Obesity is the result of poor diets, poor or no exercise regimen, and most importantly lack of education about nutrition.
^^ And, in many cases, a lack of discipline. I’m not letting everyone off the hook that easily. I think it is not the topic for this thread, but there are many people, including a number of folks who post on CC, who have had the discipline to lose a LOT of weight and totally change their diet and exercise habits.
^^^^yup, and I still battle with things like polycystic ovarian syndrome, metabolic syndrome and medications that cause weight gain, despite all the hard work in losing a lot of weight.
" No policy you come up with for weight loss will be better than what the biggest losers did: "
The Biggest Loser has and continues to be one of the most scientifically unsound and unsafe ways to lose weight and provide a paradigm for future weight, fitness and nutrition management. It has nothing to do with sustainable lifestyle changes and everything to do with ratings. I wouldn’t look to The Biggest Loser as anything but another way for “Reality TV” to sensationally exploit desperate people for profits and cater to the voyeuristic elements of our society. Addressing problems of obesity is a complex process involving physiological, behavioral, often medical and at times socio-economic issues. Some of the components of addressing obesity are fairly straightforward; others are more complicated. Some involve things within the immediate control of a person, some are not. What works depends on the individual and their particular circumstances. .
Ok, so ACA (or something) should include federal funding for K-12 to teach cooking&nutrition, prioritizing Title I schools but including all schools so that all children are positively affected. After all, some states mandate physical education and health every year through K-8, why not mandate one hour a week with culinary arts and home economics as part of that mandate? Green beans bolognese instead of spaghetti bolognese, grated carrots with feta cheese… are pretty easy to make. Also, children like sliced fruit better than whole fruit and could get that as an automatic snack. Forbid schools from cancelling recess and add recess times to middle school to promote eercise.
It wouldn’t help currently obese people though - have incentives been created to go from obese to overweight BTW? The goal doesn’t have to be “thin” - who cares about “thin”? (I also have a problem with some actresses in TV shows, including for kids and teens, who look skeletal to me).
All of this, though, falls under “how to make ACA better” not “let’s get rid of it”.
I’m hearing, above, that if ACA provided decent policies and/or good value, people wouldn’t be against it from an ideological point of view.
We also have to change the American style restaurant food serving portions, the huge amount of fried fast food consumed, plus the crazy amount of sweets and empty calories and high carb snacks people consume throughout the day. Add to that a sedentary lifestyle. Voila! Look at pictures of people from 40 or 50 years ago, there were not many people like today with the obesity problems see everywhere. In my recent vacation to Iceland and Denmark, I did not see one obese Icelander or Dane. It’s only here that I see it.
When you go overseas, the easiest way to tell if someone is American is being overweight and having good teeth.
Overweight or obese is actually a bit simplistic. What’s important is metabolic fitness. I see people out walking everyday, hiking intensely difficult trails, who have a bit of a gut. But they are doing very vigorous activity. All it takes to be fit is about 30 minutes of walking five days a week. Not that hard to do.
Don’t have to go back that far…
http://stateofobesity.org/adult-obesity/ shows the trend of increasing obesity from 1990-2015.
CO 6.9% → 20.2% (least obese in 1990 and 2015)
MS 15.0% → 35.3% (most obese in 1990)
LA 12.3% → 36.2% (most obese in 2015)
You couldn’t. The math wouldn’t possibly work. You might be able to get a 5% decrease in your premium by upping the deductible to $10K.
There is no free lunch.
So what? That tells us nothing about how difficult it is to lose weight, once obese. We need to figure out ways to prevent our young people from becoming obese, because once a person is obese, there is, to a first approximation, no way back.
@“Cardinal Fang” That is what I’m saying. Look at the eating patterns from that time and compare to today, also the amount of time people did activities outdoors compare to today. The amont of walking, etc.
For sure, @NoVADad99. We have to go away from “discipline” (because nobody has it) and look to structural problems that cause obesity.
One interesting result about will power is that, it turns out, it’s a finite resource that gets used up. Let’s consider a poor single mom. During a typical day, she has to get up to go to work even though she’s exhausted. She has to resist the temptation to buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks, because she can’t afford it. She has to resist her children’s plea for this or that toy, because she can’t afford it. She has to resist the temptation to tell off her boss when he paws her, because she needs her job. In her difficult situation, she has to use up her willpower resisting temptations, and then at the end of the day, she might just not be able to resist the temptation to give in and take the kids to McDonalds.
I don’t have any more willpower than she does, but I don’t have to use it all up during the day. I don’t have to be exhausted-- I can hire help. If I want coffee at Starbucks, I’ll buy it. If my son (when he was young) really wanted a toy, he’d get it in a lot of cases. I could afford to quit my job and get a new one if my working conditions were intolerable. I have willpower left over to resist food (sometimes) because I don’t have to use it all up on other things.
Decades ago, kids walked or bicycled to school, and then walked or bicycled to each others’ houses to play outside.
Now, kids are driven everywhere by overprotective helicopter parents, who may not let them play on their own.
Just stand in a Starbucks for 15 minutes and watch all the Frappuchino’s that they sell to the young 'ens. (And I’m a big fan of Frapps.)
Not according to the CDC:
So yeah, a lot/most? of it is simple math: calories in vs. calories expended.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db50.htm
fwiw: I grew up in the projects, and we were so poor that excess food consumption was never an issue. Indeed, just the opposite.
We can debate this until the cows come home, especially the calories in calories out myth, but this is not the subject of the thread.
This. Regardless of all the discussion about metabolism, willpower, stress, etc, it still comes down to calories in vs calories burned. People do have control over what they put into their mouth, and people without serious health problems can control how much they exercise.
Before I sign off this discussion, I want to point out that calories in/calories out is a gross oversimplification. Yes, at some point too much of the right thing is too much, but human bodies do not burn food like furnaces. A piece of fruit turned into juice has a different metabolic effect than said fruit eaten whole… And much, much, much more.
Given that the majority could not answer even these simple questions,
http://www.pcrm.org/health/reports/survey-americans-lack-basic-nutrition-info
I am not surprised the calories in/calories out myth lives on.
So, how do we educate the masses to make them healthier?
Sure, depending upon how the food is processed may impact how much energy is extracted from the food. But the basic equation remains. If you exercise more than your body takes in, you will lose weight. There is no getting around this.