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> People in the 50s weren't slimmer because they had ironclad determination to stay such. People in the 50s (in the US) had, among other things, fistfuls of be

> People in the 50s weren't slimmer because they had ironclad determination to stay such. People in the 50s (in the US) had, among other things, fistfuls of benzedrine. Edit: here is a link for the skeptical folks https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/speedy-history-americas-addiction-amphetamine-180966989/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/speedy-history-americ...

llamaimperative 2y ago
Whatever, set the clock to the 1820s. Or the 1400s. Or the 1200s. Or the 1990's or 200 BCE, I don't care.
- golergka 2y ago
  They didn't have that much food available.
- jrflowers 2y ago
  I didn’t bring up the 1950s, you did. (???) It is a useful and topical period to discuss in a thread about ubiquitous weight loss drug usage.
- viraptor 2y ago
  Do we really have enough information about their daily habits, food availability, ability to survive, etc. from those times? Once you go before easy refrigeration and distribution, you get people dying from famine in bad years. It's going be to be hard to make any actionable lessons from those times that still apply now.
  - llamaimperative 2y ago
    Yes we know that 50%+ of the population was not obese.
    - viraptor 2y ago
      https://academic.oup.com/past/article/239/1/71/4794719 https://academic.oup.com/past/article/239/1/71/4794719 > James Nye, for example, was one of a family of eleven children raised in rural Sussex in the 1820s and recalled how the ‘the young ones’ in his family went ‘very short of food’. Despite his mother’s best efforts, he rarely had more than ‘half a bellyful’ at mealtimes, and ate scarcely anything other than bread. > Following the harvest failures of 1816, for example, John Lincoln’s entire family was forced to undergo severe privations. His two children succumbed to disease very easily — their quick deaths from measles were likely owing in part to prior malnourishment. You can't be obese if you don't have food.
      - llamaimperative 2y ago
        The 90s?
        jrflowers 2y ago
        >Whatever, set the clock to the 1820s. Or the 1400s. Or the 1200s. Or the 1990's or 200 BCE, I don't care. I think they may have taken your prompt and thought about the 1820s, 1400s, 1200s or 200 BCE. Did you mean to direct people to discuss the 1990s by listing the other 4 eras?
        llamaimperative 2y ago
        I mean to say Homo sapiens has existed for 300,000 years. They have not been 70%+ overweight or obese for most of those years. All the way until the 90s, obesity rates have been WAY lower, even in food-abundant societies.
        jrflowers 2y ago
        What is your point? I mentioned drug availability in the 1950s and you dismissed it with an arbitrary list of other time periods. Someone else mentioned food scarcity in a period you mentioned, and you shifted the discussion to the 1990s (and now the past 300,000 years ???). It seems like you do not want to discuss any factors relating to obesity in history at all, yet you keep engaging in this topic anyway. It is impossible to have a conversation where one side discusses facts like drug availability or food scarcity and the other says “no think about something else” as a canned response. What do you think is the cause of the increased level of obesity? What do you think is the solution, if any?
  - varjag 2y ago
    1820s? Oh yes a ton.
    - viraptor 2y ago
      Yeah, I meant before that. The records for the earlier years mentioned were not really kept that well for every segment of population.
- kemitche 2y ago
  So, eras of food scarcity?
  - llamaimperative 2y ago
    The 90s?
    - jrflowers 2y ago
      >Whatever, set the clock to the 1820s. Or the 1400s. Or the 1200s. Or the 1990's or 200 BCE, I don't care. I think they may have taken your prompt and thought about the 1820s, 1400s, 1200s or 200 BCE. Did you mean to direct people to discuss the 1990s by listing the other 4 eras?
- presentation 2y ago
  Or choose a country with a low obesity rate today and analyze that.
mtlmtlmtlmtl 2y ago
Amphetamine(which is what benzedrine was) is pretty overrated as a weight loss drug in the general population. It causes a short window of reduced appetite and probably increased catabolism(due to increased heart rate) which peters out after a couple weeks on the same dose. That leads to a short period of rapid weight loss that pretty much grinds to a complete halt, after which regaining the lost weight is quite typical. On the other hand, if like me, you have ADHD and weight issues, it could be more helpful. Because it could treat your ADHD enough to help you actually establish and follow a structured diet and exercise regime. Especially if your ADHD includes impulsivity. The last time I was on lisdex treatment, I lost about 5kg from the initial boost, a lot of it was probably water weight. Then I managed to cut about 30kg later with calorie counting and regular cardio. So the physical effects themselves are largely a pisstake.

