http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18985141

Basically, it turns out that as we have machines do do things for us, we don’t need so many calories and unfortunately we eat too many and become porkers.

Who’d have thought.

who would have thought it? Exercising is a rubbish way to burn excess food, it’s easier not to eat too much of it in the first place. People’s mindset about food needs to change to cure the obesity problem.

Lies! I won’t believe it. Prove it to me – and I still won’t believe you. Also I won’t be listening as I’ll be eating my pork Pie…

In all seriousness though, its all very valid, Office workers can massively increase their calorie burn if the just stand up now and then, walk to people rather email them, i.e. – be active. If I ever ran a company I would be very tempted to remove all sametime/internal email to promote healthier staff. And there wouldn’t a be a vending machine in the place…

who would have thought it? Exercising is a rubbish way to burn excess food, it’s easier not to eat too much of it in the first place. People’s mindset about food needs to change to cure the obesity problem.

That’s a really interesting one though, because I can do nothing for a week but sit on the sofa working from a laptop and find I don’t get any less hungry (in fact moreso in some cases) and smaller portion sizes leave me feeling starving.

I think it might take many months of low-volume eating to adjust your feedback systems to accept you don’t need more food.

But I do think that report lacks substance (pardon the pun) – saying the people who exercise can still be fat is nothing but clear statement of fact – of course they can if they expend as much as they eat. They seem to be suggesting steady state conditions are the only possible states.

a sedentary lifestyle leads to boredom, boredom leads to cravings. I’ve been sat at my PC many a time believing I’m hungry but when I get up and do something there’s suddenly no desire to eat at all, sometimes for several hours. The reason is because I’ve become occupied with something more interesting.

Brains burn cals as well…

I will often start work early – 0400 – 0430. Tea with sugar, toast and marmalade are esential to kick the brain into activity

a sedentary lifestyle leads to boredom, boredom leads to cravings. I’ve been sat at my PC many a time believing I’m hungry but when I get up and do something there’s suddenly no desire to eat at all, sometimes for several hours. The reason is because I’ve become occupied with something more interesting

Amen brother. I’m sitting at my desk now thnking I’m hungry, and I’m probably not, I’m just bored.

I don’t understand all the confusion with weight loss or gain.

Calories taken in – calories used = calories left over (or defecit)

If I go out on my bike and burn 1000 calories and then eat a pizza and drink 4 beers (about 2000 calories), that will be me about 1000 calories up for the day.

Surely the guidance is just exercise in conjunction with a healthy balanced diet?

Simples.

BBC in revelation shocker

a sedentary lifestyle leads to boredom, boredom leads to cravings. I’ve been sat at my PC many a time believing I’m hungry but when I get up and do something there’s suddenly no desire to eat at all, sometimes for several hours. The reason is because I’ve become occupied with something more interesting.

Absolutely. Activity in any form is the key. Activity burns calories, keeps boredom at bay thus dampens the desire to eat for the sake of eating.

All is good.

I don’t understand all the confusion with weight loss or gain.

Calories taken in – calories used = calories left over (or defecit)

If I go out on my bike and burn 1000 calories and then eat a pizza and drink 4 beers (about 2000 calories), that will be me about 1000 calories up for the day.

Surely the guidance is just exercise in conjunction with a healthy balanced diet?

Simples.

Nothing simples about it.

The concept is – the reality is not.

The level of argument on here over this subject – ie a group of “active” or sport minded people, shows that there is nothing so simple that everyone can agree upon.

If we can’t gauge (or agree) on the “calories burnt” part, with our HRMs, use of diet / sports nutrition websites / advice etc, how the hell are Joe Public going to?

Likewise with calories consumed – the large number of TV programmes on diet and food marketing show that food companies go out of their way to market high fat and high sugar foods, with little regard to clear communication…

Traffic lights anyone?

Rubbish study, rubbish conclusion. They don’t appear to have considered how the metabolism also adjusts for the limited calorie intake. Like most westerners I have a far higher calorie intake than those tribesmen, and the amount of exercise I do has a dramatic effect on whether or not I put on weight.

Being active is really important to your health but it won’t keep you thin

Well it does for me. Scientist is wrong shocker.

