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New explanation for middle-age weight gain
- abraves10001 10y ago"While we await the results, the best course to help fight that middle-age spread hasn’t changed. Eat right and follow an exercise plan that you know you can stick to—it will make you feel better. Take it from me, a guy who decided eight years ago that it was time to shape up, stopped eating honey buns, got into a regular exercise program with a trainer to keep me accountable, and lost those 30 pounds. You can do it, even without a DNA-PK inhibitor!" I'm glad the article finished with the above paragraph because while the study is interesting, Americans don't seem to have unique physical traits that cause them to gain weight, we just don't have healthy habits. I wonder what the weight gain in the same time period is in different regions of the world
- akgerber 10y agoWe have pretty successfully engineered almost all physical activity out of the normal daily life of a middle-aged suburban American, who move from bed to car seat to desk chair to car seat to couch to bed with as little walking as possible in between. Most other societies make walking (including to and from public transit) and bicycling much bigger parts of their transportation landscape, rather than designing new communities to make driving as easy as possible and other means of transportation impossible, either intentionally or implicitly.
- convolvatron 10y agoits really amazing how much a difference 20 minutes of walking a day makes. so instead, spend that time in a car, and that time again at a gym. what wealth!
- chrisseaton 10y agoHow much energy do you burn with 20 minutes of walking? A couple hundred kilocalories at most? That's not going to solve anyone's weight problem.
- lostapathy 10y agoIf you work from home and otherwise spend 20 seconds walking for your "commute", a factor of 60 improvement is a big change.
- chrisseaton 10y agoI'm afraid that's meaningless feel-good talk. It doesn't matter how large the relative change is if the absolute value is still too small to help.
- porkloin 10y agoThere are benefits to light exercise beyond calorie expenditure.
- NikolaeVarius 10y agoLike a hundred. Pretty much a large Apple. A decent paced 5k burns like 400 at most
- abraves10001 10y agoMost people aren't overeating by thousands of calories a day, increasing activity by 20 minutes without increased intake would probably diminish the vast majority of weight gain for a large percentage of the populous.
- nsxwolf 10y agoI can tell you that amount of walking makes zero difference to me. Certainly not in terms of weight. Maybe it has some health benefit that statisticians could eek out by studying 1,000 of me over a lifetime, but not anything cosmetic. And cosmetics are what really matters in these discussions, because that is how you are ultimately judged and categorized.
- HannibalChew 10y agoIt's worse for me because I move from bed, to shower, then down to the office downstairs. You'd be surprised how many steps you get from just walking around the office. Luckily, I don't have a problem exercising on a daily basis, whether it's just walking outside or hitting the gym. Losing weight is an entirely separate issue for me though. After hard-core lifting sessions, I'm eating way too many calories.
- snuxoll 10y agoI work from home, so it's doubly bad for me - I don't even have to walk to a car, just the couple steps from bed to my office. I went to Boston for Red Hat Summit last week and it amazed me just how exhausted I was after all the walking to/from the train stations and around the convention. I used to bike every day to/from work when I was just a couple years younger and never felt as sore and tired as I did every day during the event. I really need to start getting out more, even just walking to the coffee shop 1/4 mile away on occasion and working from there.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- Naomarik 10y agoI live in the desert where going outside in the summer is intolerable. What's helping me immensely while working from home is playing some VR games throughout the day. If I want something light I play a few rounds of archery in Holopoint. If I want to max my heart rate very quickly I'll do boxing in Thrill of the Fight.
- Declanomous 10y agoWhen I visited Houston I felt like I was being held hostage. I love living in a city because it makes it really easy to be active. Time spent in Houston feels like it's being spent in the most hostile suburb on the planet. Honestly, I think Houston might actually be hell.
- nradov 10y agoIf it's practical for you, consider getting a dog. Dogs need to be exercised every day so it forces you to get out and walk or run at least a couple miles every day. And by "dog" I mean a real dog, not some fragile inbred abomination that can't handle a run around the block.
- snuxoll 10y agoMy wife and daughter would love a dog, but we rent and already have a couple cats so it's not really in the cards right now (the cats alone aren't an issue, but trying to get the OK from the landlady for another animal isn't in the cards).
- RugnirViking 10y ago> Most other societies make walking Unfortunately, obesity is a global epidemic, and it is not showing signs of slowing in, as far as I can tell, in any developed nation.
- metamet 10y ago> Americans don't seem to have unique physical traits that cause them to gain weight, we just don't have healthy habits A diet of hyper-palatable, nutritionally void processed food will do that. Eat real food. Meat, fish, nuts, fruits, veggies, maybe some carb-dense grains (I like rice) here and there when your body can take advantage of the extra glucose, and you'd be surprised how easy it is to both manage your hunger and your weight.
