There's something very wrong here...

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  • Alex_is_Hawks
    Alex_is_Hawks Posts: 3,499 Member
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    Plates and cups and portion sizes have also increased..lending a false sense of "being good"

    I have my great grandmothers china and it's HALF the size of the Gordon Ramsey plates I bought last year...

    back then you would eat one helping on a dinner plate that was the size of a side plate now...

    so we tell ourselves we stopped with one helping and we were good people...but if we TRULY stopped with one helping on a plate the size they were 40 years ago...we would be eating half as much as we eat now...

    that's terrifying...as a result? I put away the dinner plates, I eat off of the side plates only...or...my great grandmothers china.
  • scottg1024
    scottg1024 Posts: 224
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    Carbs and all-you-can-eat buffets! Thanks for the post!
  • Cheri_Moves
    Cheri_Moves Posts: 625 Member
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    Interesting info... Thanks for sharing!

    If you still have it, would you mind posting the link to this study? 1500 calories a day for a women is below many ladies' BMR! At least its below mine, so I would like to check this out :wink:

    P.S. They're some pretty funny stuff floating around in this thread.
  • BenChase
    BenChase Posts: 169
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    i would just like to add that i take in an average of 3300-3600 calories a day and don't remember the last time my carbs went below 400 in a day and all this does not put any weight on me, why? because i live an active lifestyle and get excercise, carbs are not any worse than anything else, stop the carb hatred!! can't we all get alone with carbs? O.o
  • Kara_xxx
    Kara_xxx Posts: 635 Member
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    Someone said on another thread (I think the "obese children" one...) that these days you see slim grandma, fatter mother and even fatter child... and I thought, now that you mention it... you're right!
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    Yes, people eat more now. What did you think was causing the obesity problem?

    Carbs.

    Y'know, I liked your original post, but not the snark.

    One of the reasons that calories have gone up is the change in what we're eating, which DOES include more sugar and carbs. And yeah, we're eating more calories and food. Which is ubiquitous.
  • Cheri_Moves
    Cheri_Moves Posts: 625 Member
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    There's been a steady increase in the amount of people joining gyms and regularly participating in competitive sports (i.e. distance running)
    Teen smoking is down
    Awareness of good nutritional habits is increasing
    Organic farming and natural food awareness is up

    We may turn things around.

    I like this... Some light at the end of our very dark tunnel!
  • Brunner26_2
    Brunner26_2 Posts: 1,152
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    The problem is that, since 1971, we've gotten farther from our caveman roots. Everything will be fine if we all go on the paleo diet.

    Obvious troll is obvious, paleo isn't the end all eating style, and if you were actually up to date on your paleolithic research you would see that they DID in fact eat grains.

    If I'm a troll then why do you feel the need to argue about my knowledge of a paleolithic diet?
  • MrDangerSass
    MrDangerSass Posts: 99
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    So, after a wonderful couple of weeks watching the Olympics I was inspired to research the training schedules of the athletes and see how they compared with my own. This lead me to seeing what an average person would do in general as well.

    I couldn't find a lot of readily accessible data about the UK where I live but there was a fair amount of data from the US floating around which honestly shocked me. Given the UK is similar to the US I believe we are probably much the same.

    In 1971, the average US woman consumed about 1,542 calories per day. In 2000, this had risen to 1,877 a difference of 335 calories per day. This is equivalent to 122, 275 calories a year or an extra 35lbs of fat...

    For men the numbers rose from 2,450 to 2,618 an increase of 168 calories per day. This is equivalent to an extra 17.5lbs of fat.

    80% watch TV every day, with the average person watching a whopping 5 hours per day or 35 hours per week. Only 5% were engaged in vigorous exercising daily, with 16% engaging is sports or exercise per day.

    This doesn't even factor in increasing automation meaning we are more sedentary and engage in less physical activity.

    Our perception of what is normal has become hugely distorted with time. Is it any wonder our respective nations are getting fatter and fatter? I wager if people reverted to a 1970 calorie intake and devoted a meagre 1/5th of the time they spent watching TV on average to exercise then our obesity problem would rapidly diminish.

    We have become pampered, complacent and self delusional. No wonder our waistlines are expanding...

    Glad you posted this. There seems to be a chunk of people who like to pin obesity on singular things outside of thermodynamics and this post is a pretty good example of the problem. We're eating more and moving less. Period.

