Obese blamed for the world's ills

Baloney! What REALLY contributes to the World's ills is the tobacco drug! This weapon of mass destruction kills 5,000,000 addicts and hundreds of thousands of innocent people (who breathed toxic tobacco smoke).

90% of criminals are smokers/ex-smokers. 90% of alcoholics are smokers/ex-smokers. 90% of suicides are smokers/ex-smokers. Gee, could there just, maybe, be a PATTERN here! Obese people don't kill innocent people, unless the really heavy ones sit on them. Tobacco smoke is the mother of all chemical weapons. Ban smoking and then ban tobacco. THEN, worry about obese people, for cripe's sakes!

I am fascinated by the quoted statistics for calories consumed by the obese: "obese people require 1,680 daily calories to sustain normal energy and another 1,280 to maintain daily activities". I am most certainly one those obese people (69.25 inches tall, 46 inch waist, 45 inch chest, 228 pounds) who is causing all the problems in this world.

I find that anytime I consume more than 1,500 calories a day I start to gain more weight and, when I was put on a stringent heart diet 28 years ago by my doctors because of high blood pressure I discovered that on their 1,000 to 1,200 calories a WEEK diet combined with 3 hours of high speed walking a day I was able to lose 5 pounds a month.

When I was young and alive (70.75 inches tall, 30 inch waist, 43 inch chest, 170 to 180 pounds) I would lose weight anytime my caloric consumption dropped below 5,000 calories a day and I normally consumed in excess of 6,000 calories daily.

What else? Oh yes, my current over consumption of fossil fuel. When I was young I drove an average of 2,500 miles a week. Now that I am old I drive approximately 2,500 miles a year. As proof of the latter statement may I submit the odometer reading of my 2005 Honda Accord Hybrid (the only vehicle I have been driving): 5,220.6 miles in 29 months.

To summarize:

Young & in terrific shape: weight of 170 to 180 pounds, 5,000 to 6,000 calories a day and drive 2,500 miles a month.

Old & obese: weight of 222 to 250 pounds, 1,100 to 1,600 calories a day and drive 2,500 miles a year.

Yep, I am definitely one of those fatties who are causing the world crises in food & fuel.

Dr Sausage wrote:

Makes sense. Fat people eat more. And their eating all our food. Case closed.

You are an ignorant fool.
Most all obese people eat way less than their counterparts. I know people with zero% bodyfat who eat 3 times as much as I do.
This report is a load of CRAP...and so are those like you who believe it.

Sandston Homeowner wrote:

"So smart they're stupid"
<quoted text>

the ONLY thing they're smart about is ... getting grant money.

Dr Sausage wrote:

Makes sense. Fat people eat more. And their eating all our food. Case closed.

Possibly. Of course maybe it's all the stupid people such as yourself using up all the good air.

Dr Sausage wrote:

Makes sense. Fat people eat more. And their eating all our food. Case closed.

I think is is the bodies inabilty to break down fat.

Experts? "Fat" Heads!! All of them!!

The obese can thank the survival of their ancestors in times of famine for their extra pounds and their appetites that exceed their needs. The more lean times your ancestors were forced to contend with, the more likely you are to be prone to obesity. This is clearly shown in ethnic groups that adapted to severe conditions,(like the Native Hawaiians, Pima Native Americans and African Americans) over many generations, only to suffer the obesity and illness of plenty in the modern developed world.

It is certain that the obese of the developed world do have an impact on energy consumption. The added weight to any method of travel that requires fossil fuel absolutely cannot violate the basic laws of physics that require more energy to move more mass. The airlines can show the numbers. They are undeniable.

It is NOT true that basic consumption of food differs much between normal-weight and obese people. Except for the "super-obese" who have psychological as well as physiological and biochemical abnormalities that cause their extreme obesity, the overweight generally do not consume many more calories than normal-weight people. The difference is in inherited metabolic use of what is consumed and regulation of body-fat, appetite, and energy expenditure.

Only the superabundance of high-carbohydrate food and the sedentary, even immobile lives of so many people in the developed world has caused the "obesity epidemic". It cannot be emphasized enough that it is utterly and completely against the vital, genetically hard-wired survival-oriented heritage of hundreds of generations of progenitors to expend energy for the sake of expending energy (exercise) and consistently NOT eat when hungry or when food is available.

An enormous tax on junk food, the ever-rising cost of transportation may be what it takes to save people in the developed world from their survival-genes.