Being active is really important to your health but it won’t keep you thin

Well it does for me. Scientist is wrong shocker.

that’s because you eat too much.

It’s so far from simple Rugbydick that simple is a dot on the tyre of the lunar rover.

that’s because you eat too much.

Yes, like most people in this country. And?

… it’s easier not to eat too much of it in the first place. People’s mindset about food needs to change to cure the obesity problem

No no no, you’ve got it all wrong.

People want to be told that it’s someone elses fault they’re fat, or it’s their genes … anything other than be accountable for themselves, eat differently and maybe get off the sofa once in a while.

(this may be a massive generalisation)

Like most westerners I have a far higher calorie intake than those tribesmen, and the amount of exercise I do has a dramatic effect on whether or not I put on weight.

I think they said that more or less.

I think they said that more or less.

You may have been reading a different article to me:

“This to me says that the big reason that Westerners are getting fat is because we eat too much – it’s not because we exercise too little,” said Dr Pontzer.

“Being active is really important to your health but it won’t keep you thin – we need to eat less to do that.”

We are actually are more active now than 30 years ago in the west.

We are actually are more active now than 30 years ago in the west.

Really? I know things like gym membership and mtbing 😉 will have greater levels of participation, but…

So, its 1982, “off the top of my head”
– I don’t remember that many 2 car families
– I do remember lots of stay at home housewives – walking (or public transporting?) to the shops / schools
– driving to the supermarket was (almost?) unheard of
– School run was something you did when you were late
– Schools had playing fields
– As kids we spent a huge amount of time outside, running around
– Many, many more people were physically active in their workplace, far fewer “desk jobs”
– As a teenager, I did a lot of casual jobs on farms and building sites – most of the “manual labour graft” in those jobs appear to have been replaced by natty little (labour cost saving) gadgets

I will often start work early – 0400 – 0430. Tea with sugar, toast and marmalade are esential to kick the brain into activity

Science disagree’s with you, brains actualy work better when starved of carbs and running on ketones (fat can’t cross the blood-brian barrier, but partialy metabolised fat in the form of ketones can).

Really? I know things like gym membership and mtbing will have greater levels of participation, but…

So, its 2012, “off the top of my head”
– I don’t know that many 2 car families
couples yes, familys, out of my circle of friends seem to all be 1 car as mum’s at home looking after baby, sample may not be reprisenttative and they’ll probably be 2 car when she goes back to work inn a few years, but in 1982 mums didnt work, now they do, and still the housework gets done so surely that’s more work?
– I do remember lots of stay at home housewives – walking (or public transporting?) to the shops / schools,
kids still get the bus to school or mostly walk within towns/vilages Anythign further than that and they get driven, I know I was in the 80’s (about 4 miles)[/b]
– driving to the supermarket was (almost?) unheard of
I can barelky carry a weeks shopping for myself in a ricksack, has anyone ever carried a weeks woth of stuff for a family of 4?)
– School run was something you did when you were late
see above
– Schools had playing fields
school still have playing fields
– As kids we spent a huge amount of time outside, running around
judgeing by the screeming mass that is the playground I’m pretty sure they still do, and there’s a skatepark, pump track and the usual football/tennis/playground’s in the vilage, always busy, how many STW’ers complain about pump tracks being busy so they dont want to go and embaras themselves?
– Many, many more people were physically active in their workplace, far fewer “desk jobs”
there’s a photo up in our office of the same view in the 70’s, it’s identical except for drafting boards rather than PC’s
– As a teenager, I did a lot of casual jobs on farms and building sites – most of the “manual labour graft” in those jobs appear to have been replaced by natty little (labour cost saving) gadgets You refere to the Poles as labour saving gadgets, RACIST

You also forgot to mention how when you were a kid all this were trees…………

I reckon this golden age people keep going on about never existed, rich people have always been fat, just look at any protrait of Lords/Ladies from the last 500 years, it’s just that now we’re all rich. And no need to go to the rainforest to see that physical exercise isn’t the biggest factor just needs to look at a building site and imagine the stereotypical builder, 30’s, overweight, with his jeans halfway down his arse!

Er, I think the food industry may have something to do with it.

