I just stumbled upon a particularly stupid “info graphic” I had saved some time ago. The claim is that sitting causes obesity. Have a look:
It is simply mind-boggling. Let’s assume it is a fact that between 1980 and 2000 exercise rate indeed stayed the same, sitting time increased by 8 %, and obesity doubled, just like it is claimed on that infographic. Does something strike you as odd? Does it, perhaps, remind you of “research” in bullshit subjects where people routinely mistake correlations for causation?
If so, then I don’t need to point out to you that there is a much better explanation why people got fatter: they eat a lot more. If exercise is constant but your energy intake doubles, you’ll balloon. Just look at Western women who get married — they fatten up faster than you can say “I should have married Asian”.
It’s easy to look at an abomination like that spurious correlation and laugh. Yet, there is a bit more to it. There are two plausible scenarios: First, the author is a fucking moron who knows nothing about statistics. He isn’t aware that he is making a fool of himself. Second, the author knows about statistics but is convinced that his audience consists of morons. It reminds you of the PUA industry, doesn’t it?
One thing people don’t get about being weight gain though is how little it takes to get fat. When you see a 65kg dude and a 100 kg dude… The latter looks really fat, so you assume the 100kg dude “must eat twice as much during his meals”.
In reality 65kg dude is at 2000* calories, and the 100kg dude is at 3000* calories (so that’s 50% more calories, not double).
That’s if their exercise/expenditure is identical. And the only difference is “calories per meal”.
But here are some other factors that flip the entire thing on it’s head
– but if their NEAT is smaller (400 calories less spent)
– and they snack between meals (600 calories extra eaten)
– that’s 1000 calories of disadvantage coming from things other than meals
The 100kg dude might eat the EXACT same meals as the 65kg dude… Have the exact same amount of exercise. Yet he “looks as though he would eat twice as much”.
This is why if people just cut out snacks, cut out sodas, and add more neat, they can lose a ton of weight without even changing their meals.
Most excess calories come from snacking and drinks, not meals. It’s only the morbidly obese where you get into the territory of eating lots more food. (snacks/sodas easily add hundreds of calories a day without much in terms of visual quantity)
What’s “NEAT”? It’s an actual real thing that makes a big difference. Too bad the idiot making this infographic completely misunderstood it.
There is convincing research that skinnier people have more “NEAT’. This is “non-exercise activity threshold”. This means they spend more energy fidgeting/moving around for no reason/sit less, etc.
There is a lot of these kind of research out there about obesity. Not surprinsingly they find that everything that make you not expend energy is correlated with higher obesity. Also every food that is calorie dense is correlated with obesity and everything that make you less hungry make you thin.
In general, most people do not understand a lot about statistics, and a lot of people also do not understand that correlation and causality are two different things.
I am not sure if people eat more, but we do eat a lot of things we did not use to. We eat mostly processed food, and we went on a 30-year experiment where we reduced fat and increased our sugar and refined carbohydrate consumption. Personally, I think this has more to do with it.
We may have also been sitting down more, but if you are carrying more weight than you should, the odds are good you might be inclined to sit down more.
Wow, 8% more sitting time made us double in fat? So this genius thinks for every extra 1% of average sitting time equates to us being 25% fatter. Better think twice before you take that seat!
Remember, “your body goes into meltdown the moment you sit down”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUEl8KrMz14
Just wanted to say this video I just watched recently reminded me of this old article of yours. Except this video doesn’t seem stupid,it doesn’t make the claim that sitting makes you fat (excess calories do at the end of the day),just that sitting for long periods without full body movment (whether that’s because you’re working a desk job or binging on a computer game) is not good for you. It fortunately does have actionable and simple advice (4:15) however if sitting for long periods is unavoidable for you.
What interests me though is primarily this statement:
“Bodies are built for Motion,not Stillness”
You might have mentioned this in your book on Meditation,but what’s the maximum amount of time you’ve ever Meditated? I might be remembering incorrectly,but I think you said somewhere in the book that you’ve done it for as long as an entire day! (well,not literally the whole day I imagine,but from morning till night. unless you really went by without sleep in a session.)
If someone is actually capable of this and has the free time,how often would you recommend someone do that? Were you sore anywhere at all when you personally did this? I believe you also stated in your book that this is where being able to sit in the full lotus shows its benefit,I imagine because that’s a position you can stay absolutely still in for long periods with minimal strain or any health downsides that video spoke of.
No, I never mediated for an entire day. You will be fine if you get to the point where you can mediate for half an hour or so. I went beyond the one-hour mark in the past, at first unintentionally because I was simply somewhere else, and later a few times deliberately to see where my limit was. I dropped this somewhat competitive angle relatively quickly, however.
Just to follow up on the whole sitting topic,If you’re using a laptop,I’d heartily recommend having a small laptop table (my family decided to have wooden ones made for our personal use.) and laying on bed instead of sitting on a computer chair. I feel its healthier overall.
I remember back when I was using a computer chair whilst using a PC (not a laptop),and I would find myself having to move out of the chair from time to time to lay down on my bed (since this is in my bedroom). I feel this was a good habit to have in comparison to the addicted multiplayer gamer who could stay rooted on the seat for literal hours. But not as much being on a bed while using the computer. I remember still getting sore from time to time from having stayed seated for too long and too often.
I also find it much easier to naturally switch body positions (which again,comes inutuitively to me) on the bed than on the seat.
In terms of work instead of play though,I guess more reason to try and gun for being able to work at home instead of having to be stuck at the office if you’re the typical deskjob worker so you can do the above,among other benefits.
My wife recently got herself such a small laptop table. This is a big improvement over lying in bed with your laptop propped up on your thighs. Due to my usage patterns, this is not a must-buy, though, as I switched to using an iPad for consuming media, which is a lot more flexible than a laptop.