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How to Fix the Obesity Crisis
The world is in the grips of an obesity epidemic. Scientists have spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to understand the metabolic, genetic and neurological foundations of why we keep gaining so much weight. But, as David H. Freedman writes in "How to Fix the Obesity Crisis" (Scientific American, February 2011),you do not have to know everything there is to know about the physiological aspects of obesity to grasp a few simple concepts of how to lose weight.
In his article Freedman shows how the concepts of behavioral analysis underlie most successful programs for losing weight. Take our poll to see how your weight-loss attempts compare with other survey-takers. At the end, you will learn about four general rules of thumb that researchers believe increase the chances of losing weight and keeping it off.
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24 Comments
Add CommentBest to take the weight ans see approach... the mind bossing the body around is part of the problem to begin with so try listening to the body more and bossing it around less...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisChristopher McDougalls' book,"Born to Run", points out that human beings evolved as the planet's only 'persistent hunter' that can run any four footed animal into heat exhaustion. Sweat glands and achilles tendons to return energy each step testify to this. realage.com reports elderly runners are 40% less likely to die of age related causes. Everyone has no time not to exercise. It's the only real health care plan available. Also, running reduces the appetite on a continuing basis. I lost 80 pounds this way, will lose another 20 this season.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisKeep in mind most of us (Americans) aren't in the physical condition to start an exercise regimen based on running, (Regardless of the point we aren't hunter gatherers today). This philosophy/theory/encouragement would open up a world of injury to most.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree - besides, you can create an excellent exercise program without incorporating running at all.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRunning is out of the question for most, especially, most elderly, Americans (i.e., all humans). Who doesn't know that?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisStored fat - the whole problem of overweight - is caused by two things: carbohydrates and sugar - bacon doesn't get stored as fat, but the bread the bacon is on, or the pasta eaten with it, does.
The food industry is the cause: promoting "healthy" carbohydrates and bad-mouthing fat (read: calories) at every opportunity, to sell more starchy and sweet foods.
How many people really know what a "calorie" is? It's an archaic way to measure the heat generated when a substance is BURNED - that's right BURNED! Guess what? The human body doesn't "burn" anything - it digests food, and digestion is a highly complex chemical process, and the key to storing or burning nutrition revolves around the human "starvation prevention" process. That controls everything about diet: if the body thinks is it starving, it will stored fat. Period.
This is not new news: I'm not making it up.
Counting "calories" is mediaval nonsense.
really bobgeezer, the food industry is the cause?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes, dbilling, the food industry is the cause. Compare the people from the 1950, before the implementation of fast food joints and most people prepared their own foods and spent more time outside, to the 2000's when there are two fast food joints on every street corner supplying cheap low nutritious foods. Most people from the 50's had stable weight; the people from the current time has roller coaster obesity and seldom if ever exercise more than walking to their frig. That doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the cause of today's overweight people in America and other advanced populations.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn 2002, I changed my diet from mostly meat to mostly undercooked vegetables, nuts, fruits, and berries - the nuts, fruits, and berries are uncooked - eat no desserts whatsoever - lost 30 pounds, down to 180, walk twice a day at 1.5 miles each walk, and have maintained a constant weight. I seldom if ever eat out and I feel great and I have not caught a viral or bacterial infection in all that time. So, 'yes', the food industry in America is the cause of the ugly obesity problem.
The "world" is in the grips of an obesity epidemic. I would like to see the qualification for that. I'll grant you perhaps the western or industrialized world. There are exceptions in more obvious places like Somalia. Short of areas where starvation is the norm, you don't see many overweight Cubans. Their limited resources are not wasted on excess junk food. They walk most places they go. Manual labour is still the norm. And they are a more enlightened, healthy, and happier people than most North Americans.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNot to mention the vast overuse of psychiatric drugs in the USA- most of which cause relentless obesity, especially in children.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTo "saysme." For more on the global obesity epidemic, particularly with respect to the increase in the large urban areas of sub-Saharan Africa, see
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/9/465
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21234364
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20880100
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18179616
http://www.globalcitizen.net/Data/Pages/1269/Papers/2009041314819760.pdf
Humans evolved to run ... run long distances ... run game to exhaustion to easily kill and eat. We also survived on fruit and berries in between kills of high protein and fat. We needed these high density calories to feed our growing brains. We save extra calories as fat to carry us through the times when finding food was tough.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWith farming, we no longer run. With industrial farming, we don't even walk.
Humans need 2000 to 2200 calories to live. We are very efficient so running a mile only burns an extra 100 calories. Look at a cookie as another mile that you have to burn. Donuts become DO-NOTs ... five or six miles for the short joy of a donut ... trade offs.
