Adult Obesity Facts • Hacker News Board

Re: Adult Obesity Facts

#101

Post by maerF0x0 » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 4:50 PM UTC

echelon wrote: post #31

rjbwork wrote: post #2

We've designed our cities, suburbs, food industry, and society such that the average person is at least overweight, nearing obese. If the average person suffers from what should be an anomaly, perhaps it is less a personal failing than a societal failing and we should try to fix the societal problems generating the poor outcome.

People love to rail on suburbs, but I'd be willing to bet that sugar is the real problem. Sugar is in everything. Snacks, restaurant food, drinks, sauces. It puts the metabolism into a bad state and desensitizes the body to its deleterious effects. Before you know it you're overweight, mentally foggy, and pre-diabetic. Not a good place to start working out or going for outdoor activities. People exercise and walk mor…

I follow Layne Norton on youtube, and he has a lot of great videos where he talks about how sugar(nor fat, insulin) are the real issue at hand. He does a great job of reading, and synthesizing lots of research into recommendations. Both for himself as a competition bodybuilder and power lifter, but also as a PhD. Ok, appeal to expertise aside. And yes, many will find him obnoxious in his demeanor, but that's not a rebuttal of his point.

His point basically is that Sugar is not in any way except for how it contributes to excess caloric intake. The key here is that sugar contains calories and can attribute to hyper-caloric state. But you can also eat lots of sugar and be in a hypo-caloric state. Therefore sugar has nothing to do with it. Total consumption is everything here (and body fat percent).

Have a watch of these videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JrT84PeTgw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eq8VObUFsk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3WN4zrEENY

Re: Adult Obesity Facts

#102

Post by CanceledAccount » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 4:50 PM UTC

paulddraper wrote: post #57

rjbwork wrote: post #2

We've designed our cities, suburbs, food industry, and society such that the average person is at least overweight, nearing obese. If the average person suffers from what should be an anomaly, perhaps it is less a personal failing than a societal failing and we should try to fix the societal problems generating the poor outcome.

The problem with "policy solutions" is that they don't account for individual preferences. Do people want walkable cities? Or do they want single-family dwellings and yards? Do people want to be healthy? Or do they want sugary foods and television programs? Fortunately, the U.S. has plenty of each, to accommodate multiple preferences. Life is trade-offs. It's the conceit of policy makers to force their trade-off pref…

Urban design catering almost exclusively to single family detached housing commuting exclusively by cars was not driven by individual preferences. It is the result of intentional choices made by urban planners in the 1950s and onward. Effectively, these lifestyles are highly subsidized. Only today are we seeing market forces and individual preferences take over as oppressive car-centric zoning policies are relaxed and urban cores revitalize.

Average rents indicate that Manhattan is once again the most highly desired place to live in the country, and for good reason.

Re: Adult Obesity Facts

#103

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 4:51 PM UTC

kiba wrote: post #62

rjbwork wrote: post #2

We've designed our cities, suburbs, food industry, and society such that the average person is at least overweight, nearing obese. If the average person suffers from what should be an anomaly, perhaps it is less a personal failing than a societal failing and we should try to fix the societal problems generating the poor outcome.

Yes, exercise is good for you, and should be taken, but diet seems to be the most important factor. Research had came out indicating that exercise doesn't really do much good in losing weight. Might help in maintaining weight.

[deleted]

Re: Adult Obesity Facts

#104

Post by patorjk » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 4:51 PM UTC

yupper32 wrote: post #23

Every time I comment on one of these threads, I mention how most people don't know about the most fundamental component of weight control: Calories-in calories-out. And then I get a mass of people complaining that "it's not that simple! x y and z also impact weight!" I think so much has to do with these two points: 1. Most don't know about CICO. 2. Many who do throw it away as not useful. We should be teaching this i…

I used to believe in that, and I felt my problem was I was eating too much and not moving around enough, however, I recently started a "lazy keto" diet and am currently down 30 pounds (back to a normal BMI - and I didn't even change how much I exercise). I don't watch my calories at all, nor do I starve myself. I just watch my carbs. It's been really eye opening.