The only food shortage in the world is the diminishing amount of fresh fruit, vegetables and whole grains.What most of us consume other than these items along with some meat and fish is not really "food". It is empty calories disguised as food. It is the production of over processed food products that causes more of the world's ills. Lay the blame at the feet of the over packaged, micro- wavable, over sugared nutrient free junk that is passed off as food and whose production and packaging fills up the landfills and uses so much gas to transport to a convenient retail location near you. Most people could eat all the fruits, veggies, and grains they wanted and probably not become obese. But we have a distorted idea of what food is. Read a book called "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan who also wrote "Omnivore's Dilemma". It is an eye opener. I'm not saying I do all the right things, but I do know the difference between what is "feeding" my body and what is just an indulgence.

been there9 wrote:

The only food shortage in the world is the diminishing amount of fresh fruit, vegetables and whole grains.What most of us consume other than these items along with some meat and fish is not really "food". It is empty calories disguised as food. It is the production of over processed food products that causes more of the world's ills. Lay the blame at the feet of the over packaged, micro- wavable, over sugared nutrient free junk that is passed off as food and whose production and packaging fills up the landfills and uses so much gas to transport to a convenient retail location near you. Most people could eat all the fruits, veggies, and grains they wanted and probably not become obese. But we have a distorted idea of what food is. Read a book called "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan who also wrote "Omnivore's Dilemma". It is an eye opener. I'm not saying I do all the right things, but I do know the difference between what is "feeding" my body and what is just an indulgence.

You are repeating the "gospel" of the last 25 years that ran concurrently with the obesity epidemic. Some people really can follow the chapter-and-verse low-fat, high-fiber, "healthy" whole-grain, fruit-and-fresh-veggie diet and be normal weight and just fine. The trouble is that there are so, so many people, particularly weight-prone women who cannot follow this eating regimen. They want to, they are aware of the consequences of diabetes and hate being overweight. But...they don't or won't or can't and it doesn't make much difference which it is.

Nutritionists and diet counselors hate it, but the careful, objective studies that follow real-live weight-prone diabetic and pre-diabetic women consistently show that carbohydrate, even those revered "complex" carbohydrates, are what the body prefers to turn into triglyceride. And, triglyceride is what the body makes into fat and BAD cholesterol. Worse, the more weight-prone one is, the more easily and quickly your metabolism turns even a mouthful of "healthy" whole-grain oatmeal into good ol' glucose, which provokes the same insulin surge that a candy bar does.

Not all metabolisms are made equal. Sad to say. I have become dismayed at this near-religious desire to believe that some sort of magical cure for obesity and all associated pathologies are to be found in this "whole grain, fresh fruits and veggies" gospel. They are good foods. Sugar, flour, potatoes, rice, beans, corn, cooked peas, carrots ,etc are THE DEVIL, but weight prone people, women in particular, need to minimize carbohydrate no matter what the source-far more than fat and protein.

just had lunch wrote:

the experts, huh?
the same experts that told us in 1970 the oceans would be lifeless by 1995?
the same experts that told us in 1975 a new ice age was begining?
the same experts that told us in 1976 gold would NEVER reach $250 an ounce?(it was $800 within 8 weeks)
the same experts that told us we would have 15 hurricanes in 2006 & 2007?(we had 0)...
those experts?

your fat huh

Old enough to know better wrote:

Get a life. Large people don't have enough problems. How sad somone came up with this!

no one is born fat. you did it to yopur self.

Ron wrote:

Baloney! What REALLY contributes to the World's ills is the tobacco drug! This weapon of mass destruction kills 5,000,000 addicts and hundreds of thousands of innocent people (who breathed toxic tobacco smoke).
90% of criminals are smokers/ex-smokers. 90% of alcoholics are smokers/ex-smokers. 90% of suicides are smokers/ex-smokers. Gee, could there just, maybe, be a PATTERN here! Obese people don't kill innocent people, unless the really heavy ones sit on them. Tobacco smoke is the mother of all chemical weapons. Ban smoking and then ban tobacco. THEN, worry about obese people, for cripe's sakes!

good to many people on earth already. like 5000 kids under 5 starv to death every day

LWsciencejunkie wrote:

<quoted text>
You are repeating the "gospel" of the last 25 years that ran concurrently with the obesity epidemic. Some people really can follow the chapter-and-verse low-fat, high-fiber, "healthy" whole-grain, fruit-and-fresh-veggie diet and be normal weight and just fine. The trouble is that there are so, so many people, particularly weight-prone women who cannot follow this eating regimen. They want to, they are aware of the consequences of diabetes and hate being overweight. But...they don't or won't or can't and it doesn't make much difference which it is.
Nutritionists and diet counselors hate it, but the careful, objective studies that follow real-live weight-prone diabetic and pre-diabetic women consistently show that carbohydrate, even those revered "complex" carbohydrates, are what the body prefers to turn into triglyceride. And, triglyceride is what the body makes into fat and BAD cholesterol. Worse, the more weight-prone one is, the more easily and quickly your metabolism turns even a mouthful of "healthy" whole-grain oatmeal into good ol' glucose, which provokes the same insulin surge that a candy bar does.
Not all metabolisms are made equal. Sad to say. I have become dismayed at this near-religious desire to believe that some sort of magical cure for obesity and all associated pathologies are to be found in this "whole grain, fresh fruits and veggies" gospel. They are good foods. Sugar, flour, potatoes, rice, beans, corn, cooked peas, carrots ,etc are THE DEVIL, but weight prone people, women in particular, need to minimize carbohydrate no matter what the source-far more than fat and protein.

