The obesity epidemic in the US is due solely to increased food intake
by Fran Lowry for TheHeart.org

"The amount of food Americans eat has been increasing since the 1970s, and that alone is the cause of the obesity epidemic in the US today [1]. Physical activity—or the lack thereof—has played virtually no role in the rising number of expanding American waistlines, according to research presented at the 2009 European Congress on Obesity in Amsterdam last week."

...

"ACC spokesperson Dr Matthew Sorrentino (University of Chicago), agreed that Swinburn and colleagues verified what experts in the obesity field had long suspected.

"The main cause of the obesity epidemic in this country is the wide availability of high-caloric foods and the fact that we are eating way too many calories in the course of a day. Exercise has much less impact."

Sorrentino said that about 90% of weight loss is achieved by cutting calories; only about 10% of weight loss is achieved by significantly increasing physical activity."

I would agree with the article. It is MUCH easier to not eat a 300 calorie muffin than to attempt to burn that 300 calorie muffin off via exercise. That's not to say I think exercise is a waste of time, I think it's awesome for cardio vascular health or building muscle. I don't even think it's a waste of time for losing weight, burning 200 calories is 200 calories gone, I just think diet is more relevant.

Glory, me too. Physical activity is certainly an important part of a healthy lifestyle, but what's really killing us is all of the over-processed, fatty and sugary foods we eat in great quantities.

Oh I see. Once I read all of your post, I realized it was saying diet more important to weight loss than exercise.
When I first read it, I thought it was a joke ~ Being obese is caused by eating too much; losing weight is caused by eating less. I was looking for the Duh!
Sorry, having a brainspinning day today, no offence, it IS interesting to read that calories in is more important than exercise.

Sorry for the confusion -- trying to fit the 2 main points in the limited number of characters allowed for the title...

I think it comes down to the more "modern" we are, the more backwards we become with some core things. I say that because how many people buy Kraft mac and cheese or Hamburger Helper. Furthering that, you can get any meal already done for you. You toss it in your microwave or oven and eat it, then do whatever. All the junk in most of that food is a bit shocking to me. Even things billed as healthy. Recently I noticed a "healthy snack" to replace chips. I was shocked when, after reading the label, it had so much junk in it and the calories were so high...how the HECK was this okay? The price on it, more expensive than the "unhealthy" chips! It is like, bad for you = cheap. Healthy = expensive. That is exactly why I avoid the supermarkets now. I go to a produce market for all my stuff and when I HAVE to go to the supermarket I go with a list and a speed that makes me whip through it without getting overstimulated!

Not just with food, cell phones, video games, I mean I used to go to an arcade. Used to love standing around doing things. Now I sit and play. I sit and work on the computer, I sit all the time! I have prepackaged meals in my freezer and to be honest, I know I can make something that is better tasting lol. Even going out doesn't thrill me really. It is about feeding my laziness...that is a real struggle for me. What is easy, isn't always good for you!

You need a good diet and exercise or just activity. I mean you can't sit all day and wait for Hot Pockets!

That article makes me want to get up and workout hahahaha. AWESOME!

It has been my belief for many years that calories are far more important than exercise in terms of weight loss. Exercise is important but you can exercise and gain weight fairly easily. Exercise and moderate calorie restriction seem to be the key to long term weight loss and maintenance.

I hope this is something that eventually sinks in with people. I've heard the saying more than once - 'you can't out train a bad diet' - but I'm amazed how many people think they'll just exercise more and lose weight. They don't seem to recognize that a large number of people will allow themselves 'a little extra' because they exercised that day. And often the little extra is way more than they burned.

However, I'm a big believer in NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis). It's easy to go burn 400 calories in the gym (heck, I did that on my morning walk/job) BUT it doesn't do you any good if you're so tired that you move less at the end of the day. I call my mother the poster child for NEAT. She weighs 120lbs eats 1800-2000 cals each day, no regular exercise (until now, with me some mornings), oh and goes through 2-3 family size bars of chocolate each week and at least a couple of medium sized bags of candy. Yep, some days I dislike her a lot for that. However, if you watch her, she never sits still. Up the stairs for something she forgot, into another room for something, back up the stairs to take something back up, etc.

I look at my own habits that I'm still working on breaking. I don't leave things at the foot of the stairs to 'take them up later'. I take the longer way to the fridge/freezer in the garage, rather than cutting through the dining room. I don't leave the recycled stuff to pile up before I take it to the bins. I make a point not to sit at the computer for more than 15 mins at a time. I get up and do something else before sitting back down. It's the little movements through the day that add up to our daily calorie burn. It may not be in my nature to move around as much as my mother does naturally, but I keep working on it.

http://mayoresearch.mayo.edu/mayo/re..._lab/about.cfm

I agree with the posts about it being so much easier to quickly down high quantities of calories than to burn them. So I agree, it's the increase in foods that has caused our national obesity.

But, I think it's still a bit misleading. Our inactivity may not be the main cause of our obesity, but I think it's a big cause of our unhealthiness. It probably also contributes to the increased calorie intake. Couch potato-ness begets overeating.

You know, I think this is true for pure WEIGHT LOSS, but not for mortality/health.

Numerous studies have shown that in terms of mortality and disease rates associated with obesity, what matters far more than dropping pounds is becoming more physically active and physically fit. In other words, normal-weight people have greater longevity than overweight people only if those normal-weight people are also physically fit, and overweight or even obese people can have far healthier outcomes than their normal-weight counterparts if they are active and fit, and the normal-weight folks are couch potatoes.

If an overweight person and a normal-weight person both have the same level of physical fitness, and no other health conditions, their risk of mortality will be just about the same, despite the extra weight on one of them. And there is also a fundamental biological difference between someone who is "always normal weight" and someone who is "post-obese"...if you lose weight, you don't become the same biochemically as if you were always normal weight. So it's a complicated issue.

I am not aware of any studies of mortality for those who have lost and maintained that loss without exercise. This is probably because there aren't very many of them...94% of people on the National Weight Control Registry employ some sort of physical activity in their plan.

So I'd argue that while extra POUNDS may be from extra calories, I don't know that the rising levels of health problems and mortality commonly associated with obesity (High blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, etc), can be attributed to the extra calories alone...research just doesn't bear that out.

RealCDN posted
Anne ~ wow!!!! That's brilliant!! I never thought of that before...wow. One of my grandmothers was super morbidly obese, the other was tiny (but not frail). The one who was slender never sat still. She was always up, moving around, doing something...wow. I just never thought of it in those terms.

Now I feel guilty about sitting still reading 3FC...I better go do a load of laundry or something!

Check out the link for how fidgiting accounts for lots of burned calories!

http://www.tinajuanfitness.info/articles/art070103.html

Kira

My slender mother is a bundle of nervous energy. She is always moving.

I was just reading... and plan to check out the book... about "The 9-Inch Diet" -- which really is not a diet but about the "pig out" portions currently popular in America. The guy was sharing about how he had moved into a 1940s house and his plates would not fit the cabinets. He did research and found that back then... and even into the 60s... a typical dinner plate was 9". Now they are 12"

I plan to get this book from the library. It sounded really interesting.

Nah - it's my brain that sometimes closes its eyes!