- cookiecaper 10y agoYes, there's a systemic issue here. Just as we don't say "Users just need to be smarter!" when a substantial segment of the population is having difficulty accessing our programs, we shouldn't say "Eaters just need to eat fewer calories!" when OVER HALF of the population is getting sick on the food supply. Try to buy something healthy at your conventional grocer. It's generally tucked away at the far extremities of the aisle if it's there at all, and you normally have to bypass several fake "healthy" options that are really just slightly different formulations of the primary recipe. You have to really hunt just to find something as simple as a loaf of bread that isn't infused with extra sugar. Some loaves that bill themselves as "wheat" are still mostly white bread, etc. There is a large array of deceptive tactics used to get people to buy the more addictive formulations when they think they're buying healthier ones. IMO this is a technology problem. We have sufficient technology to bring a steady supply of maximally-desirable foods, which, unfortunately, tend to have the least nutritional value. This creates perverse incentives across the marketplace because grocers, suppliers, distributors, and farmers all want to sell more, which means they will always favor the higher-calorie options, because human biology always favors it. It's a really bad place to stall at a technological stasis. Instead of fighting chemistry and biology and berating those who fall victim not only to their own strong physical inclinations but also to a barrage of marketing tactics designed to trick them into continuing to buy addictive-but-unhealthy foods when they're explicitly trying not to do so, we need to develop technology that makes broccoli maximally-desirable without changing its basic nutritional and caloric properties, or technology that infuses maximally-desirable foods with nutritional and caloric properties akin to maximally-nutritious foods. I don't think most people are compulsive overeaters. There's a myth among some naive people that every overweight person has a stash of 40 SNICKERS bars constantly at hand and that they eat 10 of these per day. This is not true except in the most extreme cases. The truth is that most people eat reasonably normal amounts and types of foods.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- devereaux 10y agoI wonder how this "middle age weight" gain interacts with practices such as intermittent fasting, keto diet, 1-meal a day. These practices impact metabolism. I also wonder if FDA recommendations of calories per days should be split not just by sex, but also by age.
- adrianN 10y agoThe FDA recommendations are mostly bogus since activity level and base metabolic rate differ enough between otherwise normal people to make some people fat on the recommended amount of calories and others too skinny.
- NikolaeVarius 10y agoIgnoring the fact that the FDA already says its recommendations are for an average person, it doesn't matter because people don't track calories anyway. Generally people eat WAY too much for their sedentary lifestyles.
- adrianN 10y agoI have a hunch that "the average person" doesn't exist when it comes to nutrition.
- jlebrech 10y agoinsulin imbalance will also cause weight gain.
- notfromhere 10y agodoesn't override CICO
- 5trokerac3 10y ago> While the enzyme is known for its role in DNA repair, their studies show it also slows down metabolism, making it more difficult to burn fat. Already known factor and a completely misleading sentence. All this means is that you have to consume less to get the same results. We already knew that metabolism slows down as you age. It's a factor in BMR (base metabolic rate) TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) calculation. Sadly, articles like this mostly give overweight people another excuse, rather than a greater understanding of their predicament.
- pharrington 10y agoYou're misreading this. The novel claim isn't that metabolism slows down during middle age, but that DNA-PK levels increase during middle age and the enzyme negatively effects metabolism.
- AstralStorm 10y agoIn other words it is an explanation, but not an excuse.
- com2kid 10y agoWell this could end up being a sort of devil's bargain. Lower weight, better athletic performance, but increased DNA damage leading to other problems (I'd guess cancer being high up on that list).
- beefman 10y ago"...treatment with DNA-PK inhibitor protects against aging-associated decline in metabolism and physical fitness without increasing DSBs [double-strand breaks]... The most likely explanation for this paradox is that the ... DNA-PK inhibitor, like most inhibitor drugs, is a partial inhibitor at physiological doses. The residual DNA-PK activity may be sufficient to protect against the level of DNA DSBs generated naturally."
- zupreme 10y agoI predict plenty of knee-jerk "We've found the fountain of youth" reactions to this. I instead think doctors should tread carefully here. This enzyme is present for a reason. While eliminating it may "cure" certain ills it may cause others (like cancer).
- icelancer 10y ago>This enzyme is present for a reason. It might be. There is no way to know whether it is there for a (good) reason or not. Evolution doesn't work that way.
- zellyn 10y agoWait, so it's not my constant over-indulgence in free office snacks that did it?
- zellyn 10y agoWait, so it's not my constant over-indulgence in free office snacks that did it?
