjusting the thermostat so much aren't going to make much difference if that's the only changes you make at 300 pounds. If you listen to all 10 of those points you still won't lose much weight if you don't touch the big two. However it has been proven that if you only adjust your diet and exercise, you will get significantly smaller. Coming up with 10 or 100 more minor factors that may influence weight gain isn't really benefitting the people that need to lose weight. All it does is provide them with more excuses about how they aren't in control (it's the endocrine disruptors in the air), which is incorrect.
 

jagec

Lifer
Apr 30, 2004
24,442
6
81
Originally posted by: Amused
Originally posted by: Mucho
11. Denial: Refusing to accept the fact obesity is a health problem.

I doubt you'll find many overweight people who will deny that obesity is bad for their health.

But do they care enough to do anything about it? No.

Originally posted by: tk109
I think they are overlooking something here. The kids are going to get fat because they are in a household that always has tons of food around. So the parents are fat from the bad eating habits and then thier kids get fat because they are in the same fat making environment. I've watched this with families I know. They just eat and eat and eat. The mom cooks huge meals or takes them out to fast food constantly. So of course the kids are going to get fat. Then the kids sit around and play nintendo or are lazy and you have a recipe for fatty fattness.

No, because that would involve placing responsibility on individuals, which is anathema in this day and age.
 

HamburgerBoy

Lifer
Apr 12, 2004
27,111
318
126
Originally posted by: Amused
1. Sleep deprivation: There?s no doubt that Americans are getting less than the recommended eight hours each night. Now researchers claim that too few hours of slumber cause hormonal changes that lead to weight gain.

I doubt that. I got about six hours of sleep a day for several months last year and didn't gain a pound from it.

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
1. Twinkies
2. Ice Cream
3. McDonald's
4. Pop Tarts
5. Fried *
6. All You Can Eat Buffet Only $9.99!!!
7. HBO
8. "Light" Beer
9. Late Night Infomercials Curing Fatness With a Pill
10. Global Warming (It gets blamed for everything else...)

QFT.

Originally posted by: Amused
All of those foods predate the obesity epidemic by at least 30 years. People have been frying food and eating ice cream for decades longer than that.

Food is not the problem. Lifestyle is the problem.

In what quantities do they eat them? I have McDonald's a few times a year, a poptart maybe once a year, a bowl of ice cream weekly, and a couple of doughnuts monthly and weigh 112lbs. Then compare to the 3rd grader that goes to McDonald's once a day, two boxes of poptarts weekly, two bowls of ice cream daily (covered in soda, of course), and a box of doughnuts every weekend that weighs 130lbs.
 

Legend

Platinum Member
Apr 21, 2005
2,254
1
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1. The types of food people eat, the quantities and frequency. While ice cream, restaurants, and snacks existed for several decades, people ate their much less frequently and the food was better. Soda came in 6 oz servings made of sugar and not HFCS, ice cream was a rare treat, and people ate more balanced foods. Doesn't mean you should sue any company, because it's entirely at fault of the individual.

2. Lifestyle -- not exercising or eating so many bad foods that running a little bit just creates a status quo.


Genetics is a rare case. Like a hypothyroid. Where were all the obese people 100 years ago? They certainly weren't half of the population. If anything, genetics is in actuality the eating habits and lifestyles taught to children by their parents.

There's some other minor factors, like sleeping, inbalanced intestinal flora due to killing all bacteria on food, etc, but it mostly comes down to 1 and 2.
 

yhelothar

Lifer
Dec 11, 2002
18,409
39
91
Originally posted by: tk109

8. Prenatal influences: Overweight moms, and those with gestational diabetes, have been linked with bigger babies. In fact, one study found that over-fed pups produced heavier pups than a control group, and the heft persisted for two subsequent generations.

I think they are overlooking something here. The kids are going to get fat because they are in a household that always has tons of food around. So the parents are fat from the bad eating habits and then thier kids get fat because they are in the same fat making environment. I've watched this with families I know. They just eat and eat and eat. The mom cooks huge meals or takes them out to fast food constantly. So of course the kids are going to get fat. Then the kids sit around and play nintendo or are lazy and you have a recipe for fatty fattness.

Yup. I saw a show on TV trying to get a mom to stop feeding her kids so much junk.
Everyday, they just eat fried chicken, philly cheesesteak sandwhiches, cheese fries, fudge cake, and sit home and watch tv and play video games.
 

Vic

Elite Member
Jun 12, 2001
50,422
14,337
136
Originally posted by: Legend
1. The types of food people eat, the quantities and frequency. While ice cream, restaurants, and snacks existed for several decades, people ate their much less frequently and the food was better. Soda came in 6 oz servings made of sugar and not HFCS, ice cream was a rare treat, and people ate more balanced foods. Doesn't mean you should sue any company, because it's entirely at fault of the individual.

2. Lifestyle -- not exercising or eating so many bad foods that running a little bit just creates a status quo.


Genetics is a rare case. Like a hypothyroid. Where were all the obese people 100 years ago? They certainly weren't half of the population. If anything, genetics is in actuality the eating habits and lifestyles taught to children by their parents.

There's some other minor factors, like sleeping, inbalanced intestinal flora due to killing all bacteria on food, etc, but it mostly comes down to 1 and 2.

Genetics are hardly rare cases (think Samoans), hypothyroidism is quite common, obese people have been around since humanity moved past the hunter-gatherer stage (including 100 years ago), and about a third (not half) of the population is considered obese today (BMI>30).
 

imported_goku

Diamond Member
Mar 28, 2004
7,613
3
0
Originally posted by: HamburgerBoy
Originally posted by: Amused
1. Sleep deprivation: There?s no doubt that Americans are getting less than the recommended eight hours each night. Now researchers claim that too few hours of slumber cause hormonal changes that lead to weight gain.

I doubt that. I got about six hours of sleep a day for several months last year and didn't gain a pound from it.

No, but you're more likely to not be able to lose weight if you're sleep deprived. Look at people with sleep apnea, it's a vicious cycle, they can't lose weight because they're tired, but them being overweight causes them to have sleep apnea and then therefore tired.