Good Calories, Bad Calories, by Gary Taubes

Here in the U.K. at the moment, obesity seems to be more likely the lower down the socio-economic scale people are.I think the main problem for the Pima might have been that they stopped hunting, fishing and farming, all good exercise, but kept on eating. I mention this because what strikes foreigners about Americans is that you've stopped walking from A to B, but you keep on eating.Humans evolved walking, and probably walking a lot. It's something we should do. What does Taubes say about exercise?

Maybees theys jest settin' on their'alls immobille butts, selling each other books about "how to intellectualize being a lazy motherfucker?" That's a "big Gorilla"?The British ate considerably more in the 1970s than they do now. Now "we" are fatter. Everytime I see someone who has "obesity problems" psychology shouts out. Is there a stupidity/obesity connection? Let's be honest. Selling books to lazy diet obsessed morons is good business. You don't make money telling hillbillies to get off their stupid fat arses and start thinking, do you?

No. That's very loose usage of the words "everyone" and "everywhere", (not to mention "affect")The increase in diabetes effects the "average" person in sedentary cultures, certainly. Those boots are made for walking, Percy. Remember the good old days?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OU7Nezg7LsWell, maybe, come to think of it, if that's what we used to dance like, there's something to be said for sitting in arm chairs, diabetes notwithstanding.

Your own case does seem unusual. There are certainly metabolic (and other) differences that make some people tend to be fatter than others, and those differences have always existed. They don't explain large scale increases in the average weight of whole populations though, do they? Consider this:Countries Compared by Health > Obesity. International Statistics at NationMaster.comThe four countries at the bottom have an average per capita income higher than the average of the four at the top, and there's no reason why the top four shouldn't have statistics like those of the bottom four (which have the minor obesity problems we had here in the U.K. 20 to 40 years ago - and I don't think we've mutated genetically a great deal since then!).I don't see how the metabolic rates of individuals explain what appear to be cultural differences. They would help explain who is going to be in the top 30% within each country, but not why all of that 30% are obese in the U.S., but only one in four in (wealthier) Switzerland.So, while I agree from your own account that you personally might well have difficulties that are hard to solve by lifestyle changes, I see no reason why most of the obese in the U.S. and the U.K. can use their metabolism as an excuse."Routine and moderate activity may well be more beneficial than short bursts of intense activity" (Westerterp 2001).I don't know about "routine", but "constant moderate activity" seems to work for me, and I like walking, so, like my ancestors, I walk a lot and don't count my calories at age 50 (I've no idea how many I average, I just eat when I'm hungry). I'm probably lucky with metabolism etc. but "Mr Average" used to walk more a generation ago (and go to the gym less) so there might be something to be said for it.Anyway, good luck with the diet. The more people who try out different things, the better our chances of getting to the roots of the problem, which is clearly there. The worst part of it is when you see kids who can hardly walk. I suppose I'll be considered unsympathetic for suggesting that they usually seem to have bloody stupid parents.We could put it all down to metabolism problems that were rare in my youth, and are still relatively rare in wealthy Switzerland and wealthy Japan, but I don't think we should.

What I thought was unusual was your extreme light weight for someone of average height when you were young, and then battling with being overweight (not obese) when a full 75 lbs heavier. You would have been one of a small minority who could have put on 50 lb in adult life without being overweight! Who else do you want do blame, apart from consumerist capitalism, which is the underlying problem? But you'll get lynched for blaming that in your country.I understand addiction and craving very well, because I've overcome more than one serious addiction in my life. So I understand your "mere willpower" in the face of "metabolism" comment.But when an addict, I always slightly envied the food addicts, because I thought they had a choice. At least they were addicted to something that, in moderation, we all have to do, so it seemed to me that if they exercised enough in the right way then they could still enjoy their food. So, unlike with my addictions, it wasn't a question of giving up completely.Now, I'm not the only one who thinks that what people used to do in a pre-mass car ownership, pre-mass obesity society was to walk a lot. Very light, steady exercise. You don't break sweat, and it's so natural to us that it doesn't even feel like exercise. But in this hectic consumer/producer world, walking takes time, and time is money, so walking is out. The U.S.A. is famed for being the leading anti-walking society of all time.Diet books can be marketed to people, and people can be charged for the use of a gym and other leisure facilities, but no-one can make money out of walking. How could a health advice book saying "give up thy car and walk" be spun out for 200 pages? So walking is not a consumer item, and it will not be marketed as a solution.I don't know how much walking our ancestors used to do, but I expect that it was a minimum of 21 miles a week. Show me someone who does their 3 miles a day average, and I'll show you someone who could be slightly overweight, but isn't obese. Certainly, we should always regard international surveys and statistics as very approximate, and it would be interesting to know if the Japanese eat less carbs or whatever than the U.S., but in this case that avoids the issue, because it is well known that the countries we live in had much lower obesity rates in the recent past, when, in the case of Britain, people were eating plenty of notoriously bad food, gym membership was lower, and numbers of people on planned diets was lower.More manual work was being done, and lots more walking was being done.(At 5'10", you would have to be 209 lbs to be considered obese in that survey - you've never been there, from what I understood).My suggested 21 miles of walking is only a guessed distance, and is not instead of other exercise, it's a basic part of being a human being, and includes any walking done (down to the bottom of the yard and back = fifty metres, etc.). Ideal would probably be 2 one mile (20 minute) walks per day every day, and the other mile in little bits, which most people probably do any way.Someone who wanted to get fit, put on muscle, would do more energetic exercise in addition.

Percy's avatar does look as though its thyroid's in a bit of a state.