Earlier quoted context omitted.
"It is not just about eating more calories than needed for a long time." Yes it is. It really is as simple as that, people just don't want to hear it. Historically food was scarce that it was nearly impossible to sustain a calorie surplus long enough to get fat. But some people did, that is why the rich used to be called "fat cats" but now calories are so cheap and delicious and lifestyles are so sedentary that it is…
>Yes it is. It really is as simple as that, people just don't want to hear it. Historically food was scarce that it was nearly impossible to sustain a calorie surplus long enough to get fat. But some people did, that is why the rich used to be called "fat cats" but now calories are so cheap and delicious and lifestyles are so sedentary that it is very easy for almost anyone to sustain the caloric surplus needed to be…
But a reader questions the methodology of the researchers: “My main concern is that the calories are almost assuredly self-reported, which is notoriously unreliable.” Another reader agrees:
In the 1980s, we weren’t walking around with a computer in our pockets to look up accurate calorie counts for everything that allowed us to store an accurate list of everything we’ve eaten and compute the calories based on that database. It was 100% self-reporting and calorie lookups “from memory” or done manually (complete with calculations) long after the fact. So the reports based on that old data might be suspect.
The study authors addressed that point somewhat:
Whether self-reported dietary intake accurately reflects an individual’s true dietary intake has been questioned. Indeed, doubly-labelled water studies typically show that individuals underreport their energy intake, and that the magnitude of the underreporting may be larger in people who are obese.