    Amen
  • Kara_xxx
    Kara_xxx Posts: 635 Member
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    I have my great grandmothers china and it's HALF the size of the Gordon Ramsey plates I bought last year...

    That's very interesting. And now that you mention it, the plates we bought a few years ago are enormous in comparison to the plates my parents inherited from my grandparents.
  • WABeachWalker
    WABeachWalker Posts: 133 Member
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    And we walked everywhere--to the store, to church, to friends' houses, to school. To get to any of those places faster, we rode bikes. There was no such thing as a drive-thru anything. I think that people drive a lot more than in years past.
  • ChgingMe
    ChgingMe Posts: 539 Member
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    Plates and cups and portion sizes have also increased..lending a false sense of "being good"

    I have my great grandmothers china and it's HALF the size of the Gordon Ramsey plates I bought last year...

    back then you would eat one helping on a dinner plate that was the size of a side plate now...

    so we tell ourselves we stopped with one helping and we were good people...but if we TRULY stopped with one helping on a plate the size they were 40 years ago...we would be eating half as much as we eat now...

    that's terrifying...as a result? I put away the dinner plates, I eat off of the side plates only...or...my great grandmothers china.

    I had a boss once who lost 50 pounds and the only thing she did differently was incorporate more walking eat off the smaller plates.When she would go out to eat she would get a to-go box up front and cut the meal in half. How easy that is... Just eat less.
  • Faye_Anderson
    Faye_Anderson Posts: 1,495 Member
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    In 1971, the average US woman consumed about 1,542 calories per day. In 2000, this had risen to 1,877 a difference of 335 calories per day. This is equivalent to 122, 275 calories a year or an extra 35lbs of fat...

    I lose weight on 1877 calories, I feel I am under eating on 1542, I'm 5ft4 and don't exercise, where's the extra 35lb of fat going?
  • Darlin
    Darlin Posts: 17 Member
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    It is amazing if you look at how much our portion sizes have increased and what is considered a normal meal.

    Protein sizes have increased? A serving should be the size of a deck of cards. There are lots of neat ways to measure your foods when you are out or at home, if you dont have other means. Good luck!
  • myofibril
    myofibril Posts: 4,500 Member
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    If you still have it, would you mind posting the link to this study? 1500 calories a day for a women is below many ladies' BMR! At least its below mine, so I would like to check this out :wink:

    Sure no probs:

    http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5304a3.htm
  • RedHeadDevotchka
    RedHeadDevotchka Posts: 1,394 Member
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    I think people are overweight because they make excuses for themselves. I did it, and I know lots of people that do it. Excuses about over eating, about not exercising, etc. Whatever it is that someone wants to make an excuse about will work. Because for me, it wasn't just sugar or carbs, it was ALL food that I decided to eat at once. Plus, I would make excuses about being too tired to go to the gym or that I had too much stuff at home. I think it's all about the excuses we allow ourselves to believe!
  • myofibril
    myofibril Posts: 4,500 Member
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    In 1971, the average US woman consumed about 1,542 calories per day. In 2000, this had risen to 1,877 a difference of 335 calories per day. This is equivalent to 122, 275 calories a year or an extra 35lbs of fat...

    I lose weight on 1877 calories, I feel I am under eating on 1542, I'm 5ft4 and don't exercise, where's the extra 35lb of fat going?

    It appears that 1,877 calories still puts you at deficit so there's no need to worry.

    The 1,542 was simply an average.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    Here is an interesting article about war time rationing in the UK. Calorie intake (3,000 per day for men) remains almost the same. However, fat, sugar and protein consumption have increased.
    So what got less - the increases would push up the calories by 514 against the actual 100.

    Less unsaturated fat, less alcohol, less non-sugar carbs ??
  • WhitneyT586
    WhitneyT586 Posts: 279 Member
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    I think less homecooking and more fast food/restaurant meals is also partly to blame. I recently started cooking more from scratch and it has surprised so many people that a younger person enjoys making things from scratch instead of from a box. I've seen the stats where portion sizes have increased over the last several decades and its crazy. A 12 oz soda was normal... Now a 32 oz soda is normal. It makes no sense! Sure, maybe you can get more "bang for your buck" but the extra calories are so not worth it! Between that and too much tv/video game/computer time it is no wonder we are where we are!
  • SoDamnHungry
    SoDamnHungry Posts: 6,998 Member
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    Yes, people eat more now. What did you think was causing the obesity problem?

    I thought it was the fat fairies injecting lard into our behinds as we sleep...

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