Calories and Obesity

I've said before that losing weight...or anything to do with weight, really...is a matter of calories in and calories out. Eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. Burn more calories than you eat, you lose weight. Pretty simple once you average everything out.

The diet-blog just had a posting that strikes me as one of those "Well, duh..." moments.

Some researchers apparently tried to figure out what we should weigh if obesity is tied to overeating alone, not activity level. Seems that the logistics were fairly simple.

Choose a time in the past where obesity wasn't considered an epidemic and we have data on eating habits of the population. In this study, it was the 1970's.

Next figure out how many calories you need to live. Another term for that is BMR, or basal metabolic rate, although it's not mentioned in the article.

Then compare food data of consumption by the population, average it out, and figure out how much people would gain at those calorie levels. The conclusion?

From the article:
Comparing the theoretical and actual figures demonstrated that children's weights had increased by exactly what would be expected from the increased food intake alone. Adults had put on slightly less weight than the extra food would have indicated (8.6 kilos heavier instead of 10.8). 

That would imply that people have, on average, been slightly more active than in the past. We're simply eating too damn much.

How? This isn't in the study but based on anecdotal evidence, I'd venture a guess that our food today tends to be more processed and in larger portions. Processed and pre-made stuff is often loaded with sugars, fats, and sodium to enhance flavors and textures. Couple this with an increased average portion size and it all adds up.

As crass as it sounds, the reason we're fat is because we eat too much. I've seen more blurbs on exercise (and tried doing the math as well) that shows that exercise alone, while a boost in health benefits, isn't a diet plan. When you have to work out an hour to get rid of a plain McDonald's cheeseburger, you'd have to dedicate hours of work, hours most people spend doing things like getting a paycheck, to burn off that extra helping of dinner before dessert and the cheesecake you had to have at Starbuck's yesterday. Or even to make a dent in the one meal you had at Applebee's.

People will hammer home that exercise increases your metabolism for longer time afterwards, that when you eat affects how much is burned, etc etc...do some research on calories and calorie burn and BMR. Start doing the math. While not exact and there are variables, the average will level out to show that really the biggest influence is how much you put in your mouth.

Ten minutes with a burger, or an hour on the treadmill? Which do you think would save you more time for the calories?