There is some sense of justice ... those who exercise and watch what they eat live longer, healthier, more active lives ... at least on average ... and those that don't ... well don't.
Running lets you keep running ... well into your 80's and 90's. Not as fast but you can still move to keep moving. Get healthy to stay healthy. You can start slow and build your capabilities. Slow walk ... longer walk ... faster walk ... jog ... run ... run distances. Not overnight but anyone with joints that move can do this. You just have to want to do it. It's a mental thing and not really physical.
But living this life is a little harder and you do miss out on some GREAT meals ... just ask Oprah ... she has given in.
Bobgeezer, I am not at all sure what you mean when you say "bacon doesn't get stored as fat, but the bread the bacon is on, or the pasta eaten with it, does." You also state that there are two problems, carbohydrate and sugar. You need to go back to basic science classes! Sugar is a type of carbohydrate (carbo=carbon, hydrate=water, so the general formula for carbohydrates is Cn(H2O)n, and most simple sugars have 8-carbon backbones). Carbohydrates have about 4 Cal per gram, and fat (bacon) has a whopping 7. So eating the bacon WILL make a big difference. When food is digested, all forms of food get converted to high-energy compounds that eventually make their way to fat stores.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut I do agree that the food industry is a big part of the problem, but the food industry would not be so wealthy if it were not for we consumers flocking into their stores after their fatty, sweet and salty meals. So, until we spontaneously change our taste in food and activity levels to something closer to what JamesDavis described (unlikely, but one can always hope), or divorce ourselves from the gluttony of capitalism and submit to government setting our taste in food (snowball in hell...), the profit motive will certainly win out, and we will stay fat.
My experience did not conform at all to what has been reported. My weight had risen over a long period of time to 190+ lbs. I looked at a number of diet books and chose Protein Power. I found the diet easy to maintain and mostly it involved eliminating pasta, reducing bread and eliminating night time snacks. Since then I have evolved into reducing the amount of meat and increasing vegetable consumption. My weight now varies from about 165 to 170 and I weigh myself at least every few days so to moderate my food consumption. My biggest weight gain problem is eating lunch out with social groups.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt says: "Take our poll to see how your weight-loss attempts compare with other survey-takers. At the end, you will learn about four general rules of thumb that researchers believe increase the chances of losing weight and keeping it off." But upon pressing "Done", no such comparison or rules of thumb appeared.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI used Hypnosis to enable me to re-program my food/exercise thought processing. I couldn't work out to begin and lost 30 pounds in the steam room only over a three month period. I started working out in December after getting an energy boost from the inital weight loss. I have now lost another 20 pounds for a 50 pound total in five and a half months. And it is a healthy and natural weight loss with out stressing out.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEvery action in our lives begins in the mind and that is where I started. Hypnosis is as effective as gastric by pass surgery. And everyone can be hypnotized, if they want to be. I have never been hypnotized before and didn't think I could be, but it works. I just know, that I will continue my weight loss success by meeting my two week goals of 5 lbs and not counting calories everyday and only weighing once or twice a month. I did have to re-educate myself on portions and calorie intake, but after that I don't regularly pay attention to it.
A regular work out program and a great gym/spa at my local hospital is a real plus. I am in my 60's and got diagnosed with diabetes carrying 315 pounds, so I was motivated. But, it was the hypnosis that is behind my success. It is important to obtain a CD or personal therapy from a Clinical Hypnotist as experience and the script is everything. My A1C is in the low 5's now, which dropped from the high 8's. I have the bood tests to prove it. Thank you Dr. Cody Horton, Ph.D. This article is spot on! If you want to modify your behavior and your actions, Start with your mind!