There's a lot of talk online about how processed foods are making us fat and I think there's something to that. The CICO model doesn't factor in how our body processes macronutrients. We didn't evolve to eat the diet we're currently eating (ex: sugary drinks). I think there's something to eating a diet that's more in-tune with how the body works.

Re: Adult Obesity Facts

#105

Post by maerF0x0 » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 4:51 PM UTC

op00to wrote: post #48

echelon wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People love to rail on suburbs, but I'd be willing to bet that sugar is the real problem. Sugar is in everything. Snacks, restaurant food, drinks, sauces. It puts the metabolism into a bad state and desensitizes the body to its deleterious effects. Before you know it you're overweight, mentally foggy, and pre-diabetic. Not a good place to start working out or going for outdoor activities. People exercise and walk mor…

Sugar does not “sap your energy away”. Sitting on your ass 23 hours a day does.

Caloric balance is the key. You can lose a lot of weight sitting on your ass, but also not eating all that much (ie calorie deficit)

Re: Adult Obesity Facts

#106

Post by dangwu » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 4:51 PM UTC

maerF0x0 wrote: post #10

> Non-Hispanic Black adults (49.6%) had the highest age-adjusted prevalence of obesity, followed by Hispanic adults (44.8%), non-Hispanic White adults (42.2%) and non-Hispanic Asian adults (17.4%). This made me say "whoa!" How are asian adults so much lower probable obese? Also can we please have a COVID-19 sized response to this issue? > was $147 billion in 2008. And I've heard elsewhere the _economic_ impact is eve…

I'd venture to guess that a key difference is that most Black adults grew up in America while most Asian adults immigrated here, maintaining their previous culture's eating and exercise habits.

Re: Adult Obesity Facts

#107

Post by ptmcc » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 4:51 PM UTC

kiba wrote: post #62

rjbwork wrote: post #2

We've designed our cities, suburbs, food industry, and society such that the average person is at least overweight, nearing obese. If the average person suffers from what should be an anomaly, perhaps it is less a personal failing than a societal failing and we should try to fix the societal problems generating the poor outcome.

Yes, exercise is good for you, and should be taken, but diet seems to be the most important factor. Research had came out indicating that exercise doesn't really do much good in losing weight. Might help in maintaining weight.

Indeed it's a heck of a lot easier to not eat 500 calories than to burn off 500 calories.

Running a 5k doesn't even burn 500 calories for most people, but you can eat that much in snacks without a second thought. To really make a difference in weight the much more important side of the equation is intake.

Re: Adult Obesity Facts

#108

Post by foolfoolz » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 4:51 PM UTC

avelis wrote: post #22

One major contributor to growing obesity is the US diet. It is terrible IMO. I believe we need massive corporate responsibility to solving this issue. Without some form of intervention we are going to see rising costs to our healthcare system to sustain high levels of obesity among the populous.

we now have requirements in most places that nutrition must be on the label or accessible. this hasn’t slowed down the obesity rates.

people don’t care what they’re eating and don’t try to figure it out. this is a personal responsibility and it’s cultural, not universal. from this link not every demographic has the same obesity rates

Re: Adult Obesity Facts

#109

Post by nradov » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 4:51 PM UTC

rjbwork wrote: post #2

We've designed our cities, suburbs, food industry, and society such that the average person is at least overweight, nearing obese. If the average person suffers from what should be an anomaly, perhaps it is less a personal failing than a societal failing and we should try to fix the societal problems generating the poor outcome.

My pet hypothesis is that widespread use of endocrine disruptor chemicals such as phthalates (plastic softeners) is one of several key causes for increasing obesity. There isn't real proof of that yet. But exposure is correlated with lower testosterone levels, and we know that low T can cause growth of adipose tissue.

https://www.endocrine.org/news-and-advocacy/news-room/2014/r...

Re: Adult Obesity Facts

#110

Post by maerF0x0 » Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 4:52 PM UTC

CabSauce wrote: post #65

maerF0x0 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO we dont need more late (consumer) applied taxes, first we need to remove the negative taxes (subsidies) from the input.

That's a great start. However, any tax/subsidy filters down to the consumer in a roughly efficient market.

Sure, but a subsidy + tax in the chain is itself inefficient way to structure a market (ie takes a lot of software and accountants) . Better to just not do it at all.