It Was Easier to Be Skinny in the 1980s | Hacker News Reader

It Was Easier to Be Skinny in the 1980s

theatlantic.com

To summarize, populations who diet and exercise, the same amount as populations in the 80s, are heavier. No one knows why, but some possibilities are

- increases in chemicals in the environment

- increased prescription drug use

- increases in animal product consumption

- changes in the human gut biome

- proliferation of artificial sweeteners

Deliberate exercise is one thing, but maybe people today are more sedentary when they aren't exercising. It's my impression that physical activity required at many jobs is lower today than it was then.

Following through to the actual study, it appears to have considered "leisure time physical activity" but maybe not workplace physical activity.

Pontzer's book Burn seems to indicate exercise is good for health but not weight loss. Energy usage in the body is complicated but diet seems to be more important than exercise if I understand it correctly.

Exercise also frankly just doesn't burn many calories. It only really takes two candy bars to undo two hours at the gym, calorie wise.

High-fructose corn syrup causes characteristics of obesity in rats: increased body weight, body fat and triglyceride levels

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3522469/

Another possibility is that the data is just wrong. Subject reported data on diet and exercise is notoriously inaccurate.

This. Absolutely this.

A good friend used to lament about the data they were entering was of very poor quality.

However the skews were somehow magically understood by the consumers of the data or maybe overall the day averaged out over time.

Data cleansing is a thing no?

> To summarize, populations who diet and exercise, the same amount as populations in the 80s, are heavier. No one knows why, but some possibilities are

Sugar. I have a very hard time finding edible chocolate. It is all sugar and cocoa. Want to buy some canned vegetables ? They contain sugar (why ?). Bread seems to contain more and more sugar. Want to buy semiprocessed food ? It has a lot of sugar. Want to buy some juice ? 10 -20 g of sugar per 100 ml. It is just crazy.

Surprised they didn’t mention smoking. Nicotine is an appetite suppressant.

From USA National Institute of Health:

“Artificial sweeteners appear to change the host microbiome, lead to decreased satiety, and alter glucose homeostasis, and are associated with increased caloric consumption and weight gain.”

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29159583/

- Exercise today often means only weightlifting.

Somebody didn't read the article

[Citation needed], and besides weightlifting is fine

> A membership at one of the newfangled fitness centers of 1987 would go for about $2,800 per year in today’s dollars, and that’s still what it costs today.

Are they talking about Equinox level gyms?

I don't know what level they are talking about. I wrangled a $5/month 'life' membership at a branch of a major chain, starting in 1984. I don't think that $60/year reaches $2800. The 'inflation calculator'[1] I use regularly uses USG numbers and it says that the equivalent to $60/year is $155/year today.

[1] https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

In 2010, I had $3/month at 24 Hour Fitness for life + $5/month for SuperSport.

I have no idea what kind of gym charges that much. My gym, with extensive weightlifting and cardio equipment, sauna, locker room with showers is $350/yr.

Mirtazapine (atypical antidepressant) helped me for about 2 years, but then it was downhill from there. Gained 60 lbs on 200 (27 on 91). It's used in certain cases for people to gain weight.

When it worked, it was amazing, but the weight gain was intolerable. Missing a single dose felt exactly like a hangover after sleeping.

In this age, I would say:

- exercise even more

- subject yourself to more cold (burn more calories)

- subject yourself to more heat (suppress appetite)

- fasting - alternate day

- fasting - 18.6

- organic as much as possible

- eliminate industrially-processed foods as much as possible: if it comes in a box, it's probably suspect.

- eliminate plastic containers

- take the stairs rather than the elevator

- modify one's route to deliberately walk more

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Another thing that needs to happen is for food packages to be wax, glass, or other materials for containers that don't contaminate the food with plastic compounds.

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