We're all getting fat

[Ridgerunner]

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Yes people go to gyms more than in the 70’s but they are also more sedentary through the rest of their day. Most people now do little walking and sit behind a desk all day.

It might be interesting if someone did a study comparing people whose occupations require a good deal of physical effort and those who are engaged in sedentary but high-stress mentally demanding occupations. Three hours doing difficult engineering equations probably burns more calories than three hours in the gym.

All things being equal, my guess would be that the latter burn more calories than the former and are less likely to be obese. Of course the “all things being equal” would be a tough thing to manage on the part of anyone doing the study.

 

[Theo520]

It might be interesting if someone did a study comparing people whose occupations require a good deal of physical effort and those who are engaged in sedentary but high-stress mentally demanding occupations. Three hours doing difficult engineering equations probably burns more calories than three hours in the gym.

All things being equal, my guess would be that the latter burn more calories than the former and are less likely to be obese. Of course the “all things being equal” would be a tough thing to manage on the part of anyone doing the study.

This stuff is pretty well understood and doing brain work doesn’t compensate for being sedentary.

Plenty of resources out there to help people calculate their TDEE - Total Daily Energy Expenditure, so they know how many calories are needed to maintain their current weight. Go under TDEE and you lose weight, over and you gain weight.

 

[exnihilo]

Hope I don’t sound rude, but have you ever reflected on why you are eating a certain amount. When I was in my early teens, I used to eat a lot. Then I realized that I was fat and i started to restrict food and developed an exercise addiction. It gotten so bad to the point where I was more or less a bag of bones. I remember passing out right before receiving the Eucharist. People thought I was possessed, probably. Lol!

Anyway…looking back I realized that I snacked a lot because of many reasons. Eating while I do something created an association between the activity and the food. For example, I kept eating chips while watching TV. And when I stopped, i just had these crazy cravings. My mind was conditioned to expect snacks while watching TV. To get rid of it, I had to force myself to eat something less fattening for a while until there is this new association.

Sugar is as addictive as a drug, which explains why we just have to have it. The only way I stopped is to simply stop buying it. The reason why you eat certain foods could also be due to your childhood. “Comfort” foods, basically. It’s a desperate and subconscious way to make yourself feel some sort of pleasure. Once i went on a diet, I realised how sad I was. It was like everything had risen up to the surface.

I can’t tell you how to treat that because I’m still a sad person, I just switched to another terrible coping mechanism.

I think cutting back on food will be a lot more effective if one addresses the issues he or she is facing. Or else it’s just a sad battle (willpower) or one switches to another unhealthy way of coping

I know why I eat too much. Some of it is mindless eating. This isn’t so much snacking but when eating a meal eating too quickly and too much without any thought. Some of it is comfort eating. This is my problem of eating a late night snack. Some of it is not accepting that things have changed and I’m not the same as I was when I was a kid who could eat anything. You are absolutely right that the solution is addressing the root causes.

 

[Sarcelle]

I know why I eat too much. Some of it is mindless eating. This isn’t so much snacking but when eating a meal eating too quickly and too much without any thought. Some of it is comfort eating. This is my problem of eating a late night snack. Some of it is not accepting that things have changed and I’m not the same as I was when I was a kid who could eat anything. You are absolutely right that the solution is addressing the root causes.

The one thing that often defeats people who are trying to lose weight is the difficulty of changing bad habits, especially bad ingrained habits.

To keep weight off permanently, one needs a permanent change in habits.

I used to know someone who was dangerously overweight and suffering from sleep apnea. He did not eat a lot during meals and did not snack at all during the day. He snacked at around 10:00 PM and at around 2:00 AM. This was the habit he could not get rid off. It was almost instinctive. His wife would actually find him half asleep cooking a full meal at around 2:00 AM.