What bull, then why are there so many fat people today when there was so few just one generation ago.
It is not that people eat to much(a few do) but that people do to little.
Simple if you don't want a fat ass get of it.

Jammercolo wrote:

<quoted text>
What bull, then why are there so many fat people today when there was so few just one generation ago.
It is not that people eat to much(a few do) but that people do to little.
Simple if you don't want a fat ass get of it.

I've never had a weight problem, thank you very much!

Inactivity turns out to be more of a factor in overweight kids and men than post-puberty females. There are lots and lots of calorie-cutting, exercising women that only manage to reduce to a certain (still fat) point. The difference seems to be in how weight-prone women metabolize carbohydrate. Men can generally tolerate more carbohydrate. The thing about obesity is that it spirals. We can make more fat cells as we fill existing ones to capacity, but we don't lose any. Abdominal fat is hormonally active, and promotes weight gain by causing insulin resistance. Estrogens are secreted by belly fat- and that is part of why belly fat is associated with cancer. Belly fat in men is feminizing- "man-boobs- on the superobese isn't just about fat storage.
There is now solid evidence that the obese have genetic markers that code for differences in how their appetite/satiety is regulated by the hormones ghrelin/leptin. On another thread we have been discussing how simply working the night shift causes obesity.
Last thought; you are, at the most basic level 100% correct. Without question if an obese person were given just enough nutrition to function and replace lost tissue/maintain immune system and forced to, say exercise for a couple of hours every day, that person WOULD lose weight. Lots and lots of people have done just that- some have lost more than 100 pounds several times during their lifetimes only to regain it. For those who have inherited every gene that saved their ancestors from death during lean times, the day-to-day, hour-by-hour discipline required for the entire lifetime...is just too much.
The entire incredibly complicated tangle of all of the genetic and social

Topix lost part of my post...but it was long enough anyway!

More fat people because of soda, junk food and ass-sitting in front of TV/'puter-gaming just made it all worse. The low-fat/complex carbohydrate emphasis on reducing diets for the chronically overweight, particularly women, also have been to blame.

Made sense to me!

Well let's devide and conquer. We've picked on smokers, so let's go after the obese. My only advice for dealing with the obese is not to walk downstairs ahead of us least we fall. More junk science.

As long as I get some chocolate cake, I will be happy.

LWsciencejunkie wrote:

<quoted text>
I've never had a weight problem, thank you very much!
Inactivity turns out to be more of a factor in overweight kids and men than post-puberty females. There are lots and lots of calorie-cutting, exercising women that only manage to reduce to a certain (still fat) point. The difference seems to be in how weight-prone women metabolize carbohydrate. Men can generally tolerate more carbohydrate. The thing about obesity is that it spirals. We can make more fat cells as we fill existing ones to capacity, but we don't lose any. Abdominal fat is hormonally active, and promotes weight gain by causing insulin resistance. Estrogens are secreted by belly fat- and that is part of why belly fat is associated with cancer. Belly fat in men is feminizing- "man-boobs- on the superobese isn't just about fat storage.
There is now solid evidence that the obese have genetic markers that code for differences in how their appetite/satiety is regulated by the hormones ghrelin/leptin. On another thread we have been discussing how simply working the night shift causes obesity.
Last thought; you are, at the most basic level 100% correct. Without question if an obese person were given just enough nutrition to function and replace lost tissue/maintain immune system and forced to, say exercise for a couple of hours every day, that person WOULD lose weight. Lots and lots of people have done just that- some have lost more than 100 pounds several times during their lifetimes only to regain it. For those who have inherited every gene that saved their ancestors from death during lean times, the day-to-day, hour-by-hour discipline required for the entire lifetime...is just too much.
The entire incredibly complicated tangle of all of the genetic and social

YA I get it. I just do not buy it. the inherited gene that saved there ancestors from death bit. The kids born in the 1960's like myself had few fat kids unlike today where there are far to many fat kids. As far as I know the kids in school to day have the same ancestors as the last generation. There was no shortage of food here in the 1960's and we were not thin because we were starving we were thin because we played more and ate better.

I also have been working shift work for 26 years without a weight problem. No one wakes up one morning and poof gained one hundered pounds over night. I can't eat like I could in my 20's now in my mid 40's I backed off alittle. Every winter I put on a few pounds but by cutting out a few little things it is gone by May. One donut not two,water or tea not a pepsi.A few less beers