I think maybe you misread my post. When I was talking about differences I was talking about differences between individuals, not between the past and present.
In the nature vs nurture equation, the former (basically) has not changed.
What I was trying to say was the science has moved on somewhat, so even though it’s a popular view for many that fat people simply lack self-control, the data suggest significant differences in individual’s appetite levels and tendency to store and burn fat.
I grew up in the 50s and 60s and you can’t even calculate all the ways we were more active. Yes, my family had a car, but the default setting was to walk (or ride our bikes) unless there was a reason to take the car. Yes, we watched TV, but we got up and walked across the room to change the channel. Yes, my mother had a washer and dryer, but on nice days she’d still hang the laundry out to dry. Instead of a lightweight vacuum cleaner, she used one that probably weighed as much as I did. Even using a typewriter or adding machine burned more calories than using a computer.
You can laugh at this, but add, say, 10 calories to everything you do throughout the day, every day, and it adds up.
I’ll let someone else tackle the discussion about eating habits.
We got everyone to stop smoking as the big health solution, but we didn’t account for oral fixations or for smoking possibly being an appetite suppressant.
The quarter-pounder got America started on big portions, and portions keep getting bigger and bigger.
The working out is huge of course, and good on you for doing it, but I’d respectfully suggest that a major reason you guys aren’t fat is because you’re lucky enough to think that stuff tastes good. 
A couple of miles a week? Surely even the most sedentary slobs of today’s world - assuming they’re actually physically able-bodied, walk far more than that just in the course of their day-to-day activities. I’m sure I walk at least a mile a day, and I’m sat at a desk for 10-12 hours of that.
False. In general smokers don’t weight that much less than non-smokers, altho there is often a small uptick after quitting:
Apr. 23, 2010 — A new study links nicotine poisoning with weight gain, and concludes that active smokers, not only those who stop, put on more weight than non-smokers. After four years of analysis in the University of Navarra, those who put on least weight were those who had never smoked.
From now on we will have to question the myth that smoking makes you slimmer.
While this is essentially true, it is really hard to eat too much broccoli or spinach, and even eating too much of fatty foods like untrimmed (non-processed) meat or avocados is actually difficult or uncomfortable. Calories, as conventionally measured in a calorimeter, meausre energy content but do not assess how accessible the energy is to the human metabolism, i.e. that breaking down simple carbohydrates is much easier than breaking down saturated fats or proteins. While carbohydrates per se are not the problem–there are many cultures in which the historical dietary portion of carbohydrates exceeds 70%, and yet people were thin–the fact that the modern diet of highly processed foods, containing a large portion of sugars and simple starches, provides carbohydrates that rapidly convert to blood glucose both makes it difficult to mediate blood sugar levels (resulting in energy spikes and hunger) and a metabolism which readily converts those sugars into subcutaneous fats.
Physical activity conveys benefits beyond simply the calories consumed during activity; it also results in the building and maintaining of muscle mass, which stimulates the metabolism, and incidentally, makes it easier to maintain longer and more intense spurts of activity. A physically inactive person upon starting to exercise with typically lose a few pounds (mostly water mass) and then plateau just because they cannot physically maintain a sufficiently active pace to continue burning off subcutaneous fat at the same rate, which is why planning and discipline (as well as a suitable diet which provides for sufficient nutrients to build up muscle) are critical for a successful exercise program. Again, a diet heavy in blood sugar-spiking carbohydrates from cheap, highly processed foods that fill the majority of grocery store aisles subverts an attempt to reduce body fat by exercise.
So, while the large portion sizes and low or intermittant activity may be a part of the problem, the real issue is diet composition; foods that are “enhanced” with cheap sugars to make them more appealing and, frankly, addictive. Regardless of how much of the organic/paleolithic/primal nutrition glurgage you buy into (and there is a lot of pseudoscientific nonsense to be found in all of that) there is no question that eating foods that are minimally processed and as close to off the stem or bone as possible is most healthy and ultimately most satisfying. An easy way to modify your diet without getting caught up in all of the nutritional arguments about what specific foods (like fruits, grains, or legumes) are good or bad for you is thus:
[ul]
[li]Avoid anything that comes in a box, has added sugars, or has a long list of ingredients[/li][li]In order of preference: fresh, frozen, canned, dried[/li][li]Approximately 2/3s of the volume of food shoud come from the fresh produce section if possible[/li][li]Grains and pulses should be minimally processed, and should not comprise more than 1/3rd of the bulk of the meal[/li][li]Protein should be “as close to the bone” as possible; include roasts, whole chicken, et cetera, and only trim the fat if it actually makes the food greasy or unpalettable[/li][li]Eat enough fats, especially naturally saturated fats, to satiate your hunger (without going overboard)[/li][li]Minimize deserts any sugary or salty snacks[/li][/ul]
By the way, the reason high fructose corn syrup is so cheap is because corn agriculture is so heavily subsidized. Corn is neither particularly healthy nor an especially more bountiful crop than other grains, and yet we produce so much of it that much of it goes to waste. And if you’ve actually seen the material from which HCFS and “vegetable” oil is produced from (which is the crufty, semi-rotten waste which sticks to the sides of grain silos and is deemed unfit even for animal consumption) you’d think again about using any of this stuff in your food.