I don’t understand all the confusion with weight loss or gain

No, you don’t!

Calories out is a massively complex equation. It’s not just the amount of exercise you do.

Calories out is a massively complex equation

it may be, and actually calories in is quite hard to measure too, but is that even relevant? I weigh myself regularly. If my weight has gone over where I want it to be, I eat less. My weight goes down. If it’s below what I want to be, I know I can be more relaxed about my intake (but I’m not going to pig out). Nowhere in this process have I made any attempt to measure either the calories in or out. I have to accept that I am going to spend some time feeling hungry, but it’s not exactly the end of the world, is it?

onewheelgood – your plan is far too sensible and logical to work for everyone.

TINAS – no rose tinted spectacles about it: my father’s / uncle’s / grandfather’s generations worked themselves into early ill health / coffins. Not just through poor working conditions and industrial diseases, but through hard, wet, cold graft.

I just saw the end of that way of working, and didn’t want it for me!

Now, I suspect you’re just trolling – but my top of the head recollections were certainly valid for where I grew up. The mothers in the 1 car families walked to the shops. Kids walked to school – cant remember the distance for free school bus, suspect it was 3 miles? We lived 1.5 miles and no free bus. No school run mums, that’s for sure. Anyone dropping kids off at the time the school crossing patrol was operating got a ticket.

Shopping for the week? Housewives shopped daily, and walked the groceries home….

I’m sorry, but for most folks, life was more active 30 years ago!

We are talking about the 1980’s not the 1880’s.

Not sure you are old enough to remember life then.

I don’t understand all the confusion with weight loss or gain
No, you don’t!

Calories out is a massively complex equation. It’s not just the amount of exercise you do.

I see this on here a lot.
If I eat less food than usual and carry on my usual lifestyle, I lose weight.
If I eat more food than usual and carry on my usual lifestyle I gain weight.

Whether the calories out is a massively complex equation or not, the above still happens.

💡

We are talking about the 1980’s not the 1880’s.

Not sure you are old enough to remember life then.

Blimey. Either I was brought up in a peculiar, backward part of society (ok, it was Cornwall 😉 ), or there are a lot of young people / poor memories on here…

This website endlessly debates “Thatcher’s legacy*”. Politics aside, that debate is fundamentally about taking large parts of the working population out of old fashioned labour intensive industries. Whether skilled trades, semi skilled or manual labourers, a significantly higher number of the population were working in more “active” jobs in 1982 than in 2012 – I would have thought that would be self-explanatory.

I’m not talking about digging canals by hand a la 1800s, but working at a lathe, clambering around a ship welding, carrying hods of bricks up ladders, stacking small sized hay / straw bales…

Is all this OT – well no, because if the old 2500 cals/day for men advice reflects the above “industrial” working lifestyle, then it’s likely too much for the greater proportion of sedentary jobs that ocupy the 2012 employment market

* and, no, I’m not blaming Thatcher for the obesity epidemic…

… oh, hang on, convenient – it does seem to have started from the late 80s onwards. Maybe taking lots of folks out of active jobs and putting them on the dole was the trigger 😕

I can recommend shivering as a great way to burn calories!! LOL it’s **** freezing this morning.

I’m not talking about digging canals by hand a la 1800s, but working at a lathe, clambering around a ship welding, carrying hods of bricks up ladders, stacking small sized hay / straw bales…

This. My son’s just turned 18, and I was reflecting on the sort of casual/summer jobs I had at that age (in the late ’70s). Building sites, warehouses, distribution – and most of the work involved hard physical work, digging, unloading 20 tons of bricks/cement/wine/underlay, whatever. Now, most of that is automated or at least mechanised. They’re working on the road outside my house now, and instead of a bunch of 18-year-olds with shovels there’s a bloke with a mini-digger.

rich people have always been fat, just look at any protrait of Lords/Ladies from the last 500 years, it’s just that now we’re all rich

yeh but not all of us are fat. 9.3% last time I checked 😉

I can still remember the sore hands from carrier bags of groceries digging in my hands as we trundled home with the shopping. I was definitely more active thirty years ago, I generally only leave my desk for coffee or to use the loo.