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Why are so many people obese? Do that many people just not know better? I know some people really have no idea how calories work but I see obese smart people w

Why are so many people obese? Do that many people just not know better? I know some people really have no idea how calories work but I see obese smart people who should know better. Do people just not care? I understand some people not caring, like computer scientists or “manly” men. But even they should understand that obesity is really bad for health and QOL. They don’t have to become normal weight either: being overweight doesn’t have the negative physical and mental health effects, but they are obese to the point where it does affect those things. Are they hungry? I get this part. I’ve experienced real hunger and it’s not the “just wait until dinner” kind. I could never maintain a normal weight if I had to endure constant hunger and the effects associated with it (low energy, brain fog, mood dysregulation - these are very real things people experience when not eating enough, and which fat people experience even when eating enough when they have hormonal issues). Except, obese people also eat junk food which makes you more hungry. If it was hunger I would expect to see more people eating large plates of protein and vegetables, but it seems like even with CICO most people just don’t get fat on protein and vegetables. Do whole foods just not satiate? Or do people not understand which foods make you feel full, which make you satisfied, and which make you satisfied while tasting good (skinless chicken breast and raw salads with no dressing are not good meals). I don’t have anything against obese people. But supposedly over 40% of Americans are obese, and many are obese in other countries. This is very strange and honestly depressing. Maybe it’s because I live in communities where less people are obese (college towns and a suburban community in a very blue state), because indeed while I see obese people it seems like way less than 40%. Particularly depressing is child obesity, which is really strange because kids tend to have higher metabolisms and even skinny kids’ diets are really junky. I think most people would really like to be not obese, and if those people could lose weight with low effort it would be a huge benefit to them and society. So it’s important to understand why so many people are obese. Because like I said, 40% are obese despite most knowing better, and a lot of people seem to be like “yeah”.

josephcsible 4y ago
Isn't it pretty simple? Our brains release dopamine whenever we eat, and a lot of people lack the self-control to not overeat to get more hits.
- armchairhacker 4y ago
  I hear the “self-control” argument a lot, but that is definitely not all Obesity hasn’t been an issue since somewhere in the 1970s. And not everyone was constantly starving before then. Yeah we are predisposed to eat more than we need but we have satiety signals, unlike some animals which will literally eat until they explode. More importantly people display self-control in other regards. Lots of obese people have become really successful, lots are genuinely tough people. People have the self-control to finish school, work, and otherwise take care of themselves (e.g. keep the house clean). Why don’t they have the self-control to choose a steak and salad instead of pizza and fries?
Jach 4y ago
A full answer to your first why is a mystery. But a related question is a lot more tractable because you can ask fat individuals: how can you stand being fat? For a lot of fat people (and I invite you to look at a BMI height/weight chart to see what counts in analysis as fat/obese), they're like "yeah" about it because that's the extent it seems to affect their daily life. That is, in the experience of a typical fat person, getting their BMI under 30 (if obese) or under 25 (if merely "overweight") would not actually be a "huge" benefit to them. Being fat and even obese doesn't actually preclude a lot of fat people from doing the things they want to do. Even from a pure health perspective, the relative risks of being fat often top out at like 2x for the most fat and specific health issues. The relative risk for dementia from this submission's study is only 1.177x. (Smoking, in contrast, finds relative risks for lung cancers > 20x.) But if the base rate is low, even 2x of that rate is still fairly low, and not necessarily enough to care about making a potentially difficult life change over. Getting into the "severely obese" category (BMI > 40) I think is where day-to-day issues become more common, though that's "only" about 9% of the US adult population.
mbrodersen 4y ago
We actually know what is going on. It’s called carb addiction. The more carbs you eat, the more carbs you want to eat. In modern societies we have easy access to as many carbs as we want. That is a new phenomenon. Sugar used to be so expensive that only the rich could afford it. And back then only the rich had the kind of health problems that we now see everywhere in our societies (Metabolic syndrome).

josephcsible 4y ago

Isn't it pretty simple? Our brains release dopamine whenever we eat, and a lot of people lack the self-control to not overeat to get more hits.

armchairhacker 4y ago
I hear the “self-control” argument a lot, but that is definitely not all Obesity hasn’t been an issue since somewhere in the 1970s. And not everyone was constantly starving before then. Yeah we are predisposed to eat more than we need but we have satiety signals, unlike some animals which will literally eat until they explode. More importantly people display self-control in other regards. Lots of obese people have become really successful, lots are genuinely tough people. People have the self-control to finish school, work, and otherwise take care of themselves (e.g. keep the house clean). Why don’t they have the self-control to choose a steak and salad instead of pizza and fries?

Jach 4y ago

A full answer to your first why is a mystery. But a related question is a lot more tractable because you can ask fat individuals: how can you stand being fat? For a lot of fat people (and I invite you to look at a BMI height/weight chart to see what counts in analysis as fat/obese), they're like "yeah" about it because that's the extent it seems to affect their daily life. That is, in the experience of a typical fat person, getting their BMI under 30 (if obese) or under 25 (if merely "overweight") would not actually be a "huge" benefit to them. Being fat and even obese doesn't actually preclude a lot of fat people from doing the things they want to do. Even from a pure health perspective, the relative risks of being fat often top out at like 2x for the most fat and specific health issues. The relative risk for dementia from this submission's study is only 1.177x. (Smoking, in contrast, finds relative risks for lung cancers > 20x.) But if the base rate is low, even 2x of that rate is still fairly low, and not necessarily enough to care about making a potentially difficult life change over. Getting into the "severely obese" category (BMI > 40) I think is where day-to-day issues become more common, though that's "only" about 9% of the US adult population.

mbrodersen 4y ago

We actually know what is going on. It’s called carb addiction. The more carbs you eat, the more carbs you want to eat. In modern societies we have easy access to as many carbs as we want. That is a new phenomenon. Sugar used to be so expensive that only the rich could afford it. And back then only the rich had the kind of health problems that we now see everywhere in our societies (Metabolic syndrome).