Stranger
Those are factors in the problem.
However, if you put food in front of a cat 24 hours a day, it might get fat and it might not. It depends on the individual cat. I’ve got four cats, and we free-feed dry kibble, and occasionally split a couple of small cans of cat food (so each cat gets about half a small can every week or so). Two of the cats are normal, healthy weight, and two of them are a bit plump. What’s the difference? I assume it’s genetics, as the cats probably aren’t closely related, other than being the same species.
I was making a very conservative estimate of the additional weekly walking. I believe that my walk to elementary school was something like a tenth of a mile each way, so that walking added up to about a mile. I actually could drive over to my old house and measure the distance, I suppose. My walk to the bus stop and back was longer, but not by much. I’ve found that people tend to vastly overestimate the distance that they walk, until they have to wear a pedometer. Most of my walking and running occurred when I was playing, when I was a kid. I played a lot of tackle football (much to my mother’s dismay, she thought it was an unsuitable sport for a little girl) and I hiked when I could.
Wear a pedometer and find out how much, or how little, you’re walking.
Then I think you’ve misread the op. The op is asking about why the difference between past and present.
What else?
Also - the obsession with fat (10 calories per gram) versus sugar (4 cal/g); so many foods started advertising “fat free” in the last how many years, where essentially they substituted sugar for fat so the food tasted better than cardboard. maybe it’s a few less calories, but the “fat free” likely fools some people into thinking it’s ok to eat a lot more.
True. But if you limit the amount of food given to your cat, the cat is virtually guaranteed not to get fat.
No limit on access to food = some cats get fat, some won’t.
Limit access to food = few if any cats get fat.
It’s the same with people. Expenditures on food are such a small part of a person’s income that it approaches a situation of “unlimited access to food.” It didn’t used to be this way. Food used to be expensive, and relatively scarce.
Also, the scientific study linked here may have the single best answer to this question.
I grew up in 80s Surrey, and we would have bread pudding on Saturday if my (older) sister could bring home enough out-of-date loaves on Friday from her part-time job in Sainsbury’s. We weren’t well off by any means. My mum was/is also thin and into eating healthily, eventually making a business out of it.
Listen to the woman!
I actually did get up to 15 stone, during my divorce, but after I moved to a Chinese town (changed of career) with absolutely no edible bread or cheese I lost a couple of stone and also the heartburn. After that I stopped taking the daily tablets my doctor gave me for acid reflux as it’s probably due to an allergy to wheat. Now if I put on a bit of weight I don’t bother with more exercise (I believe skinny athletes are down to correlation, not causation), I cut out some carbs. Usually it’s lots fried veg (loadsa chili) with some rice, I tried Atkins once and it worked but wasn’t very enjoyable.
Nobody has mentioned by personal favorite: air conditioning. When it is sweltering hot and the house doesn’t have A/C, you don’t lie around and watch TV. It’s miserable. You go out and go swimming, play games in the park, or do something to stay active and sweat to try to cool down.
A/C has the opposite effect. Go outside and play softball? Fuck that, it’s too hot. I’m staying here on the couch in the a/c.
I know. Note I said: “So I would put it down to the large availability of cheap, unhealthy food”.
Yep. I just posted about a friend in another thread who eats big portions of heavy foods, often very late at night or even at midnight for dinner and then goes to bed but can’t figure out why the weight loss does not occur because she visits the company gym a few times a week. She went to WW years ago but seems to have forgotten everything.
Let’s go with the “people are too busy/lazy/poor” hypothesis. Why have they become so much busier/lazier/poorer over several decades? Have people in the world’s developing economies also become busier/lazier/poorer, and if so why? Those in India? China? Obesity rates have leveled off in American adults and actually started to decrease some among America’s children. What made kids busier/lazier/poorer over the last several decades and why are they now getting a bit less busy/lazy poor?
If obesity is alternatively completely 100% all about personal responsibility and individual choices, then what is the explanation for this worldwide spreading epidemic of abdication of personal responsibility and why are American children taking on more personal responisbility as of late?
Because their American parents realized that eating any ole crap in any quantities you want makes you fat? Hopefully this minor trend will continue and the rest of the world will realize it eventually too.
Have studies been done recently on the rates of obesity in New York City specifically (not for NY state overall)? Because, anecdotally, from living in NYC, I think the city has an overall lower rate of obesity than any other American city I’ve been in, and I attribute that chiefly to it being practically impossible NOT to walk and climb here.
Just to get to work and back I have to climb down three flights of stairs (apartment building, no elevator), walk ten minutes to the subway station, climb down three more flights of stairs to board the train, then climb another set once I arrive in Manhattan, then walk ten more minutes to my job. Then when I go home at the end of the day, I do it all over again. And that is the bare minimum neccesary for me to get to work and back. Today after work I was up and down the stairs several more times, bringing up a box that had been delivered and then running out for groceries. Contrast this to my mom’s place in Mississippi, where you walk from the front door to the car, drive to your destination, and walk from the car into your destination.