llamaimperative 2y ago

Whatever, set the clock to the 1820s. Or the 1400s. Or the 1200s. Or the 1990's or 200 BCE, I don't care.

golergka 2y ago
They didn't have that much food available.
jrflowers 2y ago
I didn’t bring up the 1950s, you did. (???) It is a useful and topical period to discuss in a thread about ubiquitous weight loss drug usage.
viraptor 2y ago
Do we really have enough information about their daily habits, food availability, ability to survive, etc. from those times? Once you go before easy refrigeration and distribution, you get people dying from famine in bad years. It's going be to be hard to make any actionable lessons from those times that still apply now.
- llamaimperative 2y ago
  Yes we know that 50%+ of the population was not obese.
  - viraptor 2y ago
    https://academic.oup.com/past/article/239/1/71/4794719 https://academic.oup.com/past/article/239/1/71/4794719 > James Nye, for example, was one of a family of eleven children raised in rural Sussex in the 1820s and recalled how the ‘the young ones’ in his family went ‘very short of food’. Despite his mother’s best efforts, he rarely had more than ‘half a bellyful’ at mealtimes, and ate scarcely anything other than bread. > Following the harvest failures of 1816, for example, John Lincoln’s entire family was forced to undergo severe privations. His two children succumbed to disease very easily — their quick deaths from measles were likely owing in part to prior malnourishment. You can't be obese if you don't have food.
    - llamaimperative 2y ago
      The 90s?
      - jrflowers 2y ago
        >Whatever, set the clock to the 1820s. Or the 1400s. Or the 1200s. Or the 1990's or 200 BCE, I don't care. I think they may have taken your prompt and thought about the 1820s, 1400s, 1200s or 200 BCE. Did you mean to direct people to discuss the 1990s by listing the other 4 eras?
        llamaimperative 2y ago
        I mean to say Homo sapiens has existed for 300,000 years. They have not been 70%+ overweight or obese for most of those years. All the way until the 90s, obesity rates have been WAY lower, even in food-abundant societies.
        jrflowers 2y ago
        What is your point? I mentioned drug availability in the 1950s and you dismissed it with an arbitrary list of other time periods. Someone else mentioned food scarcity in a period you mentioned, and you shifted the discussion to the 1990s (and now the past 300,000 years ???). It seems like you do not want to discuss any factors relating to obesity in history at all, yet you keep engaging in this topic anyway. It is impossible to have a conversation where one side discusses facts like drug availability or food scarcity and the other says “no think about something else” as a canned response. What do you think is the cause of the increased level of obesity? What do you think is the solution, if any?
- varjag 2y ago
  1820s? Oh yes a ton.
  - viraptor 2y ago
    Yeah, I meant before that. The records for the earlier years mentioned were not really kept that well for every segment of population.
kemitche 2y ago
So, eras of food scarcity?
- llamaimperative 2y ago
  The 90s?
  - jrflowers 2y ago
    >Whatever, set the clock to the 1820s. Or the 1400s. Or the 1200s. Or the 1990's or 200 BCE, I don't care. I think they may have taken your prompt and thought about the 1820s, 1400s, 1200s or 200 BCE. Did you mean to direct people to discuss the 1990s by listing the other 4 eras?
presentation 2y ago
Or choose a country with a low obesity rate today and analyze that.

mtlmtlmtlmtl 2y ago

Amphetamine(which is what benzedrine was) is pretty overrated as a weight loss drug in the general population. It causes a short window of reduced appetite and probably increased catabolism(due to increased heart rate) which peters out after a couple weeks on the same dose. That leads to a short period of rapid weight loss that pretty much grinds to a complete halt, after which regaining the lost weight is quite typical. On the other hand, if like me, you have ADHD and weight issues, it could be more helpful. Because it could treat your ADHD enough to help you actually establish and follow a structured diet and exercise regime. Especially if your ADHD includes impulsivity. The last time I was on lisdex treatment, I lost about 5kg from the initial boost, a lot of it was probably water weight. Then I managed to cut about 30kg later with calorie counting and regular cardio. So the physical effects themselves are largely a pisstake.