"TomHendricks474"  wrote
>
> << Western people don't need to take any exercise, and have virtually
> unlimited access to high calorie food. You don't need to look any further
to
> find theexplanation for obesity. >  >>
>
>
> For that to be correct you would not have obesity in any individual that
does
> not have access to high calorie food. Nor would there be any obese people
in
> history before high calorie diets.
>
We're looking for the explanation for widespread obsesity, not for every
individual who is obese. For instance psychiatric medication often causes
obseity, which can be controlled by diet, but poor diet is not the root
cause in these patients.
Everyone responds to calorie deprivation by losing body weight, because of
the law of energy conservation. It is not physically possible to do
otherwise.
>
> I don't think that is the complete answer - we had obesity throughout
human
> history.
>
In most societies there is a minority of rich people who do not need to do
physical work, and can obtain as much food as they want. The there are some
people who are genetically disposed to become obese.
>
> If there was no cause but diet, then switching diets would immediately end
the
> obesity problem - it does not nor does it end the food craving.
>
Exercise is also a problem. When you work out the maths, you see that you
have to do an enormous amount of exercise to burn up enough calories to
cancel a single chocolate bar. What I suspect is that the body responds to
the demands of exercise by reducing fat reserves, as well as by increasing
muscle. Not that I have any proper evidence for this, but the anecdotal
evidence is that exercise is effective in weight loss.

The other problem is that people become psychologically involved in their
eating. Dieting doesn't work, because as soon as the diet is relaxed when
the desired weight is achieved, the slimmer puts the weight back on again.
High calorie foods are nicer than low calorie foods, though extremely high
calorie foods, like solid lumps of fat, are a turn off.
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