I adhear to a lo-carb lifestyle which allowed me to lose 22 lbs in 6 months which I have kept off for 7 years. At 5'1" I now weigh 104 lbs and have excellent reports on all my medical tests. Allergies have dissapeared and my energy levels are superior. Other healthproblems relating to digestion are also gone. I eat a balanced diet but make my own bread stuffs using a carbolose flour and always have a berry fruit daily. Meat, poultry and fish are staples and I consume salads, butter, mayo, nuts and broccoli or green beans on a regular basis. I am never hungry as I do not allow sugar or refined carbs in my diet. I also power walk 2 miles a day within a 30 minute time span. At 65 years of age I will never again count a calorie or a fat gram. My physician is delighted at my success and calls me a poster person for good health.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am on a weight loss journey and saw the headline on your magazine "Scaling back Obesity". I agree there are weight loss programs out there that fall short of enlisting a full range of behavioral techniques. I did WW and gained my weight back and more followed. But I have finally found a program that works for "me" with an amazing support structure of people helping people which I have not seen with other organizations. I have learned so much, and I am paying it forward by helping others not only lose weight but to be healthier. Now I feel ill when I drive by a McD or any other fast food outlet. I am on the 30daydiet.net. As I said it WORKS for me, and for my friends who have lost over 100 lbs because we support each other. The internet has helped me connect with hundreds of people who are struggling to lose weight and we support each other through triumph and setbacks. We can "cure" obesity, it starts with our children. Videos like this sicken me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy4Ztv6E4LI this is not entertainment, it is abuse to let your children eat like this. Very sad to think that some people are killing themselves with food and at this early age.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGlad to see someone else avoided weight loss surgery. It is NOT permanent. The people that I have met who have lost their weight told me what they had to do after surgery...yikes. I am doing it the old fashioned way...a good weight loss program and exercise. Not a diet even though it is the name of my website. Diets do not work, changing what you eat does
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswe are not forced to go to these places. We choose to eat there. It is all about choices and most of us have been making bads ones since childhood, so we need to educate the next generation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think we must attribute some responsibility to the FDA who has prescribed high carb low fat diets for decades. It would be interesting to see if the obesity trend started about the same time as the food pyramid.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is complete nonsense. Weight loss is not sustainable. I'm ashamed that Scientific American would publish such an article that seems to promote the tired old "Eat Less, Exercise More" paradigm that has been around for decades. Study after study has shown this to be completely untrue.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisScientific studies (real one, you know the one's SA seems to ignore here) show that naturally thin people cannot get fat even when they try and obese people's body will act as if they are starving when they lose weight and return to their weight set point when they start eating again. Diet and exercise have nothing to do with it.
Come on, SA, try to do some real research on this instead of blaming the victims here.
"Eat less and exercise more!" Are you s***ing me?
Regarding "How to fix the obesity crisis." Any relevant discussion about the obesity epidemic should at least address Gary Taubes' conclusion in his book "Why We Get Fat": "The only thing we absolutely have to do if we want to get ..fat out of our fat tissue and burn it - is to lower our insulin levels and to secrete less insulin to begin with." Does the public know that we don't use the energy from consumed fat until our carbs are metabolized first? And that exessive carb intake causes hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance, which decreases the opportunity to burn fat, causing more and more weight gain? If the public knew this, much of the population would begin to think differently about the 6-11 servings of carbs that the government recommends. If the public gains confidence and belief in the under-reported science in the popular media of obesity and fat regulation, and begins to eat fresh produce and meat instead of products, then we could sustain weight loss and begin to reduce obesity rates (not to mention reducing diabetes, heart disease and cancer). A discussion of behavioral changes without addressing the differences in fat and carb metabolism is peripheral to the issue at hand. Moreover, for the editor to hope for a "pharmaceutical answer" and suggest that this article offers the "best supported" "available solutions" shows, at least here, a lack of confidence in basic science and a lack of faith in humanity. We don't need a pill - we need good basic science, well communicated, and a return to our natural diet, the diet we shared before this epidemic began. If that proves unsustainable, then science can make advances in production, not pills or "behavior modification." Thanks.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am not obese or overweight at the moment, but my BMI was right on the verge of tipping into overweight. Making some changes was definitely in order. So I started walking to work, purchased a small wireless device, called a fitbit, that provides a wealth of information in combination with a website. I have lost 11 1bs simply by increasing my walking and not changing what I eat so much as being aware of the amount I'm eating. I know recognize objectively how much a serving is or what 1oz of something. I also purchased a very inexpensive kitchen scale. On the website I log my food intake and the activity levels are downloaded. So - it is a matter of calories in - calories out. There is also a community feature that can be quite motivating as well.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis regime seems to hit on all the points of the article - with behavior changes being the key to success. At least in my case. :-) One of my favorite cartoons has a doctor talking to an overweight patient. The caption reads: "What fits your busy schedule better, exercising 1 hour a day or being dead 24 hours a day?"
Bloody Christ guys, for people who read Scientific American you think we would understand the basics of physics and chemistry before making asinine comments that have not support. Yes a calorie (notice lowercase) is the amount of energy it takes heat one milliliter of water one degree Celsius; a Calorie (notice uppercase) is 1000 calories and is used to denote the amount of energy in food. Simplified but actually, your food IS burned! The human body gain energy by oxidising food and rearranging the molecules into new forms, which is the exact same process that a fire does, only it is much slower and controlled. Actually, eating less, exercising more does work for weight loss; if you don't eat below your BMR (to avoid slowing your metabolism), you eat like someone who weigh less and exercise like someone who weighs less, you lose weight! You don't do the changes until you get to your weight and return to your previous habit; that is how you got there in the first place. You have to change your lifestyle completely and permanently to succeed! I have helped my friends, my wife, my clients, and my parents lose weight for good by counting calories and exercising and making sure they make the changes for good.
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