So what went wrong? (Non-political)

Both ways.

 

I think you can if you're young and active enough. It also kind of depends on your starting point. If you're a little overweight but in decent shape, you can stave off obesity if you're really active and don't overindulge on food. If you're obese, it's generally harder to be active so you need to put yourself in a position where you CAN be active or it's easier to be active.

But if you're obese and older with a slow metabolism, yeah calorie deficits and nutrition are really important in the weight loss business. But I'd also say weight loss and fitness are interrelated, but they're not necessarily the same thing. You can be 5'9, 150 lbs, and be a terrible runner with no endurance, explosiveness, or strength. But it's much harder to be 5'9, 350 lbs, and be a well-rounded athlete. Not to mention most frames can't healthily support that kind of weight.

 

Body shape is the most heritable of physical attributes save height.

When people ask me how I stay so slender, I tell them I chose slender parents.

 

Don’t forget that there are far fewer manual labor jobs as well.far fewer people burn off calories working than they used to.
Relative wealth means people can afford more food as well.
Then as mentioned, less exercise by kids, terrible diets now with sodium, sugar, carbs etc. and a far lower penalty for being fat with all the medications we have.

Heck in the late 19th century fat people used to be in carnivals and circuses as oddities because almost everyone was more concerned about taking enough calories, not burning them.

the sucky part is that sugar alone costs the economy something like a trillion dollars a year in lost work, medical bills, larger clothing (that they pay the same price for), higher fuel costs with the extra weight, fewer stadium seats they can put in because the seats have to be bigger, larger grocery bills because larger people eat more food, among hundreds of other things…and we do nothing about it.
Because, freedom.

 

Agree. Last sentence is a ? For me.

If you were in charge what would you do? requirements or mandates for obesity? Will there be penalties? If so what kind?

 

^ ^^
Be the person your dog thinks you are.

Be tolerant of the differently shaped.

 

True story: went to an orthopedist a few years back with knee pain.

Diagnosis: patellofemoral knee pain.

Had I been chubby the diagnosis would have been chubby.

 

At a bare minimum, stop giving gvt subsidies to the sugar industry and don’t allow things like soda purchases with food stamps. The fact that a product that kills people is artificially cheap and available is crazy. Give this tax breaks to healthy producers. A higher cost would lower usage and no food stamp usage would substantially lower demand, while lower costs for healthy food would incentivize it.
I am not a “tax our way to success” person, but I would even support a Tax on sugary products that have no nutritional value, like sodas. A tax would help offset the societal costs and dissuade people buying it. It would also reinforce the message that it’s bad for you.
I think with kids, remember the presidential patches for physical fitness? Come up with a way to reward kids for exercising. Kids who can complete some physical fitness task as a high school senior get $1000 credit towards post grad expenses, be it college or trade school. Society wins twice there.

even if you disagree with those solutions, there are tons more out there. We just refuse to address it honestly. Which is something we don’t do with lots of issues today for fear of offending, or losing votes.

 

High Fructose Corn Syrup

 

The commercials on tv drive me crazy. So damn irresponsible, as bad or worse than smoking commercials. I avoid fast foods like the plaque they are.

 

From the article on sugar I posted …

There is no greater example of how junkscience perpetuates long after it’s been scientifically disproven than the myths and fears surrounding sugars, especially the biggest evil of the day: HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP (HFCS). Some people will go to any lengths to scare us into eating and drinking only what they believe best.

 

Man celebrates 50 years of eating a Big Mac every day

It’s not too late to start. It could add years to your life.

 

1. Ill fated decision to replace fats and meats with high carb, higher sugar, highly processed alternatives

2. Urban sprawl/ cars

3. Air conditioning prevalence

4. TVs/cable/streaming

5. Computers / smart phones / social media

6 Most jobs become more sedentary.

 

"I do not dispute that Americans have gotten larger over the years. I merely argue that BMI is useless, as a proxy for health, while pointing out that life expectancy has risen in concert over the decades."

I agree with this. Center for UF under Grossman was 6'2" and weighed 305 lbs (BMI~50 ). When measured for body fat he was 8%. People who put on muscle mass typically increase in BMI and decrease in % fat. There are plenty of NFL athletes with BMI's over 50 who have very low body fat.

 

^ You

There is also a problem with the assumption that “fat” people are hauling around a lot of dead weight. One study had people force-feeding over time *without exercising.* As expected, they increased body fat. But they also increased muscle as well!

 

Fascinating website …


The adipose organ (fat) acts in response to metabolic assault on the body from environmental factors (still poorly understood and largely unstudied) and its ability to do so is health reinforcing. The onset of obesity (not inherited natural weight variations — different thing) and almost the entire scientific literature on obesity in general, confuses correlation with causation.

The size of the adipose organ in its un-assaulted state has a wide range of normal size across our populations. An ‘obese’ person is not automatically walking around with a fat organ that is responding to metabolic assault. Some are, many are not.

And when a fat organ purposefully enlarges beyond the body’s inherited optimal weight set point (which sits on a bell-shaped curve of incidence in our population), then the morbidity and mortality outcomes for the fatter individuals are superior to those of average-weighted individuals dealing with equivalent metabolic assault and resulting disease.

Obesity Science In Context — E D I

Part I: Systematic Review of Weight Gain Correlates In Literature — E D I

Part II: Systematic Review of Weight Gain Correlates In Literature — E D I

 

I like those.

Against subsidies for big sugar also.

 

Corn syrup and corporate profit motivations for food distribution and diet manipulation.

My sister hosted foreign exchange students whom went home for dietary reasons.

 

For me, the only upside of mass-derangement is that most Americans put their hysterical food fears on hold.