I was reading this article,
Obesity Rates Hit Plateau in U.S., Data Suggest, and was perplexed by this,
Dr. Ludwig said the plateau might just suggest that “we’ve reached a biological limit” to how obese people could get. When people eat more, he said, at first they gain weight; then a growing share of the calories go “into maintaining and moving around that excess tissue,” he continued, so that “a population doesn’t keep getting heavier and heavier indefinitely.”
Furthermore, Dr. Ludwig said, “it could be that most of the people who are genetically susceptible, or susceptible for psychological or behavioral reasons, have already become obese.”
The reason I’m perplexed is that this assumes
a. that there is only a finite number of people who would gain weight no matter how much they overeat, when in fact everybody will gain weight if they overeat enough,
and that
b. the psychological or behavioral issues that provoke overeating have already arisen in the lives of those susceptible, when life’s traumas come up unexpectedly.
I would very much appreciate clarification/opinion from my readers. Do you agree with the study? What is your experience?
(click on graph for larger image)
In other, non-fatteninng items, there was no podcast this morning due to an unexpectedly heavy (pun!) workload. Instead, I’ll be in Silvio Canto’s podcast at 6PM Eastern this evening.
