Post: #1

I've watched a few episodes of Mad Men this week, and one thing that strikes me is how much people smoked back in the 50's. Of course, smoking started to become vilified as evil and not just something harmful to the user in the 80's and 90's, right around when our obesity rates went up. I know smoking is an appetite suppressant, so could these two be connected in some way? I'd love to see a study done on the reduction in health care costs from the reduction in smoking versus the increase in health care costs from the increase in obesity rates, and if there's any sort of causation.

Post: #2

How about Americans stop eating fast food (e.g. Taco Bell, Burger King, McDonalds), candy, soda, and processed food. Also eating red meat twice a day without eating vegetables other than potatoes is not really great for you either.

Post: #3

Less smoking means less chance of getting a heart attack while you're a fucking fat fuck who can't stop pounding down the 7-11 hotdogs with extra chili and cheese.

Also, people are walking less and eating more, and when they're eating they're eating for fucking 3 (by world standards).

Also, correlation does not imply causation.

Post: #4

People aren't really walking that much less. The changes in exercise levels are overstated. The issue is clearly diet.

People eat something like 40% less saturated animal fat than they used to, and way more sugar and flour and fructose instead. Basically, people eat much less butter and bacon and drink way more cola. We were told by the government to stop eating saturated fat, which was a horrible mistake. The campaign against fat started in the 80s, and kicked off the obesity epidemic starting then.

I'm sure this sounds crazy to some people, but "Good Calories, Bad Calories" and related books irrefutably lay it out with a ton of supporting data. When people eat plenty of quality fat, they stay thin. The other big issue is fructose consumption, which uniquely packs on the pounds compared to other carbs or sugars. People only used to get fructose from some fruits. Now it's in everything as a sweetener.

Post: #5

The evidence clearly supports the changing American diet more than anything. Processed foods, trans-fats, moving away from healthy fats, eating more simple carbs, increased portion sizes, cupcake boutiques, etc. There are many things to emulate about the men in Mad Men, but smoking is not one of them.

Post: #6

Conclusion: American women are lard ass inferior products on the worldwide marketplace for eligible females.

Post: #7

1. Quitting smoking indeed correlates with weight gain. I have a lot of Russian friends who smoked when coming to US, and most of them quit. All of those who quit gained weight.

2. In weight loss 80% is diet and only 20% is exercise. Ask any personal trainer in your gym - you can spend every day in gym working out for several hours, but unless you eat less calories than you burn, you will not lose any weight. My friend recently went to Thailand for a weight loss camp, and only lost 5lbs in a month. When we analyzed what he did we found out that he indeed ate very little, but he drank a lot of Thai iced tea (you know it is hot there). Unfortunately a cup of Thai iced tea (served with sugar and milk) is basically a meal, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it has like 400 calories. Five cups and you have your daily intake - no weight loss.

Post: #8

That's right. Eliminate sugar and pasta + bread + rice, and you can't help but lose weight. Guaranteed.

Post: #9

(08-03-2010 09:38 PM)oldnemesis Wrote:  eat less calories than you burn

Calories-in/calories-out is not a useful way to think about weight gain or loss. It's on some level fundamentally true, it's just a much less effective model for thinking about the issue than focusing on the endocrinology. As Taubes explains in detail, appetite and fat deposits are overwhelmingly driven by insulin swings. The issue is foods that spike insulin, like sugar and tortillas and bread. If you take a fatty and cut off his access to sugar and starch, but give them as much lard and butter as they want, they will start to lose weight. The fatty foods don't fuck up insulin levels, and appetite regulation and fat storage work properly. No calorie counting is necessary.

The other issue, as previously mentioned, is fructose. Fructose is much, much worse than normal sugar. It basically gets turned straight into body fat by the liver. It's possible that the entire obesity epidemic in the US can be pegged on sky-rocketing fructose consumption.

Post: #10

Well, as someone said, the things which are good in this life are either illegal, or immoral. If neither, then it makes you fat.

Post: #11

(07-30-2010 01:30 PM)collegekid Wrote:  I've watched a few episodes of Mad Men this week, and one thing that strikes me is how much people smoked back in the 50's. Of course, smoking started to become vilified as evil and not just something harmful to the user in the 80's and 90's, right around when our obesity rates went up. I know smoking is an appetite suppressant, so could these two be connected in some way? I'd love to see a study done on the reduction in health care costs from the reduction in smoking versus the increase in health care costs from the increase in obesity rates, and if there's any sort of causation.

People were thin long before smoking became popular. Just because people started smoking a lot and were thin does not mean that smoking means that people will be thin.

There's an old joke about statistics: Two staticians were looking over two charts of data. One displayed an increase in the number of priests in the population. The other chart showed an increase in crime.

The two staticians than deduced that the rise in crime was caused by the rise of the number of priests in the population.

Obviously, that is a silly conclusion that leaves out many other more relevant factors in the rise of crime (rise in population, no rise in numbers of police to respond to this, etc, etc).

Just saying.

(08-03-2010 09:38 PM)oldnemesis Wrote:  1. Quitting smoking indeed correlates with weight gain. I have a lot of Russian friends who smoked when coming to US, and most of them quit. All of those who quit gained weight.

2. In weight loss 80% is diet and only 20% is exercise. Ask any personal trainer in your gym - you can spend every day in gym working out for several hours, but unless you eat less calories than you burn, you will not lose any weight. My friend recently went to Thailand for a weight loss camp, and only lost 5lbs in a month. When we analyzed what he did we found out that he indeed ate very little, but he drank a lot of Thai iced tea (you know it is hot there). Unfortunately a cup of Thai iced tea (served with sugar and milk) is basically a meal, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it has like 400 calories. Five cups and you have your daily intake - no weight loss.

1. Nicotine acts as somewhat of an appetite suppressant. Therefore when people quit smoking they often eat more because they are hungry. Combine this with the miserable withdrawal period and emotional eating and you will have very fat girls in no time.

2. You are right. The basic idea of not being overweight is calories in versus calories out. If you eat more calories than you expend (walking, running, any activity that requires energy, i.e. everything), you gain weight. If you expend more calories than you consume, you lose weight. Of course, cutting out crap in your diet helps (micro wave dinners, snacks, ho-hos, chips, fast-food).

In my opinion, dieting is actually a frivolous fad that actually is harmful because it encourages one to blindly cut out carbs and other "caloriefull" foods. I believe that most dieting fads out there are meant to keep people unhealthy (albeit skinnier and unhealthy) so they can sell you book after book after book of "health advice".

I have not heard of anyone getting rich after reading "How to get rich books" nor have I heard of anyone getting skinny after reading "How to lose weight" books.

My two cents.

Wald

Post: #12

Forget smoking! The real secret to weight loss is mixed amphetamine salts (AKA - Adderall).

Only partially joking....

Post: #13

or everyone could just get off their ass and work out or go for a run every day. I eat whatever the fuck I want, period but I'm in professional athlete shape because I maintain my body that way.

Smoking is not worth the sacrifice, although it will slim you down.. (and ruin your complexion, fingernails, breath, teeth and voice).. just quit AGAIN fucking cigarettes