# The SD on fat people **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 27, 2004, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sd-on-fat-people/231454 "2004-02-27T12:47:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo_Boo_Foo)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sd-on-fat-people/231454/61 "2004-03-01T01:45:00Z")
> [@Philster](#): > > What you will find: A complete lack of evidence to demonstrate that ‘glands’ or ‘metabolism’ affect any great number of people. Yes, you can enhance your metabolism to burn more calories naturally, by - ironically - getting in shape and staying there. Yes, the rich get richer. > > What we are talking about here are the masses of people who eat more calories than they burn, which is decision-based. > > The human body needs a **paltry** amount of calories to survive at it’s ‘thin’ point. For a small woman, we’re talking 1400 calories/day, and for a medium sized middle age guy, a scant 1800…amounts found in most lunches or dinners for many people. When you realize how efficient the body is, you realize the challenge. Oh, pigged out a a fast food joint and want to ‘burn it off’? Hope you are up for a marathon…and that is not an exagerration. > > You will get an overweight crusader who will pop in to reference some pseduo study that showed someone ate 1200 calories and maintained the 350 pound girth. Ask yourself if that is LIKELY to be true, and then ask how LIKElY that is going to be the case for all the obese people you encounter. > > All you need to know is that when the stomache is stapled, or there is a gastric bypass, or someone’s jaw is wired shut, **they lose weight**. As was mentioned, no one is absorbing calories from the air via osmosis. Simply wonderful post there **Philster**. Totally spot on. If I may, I’ll just add a few other points to ram it home, as well. The USA leads the world in a number of areas, economically, culturally, and sociologically. Sadly however, it also leads the world in obesity levels. (Although in the interests of fairness it should be noted that my own country of Australia is a very short distance behind). And yet, the USA is an extraordinarily diverse nation in terms of cultrual and racial gene pool. Accordingly, purely from a statistical angle, it’s impossible to argue that the USA’s obesity levels are manfiested through some freak genetic gene pool defective gene. Nah, far from it. Just like throughout all of the Western Word, the bottom line is that we, as a species, are no longer hunter-gatherers - and indeed, we’ve made it so easy for ourselves to have a bountiful and plentiful supply of rich, high density food that well, the whole Western World is just plain getting more and more obese with every decade. Indeed, it’s wrong to point out obesity in the USA in isolation. It’s a problem throughout the entire Western World. THe nature of commerce, and large international food corporations is such that the industry of providing bountiful high density food is simply too profitable an industry not to be involved in. In short, the food industry is a cash cow, and as Napoleon once noted, “even in times of war the industry of the stomach still prospers”. To stay super duper fit and lean and agile into one’s later years is not impossible. Indeed, it’s a profoundly healthy and rewarding thing to do. But like most things in life, if you want something bad enough, you have to work fucking hard at it - and staying lean and fit is bloody hard work. And that, right there, is the rub. Quite frankly, for all of our intelligence in the post industrial age, the bottom line is that we’ve created a culture in the Western World which effectively allows the common flaw within all of us to manifest itself - namely, laziness. ---
**Author:** ![Ilsa\_Lund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sd-on-fat-people/231454/62 "2004-03-01T01:48:41Z")
> [@Boo Boo Foo](#): > > Simply wonderful post there **Philster**. Totally spot on. If I may, I’ll just add a few other points to ram it home, as well. > > The USA leads the world in a number of areas, economically, culturally, and sociologically. Sadly however, it also leads the world in obesity levels. (Although in the interests of fairness it should be noted that my own country of Australia is a very short distance behind). And yet, the USA is an extraordinarily diverse nation in terms of cultrual and racial gene pool. Accordingly, purely from a statistical angle, it’s impossible to argue that the USA’s obesity levels are manfiested through some freak genetic gene pool defective gene. Nah, far from it. Just like throughout all of the Western Word, the bottom line is that we, as a species, are no longer hunter-gatherers - and indeed, we’ve made it so easy for ourselves to have a bountiful and plentiful supply of rich, high density food that well, the whole Western World is just plain getting more and more obese with every decade. > > Indeed, it’s wrong to point out obesity in the USA in isolation. It’s a problem throughout the entire Western World. THe nature of commerce, and large international food corporations is such that the industry of providing bountiful high density food is simply too profitable an industry not to be involved in. In short, the food industry is a cash cow, and as Napoleon once noted, “even in times of war the industry of the stomach still prospers”. > > To stay super duper fit and lean and agile into one’s later years is not impossible. Indeed, it’s a profoundly healthy and rewarding thing to do. But like most things in life, if you want something bad enough, you have to work fucking hard at it - and staying lean and fit is bloody hard work. And that, right there, is the rub. Quite frankly, for all of our intelligence in the post industrial age, the bottom line is that we’ve created a culture in the Western World which effectively allows the common flaw within all of us to manifest itself - namely, laziness. I am always impressed by your insightful and eloquent responses. No, I’m not kidding. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sd-on-fat-people/231454.md?page=3)