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Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds

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Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds

#201

Post by kelnos »

stouset wrote: post #183
Delphiza wrote: post #32

Unsurprisingly, the title is sensationalist and not representative of the study. The study compares energy expenditure across different economic groups i.e. western people sitting in offices versus hunter-gatherers in Africa, and found that difference in energy expenditure does not account for differences in obesity, so points to consumption as the likely reason. The sample dataset explicitly excluded 'athletes', so…

> anyone who has done extensive 'athletic' physical activity knows that if you don't up your calorie intake that you will lose weight. Anyone who has done extensive athletic physical activity knows that you will up your calorie intake unless you take explicit and intentional effort not to.

This doesn't even require you to be an athlete, or do extensive physical activity. Add even a half-hour jog three days a week to your otherwise-mostly-sedentary routine and you'll tend to engage in "compensatory eating" even if you don't realize it.

This is why exercise alone often doesn't cause you to lose weight, or at least not as much as you'd expect given the extra calories you're burning: you're probably eating more (or the same amount, but foods with higher calorie density) than you were before, even if you didn't consciously choose to do so.

Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds

#202

Post by anonymousDan »

thewebguyd wrote: post #189
diath wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first problem with people unable to lose weight is simply not counting calories and trying to "switch to healthier food and eyeball it". You have to have a kitchen scale and measure portions. Track every meal in an app. It's annoying at first, but once you get in the habit, it's just part of preparing the meal. When you do that, you will be able to tell which meals in your diet are high calorie (which, some are s…

Yep. It's almost always either not tracking or not being honest with tracking. It's possible to overeat anything - whether a food is "healthy" or not, while important, isn't what matters for weight loss. Burning more calories than you consume is what is important for weight loss. Where I see folks, particularly men, fail most often is in their mid-late thirties. Sedentary lifestyle, wants to lose the "dad bod." Someo…

Any good resources you recommend on this? Speaking as an early forties Dad :)

Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds

#203

Post by tmvphil »

tonymet wrote: post #155

For most people, a 1 hour moderate run is only about 1-2 cookies worth (and only half a Crumbl cookie). Even a marathon run might only burn 2000 calories . a chipotle burrito is 1600 . In other words, for 95% of people doing activity, they shouldn't eat any surplus if their goal is to maintain or lose weight. It's actually best to do most of your activity undernourished, as it helps develop true intuitive nutrition f…

I don't think a chipotle burrito is actually 1600 calories unless you do something non-standard. Probably 800-1100

Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds

#204

Post by 0xbadcafebee »

In other news: a group of scientists announced today the results of their recent study, where they conclude that drowning is not caused by a lack of swimming, but instead seems to be due to water. Other scientists have refuted the claim and point out defects in the study criteria. In response, US officials have pulled funding from the National Science Foundation for any further studies into the causes of drowning, calling any claim of drowning that doesn't end with the sentence "the will of God" as unpatriotic.

Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds

#205

Post by LorenPechtel »

milesvp wrote: post #144
swat535 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The sample dataset explicitly excluded 'athletes', so would exclude people that _are_ outrunning a bad diet. You can't outrun a bad diet. This is such a myth and I have no idea where it's coming from. Perhaps it's a nice lie one can tell himself to continue eating junk and not feel guilty about it. Athletes, especially body builders require a lot of calories but their diet is surprisingly healthy. They eat plenty o…

I once worked a night shift stocking job just after college. I was in phenomenal shape without hitting the gym. I was at my lowest weight with a ton of lean muscle as a result of moving heavy loads and stocking paint every night. I also did the math at one point, and given the size of the warehouse I was probably walking quickly 8 miles during my shift. It became a chore to eat enough calories every day. Somewhere ar…

Yup, we have a limit in our ability to take in and metabolize calories, although it is somewhat flexible in that if you do it enough you'll get better at it. Look at the people who do the long thru-hikes. Stuff like the Appalachian Trail (Georgia to the highest point in Maine), PCT or CDT (both run from the Mexican border to the Canadian border). They will hit saturation on the ability to take in calories, although enough time out there can increase the ability to metabolize fat (very useful in that it has about 2x the calories per pound of other food)

But you are right that it's very definitely about the balance.

Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds

#206

Post by kelnos »

nluken wrote: post #122
swat535 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The sample dataset explicitly excluded 'athletes', so would exclude people that _are_ outrunning a bad diet. You can't outrun a bad diet. This is such a myth and I have no idea where it's coming from. Perhaps it's a nice lie one can tell himself to continue eating junk and not feel guilty about it. Athletes, especially body builders require a lot of calories but their diet is surprisingly healthy. They eat plenty o…

I would say that in practice 99% of people can't outrun a bad diet, but not because of any sort of physiological reason. You simply need to train so much that most people won't ever approach the level of running/cycling/lifting they would need to do so. If you're training like an elite athlete (for me and my at the time roommate that was running 85, or in his case, 100+ miles a week with a few lift sessions) you can,…

Right, and that's fine. A saying that's true for 99% of people is a perfectly good saying. In the vast, vast majority of cases, "you can't outrun a bad diet" is completely true.

Your time running 85 miles a week is so outside the norm that your experience isn't even worth mentioning when evaluating that saying.

Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds

#207

Post by quesera »

naikrovek wrote: post #62
palmfacehn wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can confirm the same from my messenger days. On days when deliveries were sparse, we found ourselves moving from cafe to bakery, eating more pastries than a doctor would recommend. Regardless of the day's activity levels we would generally drink large amounts of beer after work and sometimes during. Maintaining weight and satisfying our appetites was always a more pressing concern. I'm not a dietician, but when I r…

what is "processed" versus "highly processed" versus "ultra processed"? the way these things are described feels very much like people are using a dowsing rod to find where to dig a well, or something. mumbo-jumbo. I'm sure even "super ultra giga processed" foods are fine for you so long as you don't eat a lot of them. I'm not even sure that "processed" is bad at all. I don't want to eat raw cashews, I'll die (as wil…

> i immediately distrust anyone that starts mentioning "processed" or "highly processed" or "ultra processed" because I don't think those are defined. I think they're speaking entirely on vibes which are not quantitative.

Don't be afraid to use the web to dispel your confusion!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-processed_foods

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_classification

Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds

#208

Post by kelnos »

3acctforcom wrote: post #121
swat535 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The sample dataset explicitly excluded 'athletes', so would exclude people that _are_ outrunning a bad diet. You can't outrun a bad diet. This is such a myth and I have no idea where it's coming from. Perhaps it's a nice lie one can tell himself to continue eating junk and not feel guilty about it. Athletes, especially body builders require a lot of calories but their diet is surprisingly healthy. They eat plenty o…

I've lost 100 lbs twice. You absolutely can outrun a bad diet lol. It's just a LOT of exercise and counting all of your calories. A 1600 calorie bag of chips is 4 hours of cardio :)

So you didn't outrun a bad diet. You counted calories and matched your diet to your exercise (or vice versa) to get the weight outcome you wanted.

I think some here are narrowly interpreting "bad diet" to mean "lots of junk food". While yes, that's not a great diet, what's really meant is a diet where calorie intake regularly exceeds expenditure, regardless of what you're eating.

Even if you eat only the healthiest of foods, if your intake is too much for what you're burning, that's still a "bad diet".

Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds

#209

Post by quesera »

pqtyw wrote: post #190
rufus_foreman wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chicken McNuggets Ingredients: Boneless skinless chicken breast, Water, Liquid vegetable oil shortening (canola oil, corn oil, hydrogenated soybean oil), Wheat flour, Yellow corn flour, Modified corn starch, Rice starch, Salt, Seasoning (wheat starch, yeast extract, salt, natural flavour), Spices, Baking powder, Sodium aluminum phosphate, Canola oil, Baking soda, Sugars (dextrose), Wheat starch, Corn starch. Cooked i…

Yes but the macros are more or less comparable? It's chicken breast with extra saturated fat and stuff.

This is precisely the point of the article.

Macronutrient profiles are, apparently, not the relevant axis of differentiation.

Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds

#210

Post by 0xbadcafebee »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #50
71153750 wrote: post #45

This reminds a little of Usain Bolt famously having chicken nuggets before his final at the Beijing Olympics. Although hardly indicative of a bad diet that he may or may not have had. I think as well there is some difficulty with variability between people that isn't clear or maybe doesn't matter at scale. The article linked study was across 43 nations with 4213 adults. Yet there may still be individuals who can argu…

The chicken nugget thing is to avoid food poisoning though, right? It's because McDonald's food logistics results in hyper-consistent food irrespective of where you're at in the world and the last thing an Olympic competitor wants is to risk getting food poisoning from eating foreign food. I don't think Usain eats chicken nuggets on the reg.

A Snickers bar might have been better strategically. Safe to eat and lots of energy.
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