- Mr24601 10y agoPSA: Every legitimate long term study of non surgical weight loss shows that it doesn't happen for the vast, vast majority of people. 1) ["In controlled settings, participants who remain in weight loss programs usually lose approximately 10% of their weight. However, one third to two thirds of the weight is regained within 1 year, and almost all is regained within 5 years. "](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1580453 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1580453) 2) Giant meta study of long term weight loss: ["Five years after completing structured weight-loss programs, the average individual maintained a weight loss of >3% of initial body weight."](http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/74/5/579.full http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/74/5/579.full) 3) Less Scientific: [Weight Watcher's Failure - "about two out of a thousand Weight Watchers participants who reached goal weight stayed there for more than five years."](https://fatfu.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/weight-watchers/ https://fatfu.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/weight-watchers/) 4) [The reason why it's impossible seems to be that although calories in < calories out works, the body of a fat person makes it extremely difficult psychologically to eat less.](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-...) This is borne out by the above data. 5) [The only thing that does seem to work in the long term is gastric surgery.](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1421028/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1421028/) Moreover, you won't find any reputable study on the web where the average person lost 10%+ of their body weight and kept it off for five years. Not even one. The study people sometimes bring up is the national weight control registry. But it is a heavily self selected group of people who have already lost significant weight before joining - therefore weeding out most of the failure rate. And even then, only 20% of their audience lost over 10% of their initial body weight and kept it off for one year.
- bitexploder 10y agoSo, how do those of us that manage it do it. Is it really is exceedingly rare, is it even useful studying us? According to weight watchers me and one other person out of the thousand did it. Everyone else failed. (I cut 40% weight, 12 years later, kept 25% (or more!) body fat from original cut). At a high level I radicalized my life style. I have ups and downs, but I be and a runner and a lifter and I have run hundreds of miles e every year since. It was complete and sort of stark, but I endured. My theory as to why people fail -- There is no such thing as will power. Everyone thinks there is and that they aren't strong enough and that is why they failed. I think in the very short term there is will power. Hours for most. Once your higher level thinking is overrun you lose. My hand wavy theory based on my experience and knowledge; you have to believe in something with enough intensity that your brain you can't talk to gets on board and accepts its reality. You have to fight it and use tricks to move around out of sight to where the higher level you gets what it wants. This is not a linear path.
- dandare 10y agoWhile there are many "unfair" variables at play, your weight is one of the few parameters you can control in your life. You won't get more hair, rich parents or strong health. You can't get taller, smarter or good at writing comments. But you can always decide not to be overweight, or even be in good shape. (but being an asshole fet shamer is also a decision)
- watwut 10y agoWhy is other peoples weight so important for you? You choose to spend time in gym focusing about how you look like instead of doing something useful, learning new things or working or simply spending time with your children. Serious, despite all stereotypes, male dominated tech site seems to put way more importance on look and talks way more about dieting then female dominated sites I frequent. When did the switch happened and dudes started to be like that?
- bebopfunk 10y agoThere are very few things in my life that are as productive as the gym. It helps my memory, my mental well being, my cognition and my health. I'm unsure of why you don't consider exercise to be useful. Can you explain? Below I have included a quote and link to a study that looks into exercises effects on cognition. As for people's zealousness for exercise on this site, I think its a result of people wanting to help others. For many, getting into exercise was the single best decision they felt they've made in their life. And since almost anyone can make that change, and do it for free, they're trying to spread the news. If I spend the time to recommend something as small and inconsequential as an application to someone, it seems absurd that I wouldn't recommend something like exercise. But that's just my two cents "The evidence accumulated so far indicates that exercise is a strong promoter of cognitive health in humans. " https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3951958/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3951958/
- whytaka 10y agoWhen we realized physical health contributes to mental health and mental health contributes to discipline which contributes to physical health.
- draw_down 10y agoIt isn't really a new explanation, the explanation is still "your metabolism slows and you can't eat like you're 22 anymore". It's a tough adjustment to make and I'm not even that old yet. The best thing I've found that actually works is a mostly plant-based diet.
- coldtea 10y ago>It isn't really a new explanation, the explanation is still "your metabolism slows and you can't eat like you're 22 anymore" The new part is identifying the cause and specific enzyme etc. As you put it its an almost tautological description of the situation, which is not what the article is about.
- beefman 10y agoThis is potentially about more than weight gain. The DNA-PK-mediated pathway they've discovered looks an awful lot like something you'd design to control senescence. The DNA-PK inhibitor used, NU7441, is orally active and the press release even calls it drug-like. The human-equivalent dose based on bodyweight is about 3g/day (three pills worth). The actual HED is probably smaller. Currently very expensive.[1] 1 http://www.selleckchem.com/products/nu7441.html http://www.selleckchem.com/products/nu7441.html
- russellbeattie 10y agoApparently vanillins are DNA-PK inhibitors. Maybe an extra shot of vanilla extract in my morning coffee and I'll start losing weight??
- nunez 10y agogetting loose on your diet and eating all sorts of crap without abandon or exercise to burn it off explains middle-age weight gain