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Study: people who eat and exercise the same as people 20 years ago are fatter

theatlantic.com

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Re: Study: people who eat and exercise the same as people 20 years ago are fatter

#11

Post by jfoutz »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #6
zacwest wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article you're writing a comment to: > A given person, in 2006, eating the same amount of calories, taking in the same quantities of macronutrients like protein and fat, and exercising the same amount as a person of the same age did in 1988 would have a BMI that was about 2.3 points higher.

Its strange really. I'm on a ketogenic diet, and hear people preach the caloric balance constantly, that it doesn't matter what my macros are as long as I consume less calories than I burn daily. Yet, I consume close to my previous garbage diet calories and I lose about 2-3lbs/week due to my high fat/moderate protein/very low carb ( Go figure, it appears that caloric energy balance isn't the only factor.

It's an absolute limit. Perhaps there are specific modes that are a a few percent more or less efficient. Nonetheless, you eat less than you burn, you lose weight.

Re: Study: people who eat and exercise the same as people 20 years ago are fatter

#12

Post by com2kid »

personjerry wrote: post #4

Weight gain is simple: calorie intake - calorie expenditure. The amount of calories in our food tends to go up over 20 years. Doing the same activities consumes the same amount of calories after 20 years. Thus we would have more caloric surplus, and likely gain more weight than people 20 years ago with less caloric food. Pretty simple imo.

There is a type of seaweed that if your average American eats it, there are zero calories absorbed.

If most Japanese citizens eat it, they will absorb calories from it.

There is a gut bacteria common in the Japanese population that extracts calories from this type of seaweed.

"calories in" is that calories that went down your throat. It is calories that your body was able to digest, and "your body" includes many types of bacteria that are unique to each person and also unique to different population groups (meaning that some populations share commonalities in gut flora).

It is possible that certain antibiotics have wipe out some types of gut flora, allowing others to proliferate more. That alone could increase calorie absorption. (Or cause a host of other problems!)

It is possible that having a diet too heavily reliant upon one type of food results in an imbalance of some type. The problem is, this is a brand new area of research and we just don't know yet.

But it is sure as heck known that it is more complicated than "calories in food down the throat".

Re: Study: people who eat and exercise the same as people 20 years ago are fatter

#13

Post by tdylan »

hspak wrote: post #7
personjerry wrote: post #4

Weight gain is simple: calorie intake - calorie expenditure. The amount of calories in our food tends to go up over 20 years. Doing the same activities consumes the same amount of calories after 20 years. Thus we would have more caloric surplus, and likely gain more weight than people 20 years ago with less caloric food. Pretty simple imo.

I'd recommend reading Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. He explains how this is not really the case. It was written back in 2007; I'm sure there's more research out there to prove this point.

From what I've seen Garrys hypothesis was proven wrong by Alan Aragon.

Re: Study: people who eat and exercise the same as people 20 years ago are fatter

#15

Post by tdylan »

zacwest wrote: post #5
personjerry wrote: post #4

Weight gain is simple: calorie intake - calorie expenditure. The amount of calories in our food tends to go up over 20 years. Doing the same activities consumes the same amount of calories after 20 years. Thus we would have more caloric surplus, and likely gain more weight than people 20 years ago with less caloric food. Pretty simple imo.

From the article you're writing a comment to: > A given person, in 2006, eating the same amount of calories, taking in the same quantities of macronutrients like protein and fat, and exercising the same amount as a person of the same age did in 1988 would have a BMI that was about 2.3 points higher.

They didn't control the energy expenditure to any meaningful degree. Essentially worthless.

Re: Study: people who eat and exercise the same as people 20 years ago are fatter

#16

Post by xiaoma »

> A given person, in 2006, eating the same amount of calories, taking in the same quantities of macronutrients like protein and fat, and exercising the same amount as a person of the same age did in 1988 would have a BMI that was about 2.3 points higher.

I think the recent obsession with macronutrients is a big part of the problem. I'm not sure if the macronutrient ratio I eat has changed much from when I was growing up with my grandmother's cooking, with the exception of three failed experiments with low carb diets and a couple of other small experiments.

The thing is that in the 80s, as a kid, I was more likely to be eating traditional American staples, like corn flakes or oatmeal and a banana for breakfast, and a typical meal would include meat, potatoes and a green vegetable. I drank some soda, but also about a quart of milk a day.

