Snacks are the cause of overweight people

juliana813

no one ever got overweight from snacking on carrots

SairahRose

Actually, eating a caloric surplus without exercising is the cause of overweight people. Generic "snacking" is irrelevent.

This. I was skinny until I was about 13/14.
So some of it was hormonal...
My eating habits didn't really change at all, and I had snacks and food that varied. What it boiled down to was that I was so active until then, and then I found that reading or being in front of the computer was more fun than hiking.

hatethegame

Hey.... Don't pick on snacking! ha-ha. I think it's a variety of things that made us all fat! It's not just snacking but what we snack on, super-size everything (fast-food, candy bars, etc, etc), not enough exercise. Most of the schools in my area don't even have recess anymore. What a brilliant idea!

Mrsfreedom41

In my childhood days there was no tv, no internet, no fast foods and mostly we could not afford to have snacks. Once in a great while an ice cream treat. Today the children and some adults do not how to eat healthy foods due to the accessability of convenience foods (loaded with fat and sodium) and the fast food restaurants which tempt us with the low prices of a meal for kids and adults. I had to play outside all the time for my entertainment, mostly by myself as we had no neighbors that had kids my age. At school, we all had to go outside at recess and play kick ball, baseball, vollyball, basketball and dodge ball, etc. No activities for kids at recess if they have recess at all now. Kids these days don't know how to play anything other than video games, violent at that in my opinion. So, the sedentary life style, not eating healthy and watching the portion sizes even if you are eating healthy, is a contributing factor to overweight. Some of it may be genetic, but not all overweight people can contribute their obesity to genetics......All of this is my own opinion......

sexymuffintop

OP, I think we have all agreed. The answer to your question is No. Problem solved

Railr0aderTony

I have snacked more since joining MFP than I have in my life, I must be doing it wrong.

DawnieB1977

I eat all day (seriously, about every couple hours), and I've lost 61 pounds. I'm always gnawing on something. My desk at work always has a bunch of containers of nuts, celery, apple slices, cheese cubes, etc laying all over it. My coworkers probably think I'm a squirrel.

It depends on how many calories you eat, not how many times you eat.

Snap! I've also lost 61lbs and I snack. My personal trainer is all for snacking. It's what you snack on that matters. Obviously if you snack on chocolate, sausage rolls etc, then you'll gain weight, but having some fruit or some almonds or something is fine. Also, depends what you have for your meals too.

My kids snack and they're slim. They don't eat large amounts at meal times and they're incredibly active. Must take after me!

jofjltncb6

I was a serious snack-eating machine as a kid. Pop-tarts, candy bars, chips...and juices, chocolate milk, etc...

...and was remarkably scrawny...(some would argue that I still am)...probably because I was incredibly active (and still am).

Personally, my opinion is that the problem is people are eating more calories than they burn...whether it's in snacks, meals, or whatever you want to call the eating sessions. They're eating more and burning less. Period. The end.

fatboi79

It's the junk food.I bet if they had some fruit as a snack,they wouldn't be fat.

Couldn't agree more, the only thing making people fat is the ridiculous amount of calories and crap put into processed food + the silly amount of time it would take to burn those calories off through exercise.

SanteMulberry

When I was a child we never had ANY snacks in the house and children were not asked or allowed to bring snacks into school.
We were told to eat breakfast, lunch & dinner. Basically 3 meals a day! But no snacking between meals. I remember at school that there would be the odd fat child at school but that was it.

Now I've got children and snacking is promoted, I have seen that the schools are full of overweight kids. I think the old way was definitely more healthy. What do you guys think!

I saw a book by a French woman recently (can't recall the title, maybe someone else will). It is about feeding kids and she says that the reason why French children are not picky about eating healthy foods is because they are not allowed to snack and that they eat what is put in front of them or they don't eat. Anyone else know about this?

Ramberta

children these days are spending WAY less time playing outside and running around. They are spending more time on their butts facebooking, playing video games and texting. THAT is the problem. Even when I bring my daughter to the playground, I see the parents sitting on the benches texting and playing on their phones while their children entertain themselves. It's very sad

^This. It doesn't matter when, what, or how much you eat-- what separates fat kids from thin ones is their activity levels.

However, technology isn't the problem, it's just a much more convenient and alluring way for kids to be inactive. I was a bookworm who liked to come home and sit in her room and read all day, I got it from my mother. Even when I went to play outside, it was often just sitting in the sandbox for hours.

