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>The phrase that being overweight is "simply calories in vs calories out" is both trivially true and completely unhelpful. For the issues most obese Americans
by benihana 11y ago
>The phrase that being overweight is "simply calories in vs calories out" is both trivially true and completely unhelpful.
For the issues most obese Americans face, which is a poor diet high in sugar, it is absolutely helpful. As I understand it, the bulk of the problem of our obesity epidemic is that people eat calorically dense foods with little nutrition, not that 40% of the population suddenly stopped being able to be sated by their food.
Of course people don't respond the same way to food and exercise. But your post is about fixing edge cases before the actual problem is solved. The low hanging fruit is in fact, calories in vs calories out. Once people's diets get back in line, then we can worry about why some people have a harder time losing weight than others.
- JPKab 11y agoSee my previous comment regarding sugar. It's not the calorie density, but the metabolic effects of sugar that are the issue.
- Almaviva 11y agoIt's not binary. Both of those things can be issues with it.
- DougMerritt 11y agoAbsolutely. However, it is important to note that there are a very large number of obese people who don't eat sugar. So sugar, while deservedly notorious, is far from the only highly significant factor, yet it sometimes receives 100% of the blame. One of the several problems with that is that, due to popular perception, many will swear off sugar and yet still be unable to drop to a healthy weight.
- tim333 11y agoAlthough a good percentage of those eat white carbs like bread and potatoes that easily convert to sugar in the body. Those on the salads without bread/chips tend to do quite well weight wise.
- DougMerritt 11y agoYes, and that's part of my point: too many emphasize the evils of sugar, where it is far more to the point to warn against all high glycemic index foods. The rest of my point is something like: people too often oversimplify complex subjects, which can be actively harmful.