Now I tend to eat out 9 times a week instead of 2 and I eat a lot more processed food unless I make a concerted effort not to. I avoid soda for the most part, but on the whole there's a lot more stuff in my diet that my great-grandparents wouldn't have recognized as food. I don't remember the last time I drank milk.

Surely eating home baked bread or a piece of fruit isn't the same as eating a snack bar, eating meat isn't the same as drinking muscle milk, and fatty fish doesn't equate to pork rinds, etc. Macronutrient ratios just don't tell the whole story or even most of it.

Re: Study: people who eat and exercise the same as people 20 years ago are fatter

#17

Post by com2kid »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #6
zacwest wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article you're writing a comment to: > A given person, in 2006, eating the same amount of calories, taking in the same quantities of macronutrients like protein and fat, and exercising the same amount as a person of the same age did in 1988 would have a BMI that was about 2.3 points higher.

Its strange really. I'm on a ketogenic diet, and hear people preach the caloric balance constantly, that it doesn't matter what my macros are as long as I consume less calories than I burn daily. Yet, I consume close to my previous garbage diet calories and I lose about 2-3lbs/week due to my high fat/moderate protein/very low carb ( Go figure, it appears that caloric energy balance isn't the only factor.

From someone who's been doing keto for several years now.

A: Pre-Keto, odds are you we underestimating how many calories you were eating. Unless you were tracking every single thing you ate, there is a high probability you just didn't realize how many calories you were consuming.

B: It is super hard to over eat on Keto. It is possible, take lots of liquid calories in (heavy cream can do this easily!), and there are some other real screw ups, but eating 3000 calories of steak is pretty damn hard.

C: What you are reporting is common for people who have a lot of weight to lose. At some point it becomes a lot harder, at first you just have to sort of watch things, then you eventually do have to count calories. (Especially if you want a six pack, holy crap do you have to count calories!)

Re: Study: people who eat and exercise the same as people 20 years ago are fatter

#18

Post by tdylan »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #6
zacwest wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article you're writing a comment to: > A given person, in 2006, eating the same amount of calories, taking in the same quantities of macronutrients like protein and fat, and exercising the same amount as a person of the same age did in 1988 would have a BMI that was about 2.3 points higher.

Its strange really. I'm on a ketogenic diet, and hear people preach the caloric balance constantly, that it doesn't matter what my macros are as long as I consume less calories than I burn daily. Yet, I consume close to my previous garbage diet calories and I lose about 2-3lbs/week due to my high fat/moderate protein/very low carb ( Go figure, it appears that caloric energy balance isn't the only factor.

From your comment it appears you weren't tracking avurately before, "close to". If you track energy expenditure as well as precise caloric intake you'll lose the same quantity of mass, give or take a few percent.

Re: Study: people who eat and exercise the same as people 20 years ago are fatter

#19

Post by billjings »

personjerry wrote: post #4

Weight gain is simple: calorie intake - calorie expenditure. The amount of calories in our food tends to go up over 20 years. Doing the same activities consumes the same amount of calories after 20 years. Thus we would have more caloric surplus, and likely gain more weight than people 20 years ago with less caloric food. Pretty simple imo.

Right, but physiology, psychology, and even sociology can all influence both calorie intake and expenditure. Send a kid to football camp, and they'll eat more and spend more calories.

So: hard problem. Not strictly a technical problem, either.

Re: Study: people who eat and exercise the same as people 20 years ago are fatter

#20

Post by im3w1l »

jfoutz wrote: post #11
toomuchtodo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its strange really. I'm on a ketogenic diet, and hear people preach the caloric balance constantly, that it doesn't matter what my macros are as long as I consume less calories than I burn daily. Yet, I consume close to my previous garbage diet calories and I lose about 2-3lbs/week due to my high fat/moderate protein/very low carb ( Go figure, it appears that caloric energy balance isn't the only factor.

It's an absolute limit. Perhaps there are specific modes that are a a few percent more or less efficient. Nonetheless, you eat less than you burn, you lose weight.

Him burning it is not the only possibility. Maybe he is shitting it out? Maybe bacteria in his body are burning it for him?
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