We weren't allowed to have a computer or a game console of any kind until I was 13. And yet, I was still lazy enough to be over 200 pounds by that point...

likearadiowave

When I was a child we never had ANY snacks in the house and children were not asked or allowed to bring snacks into school.
We were told to eat breakfast, lunch & dinner. Basically 3 meals a day! But no snacking between meals. I remember at school that there would be the odd fat child at school but that was it.

Now I've got children and snacking is promoted, I have seen that the schools are full of overweight kids. I think the old way was definitely more healthy. What do you guys think!

I've seen advice for the opposite. I've read that snacking on healthy snacks makes you eat less at meals, therefore promoting weight loss.

The reason no snacking would make you possibly GAIN weight is that you're more hungry between meals, which causes you to eat MORE during the meal.

I have a feeling your reasoning is flawed.

thesupremeforce

The problem is largely laziness. Kids are lazy, so they don't exercise. Parents and schools are lazy so they don't bother with "proper" nutrition. Most of them likely don't understand the basics anyway, largely because they can't be bothered to learn (or don't even think about it).

I snack far more now than I ever did previously, but I pay attention to what I'm eating. When I was growing up, I ate whatever happened to be put in front of me at meals (via schools or at home). Really, right up until this year I ate whatever was put in front of me (or whatever I put in front of me).

hungryhobbit1

Obviously snacks aren't the only problem. I have never been much of a snacker but have always struggled with my weight, mostly because when I don't keep track my portions creep up until they are about twice what a person my height should be eating. Like others have said, it's calories in/calories out that's the problem.

That having been said, there is definitely a cultural attitude in America right now that kids need snacks all day long and OMG they will probably just pass out if they spend the afternoon at the beach without a cooler filled with salami and juice boxes. I am often frustrated by this when I'm out with friends and their kids because I'll pack our little single lunch bag with some water bottles and a couple of apples and the kids will spend all afternoon mooching off other people's food. When it's just us, the kids get hungry in the late afternoon and we go home and make a real dinner. Dinner tastes awesome after a day spent running around in the sun.

I chaperoned a field trip recently, and all of the kids had lunches filled with 3 or 4 (or more) prepackaged snacks in addition to a sandwich and a juice box and (hopefully) a piece of fruit. I asked my daughter if she is just eating her friend's food because she's always bringing home her lunch (sandwich, fruit, granola bar with her refillable water bottle) half eaten.

Ramberta

When I was a child we never had ANY snacks in the house and children were not asked or allowed to bring snacks into school.
We were told to eat breakfast, lunch & dinner. Basically 3 meals a day! But no snacking between meals. I remember at school that there would be the odd fat child at school but that was it.

Now I've got children and snacking is promoted, I have seen that the schools are full of overweight kids. I think the old way was definitely more healthy. What do you guys think!

I've seen advice for the opposite. I've read that snacking on healthy snacks makes you eat less at meals, therefore promoting weight loss.

The reason no snacking would make you possibly GAIN weight is that you're more hungry between meals, which causes you to eat MORE during the meal.

I have a feeling your reasoning is flawed.

It is, but only for the simple fact that every human being has different eating habits, whether they are healthy or unhealthy. To say that ANY one pattern of eating will make you fat or not is not only a sweeping generalization, but it just isn't going to be true for most of the population.

cmcollins001

twinketta

Just out of interest, my son brought my grand daughter to visit last week, and she asked for a biscuit or chocolate (she is 3 years old) I took her into the kitchen and said I have some nice yummy slices of ham..would you like to try it instead of a biscuit.

I told her that it is so yummy, my son said Mum you can`t give her a slice of meat when she wants a biscuit (I do not keep biscuits)

To cut a long story short she asked for the ham and said `daddy, grandma know best!` awww

RoadsterGirlie

I don't think snacks are the cause of obesity. However, go to the grocery store or anywhere in public and you will see with your own eyes that obesity is a problem.

A little snacking is healthy, as long as it's something like an apple or a banana and not potato chips or ice cream. Not to say you can't ever have those things but people eat them in such grand quantities no wonder it's common that everybody you come in contact with is 50+ lbs overweight.

Portion control and fast food joints on every corner are the problem. Process junk is promoted and advertised over healthy lean protein and locally grown fruits and vegetables.

Ramberta

It's only a matter of time before someone else buys the recipe. I'm calling that by this time next year, if not sooner, some new form of "Twinkies" will be on the shelves yet again.