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Comment by roadnottaken | Hacker News Reader

Um, I know a solution to the obesity crisis....

Eat less, exercise more? Easy to say right, but the simple message isn't working obviously. Obesity levels have doubled over the last 40 years. Its not sporadic either, it's affecting the entire population now. Why is this happening?

The government (and medical science) was wrong about what it told us to eat for the past 40 years.

Eating less and eating the right things is probably much more effective then exercising more (it takes a lot of work to burn up a donut)... But I'm not saying that exercise is not important for other reasons.

You're talking about small-scale, individual solutions... ones that you'd throw at a random obese person.

He's talking about a population level crisis. "People eat too much" doesn't answer the question anymore.

people believing there is some mystical cause to their obesity is the problem. People like to blame some magical undiscovered illness when they are just eating too much, eating too many bad foods, not exercising enough or a combination of those. there is no mystery to obesity but I do believe we can do more to educate people on better / healthier lifestyle habits.

Because people consume more calories than they need. We know this, we've known this for a very long time.

From what I have read there may be more to it than just laziness and over-eating.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/babies-have-a-micr...

It seems to agree with my observation that many people get obese very easily while I would have a very hard time even if I tried.

Ayup. Basic income and universal health care. That way people can concentrate on their health, first, without having to worry about their daily salary to keep themselves housed, clothed, and fed.

Oh, wait, that wasn't what you meant? :)

As for your snide solution:

There is research coming in that your body will reduce your metabolism in order to conserve fat. Fat cells "remember" the environment when they were created, and take between 3-5 years to be replaced. So, you are fighting the fact that you were fat 3 years ago even if you weigh correctly right now.

I can also tell you from personal experience that stress us a HUGE factor. I haven't changed anything obvious in my life, but I'm down almost 15 pounds since my life became a lot less stressful (external factors went away). Am I magically more virtuous all of a sudden? Doubtful. So, what changed? Am I feeling fuller? Am I sleeping better? Is my survival system not being so wound up? Who knows?

So, from my point of view, if you want to cut down on obesity, cut down on people's stress. And that translates to fewer hours at work, help with young/old family members, healthcare improvements, etc.

Huh, I lost a lot of weight when I was under more stress and gained it back when that stress was lessened.

Some people put on weight under stress, some lose weight under stress.

Humans vary more than some people seem to think.

I knew a solution to changing the TV channel, it didn't mean the remote control wasn't a welcome invention.

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