Tom Elliott: Obese? You’re Probably Too Lazy to Exercise

Herald Sun ^

[nickcarraway]

HERE’S a big fat shocker: Almost two-thirds of Australians are overweight or obese. Being flabby is the health crisis of our age. It’s the new smoking.

But what is the main cause of our expanding waistlines? Quite simply, we’re lazy. We prefer machines to do the physical work we once performed ourselves.

Early this week at Southern Cross Station, I observed a phenomenon that illustrates our disdain for exertion. Dozens of commuters were queued before a crowded escalator leading from the first floor to the ground level. Next to it was a near-vacant staircase. Instead of waiting for the escalator, these slothful individuals could have burned a kilojoule or two by using their legs.

Evidence of such laziness is everywhere. Thanks to the free tram zone in the CBD, for example, workers and shoppers who might have once walked a few blocks now catch public transport for a single stop. It seems we’re allergic to walking even short distances.

Similarly, on 3AW this week a bus driver named Ralph told me that younger patrons regularly board his vehicle to travel a few hundred metres. Sometimes the wait for such absurdly short trips exceeds 20 minutes. Yet apparently relaxing in a bus shelter is preferable to short stroll.

Even the humble remote control caters to our activity aversion. Rather than leap from the couch every time we wish to adjust the volume, or change a channel, the proliferation of small electronic boxes on our coffee tables allows us to remain seated for extended, and unhealthy, periods.

All this dramatically reduces the energy we expend over a lifetime. As a result, the CEO of Diabetes NSW and ACT, Stuart Eastwood, estimates that 21st century adults engage in 85 per cent less daily activity than their equivalents 100 years ago. But have we cut our food intake by an equivalent amount?

No. Modern Australians combine their distaste for exercise with a passion for eating junk and gulping sugar-laden fizzy drink — both, too often, by the bucketload.

And the results are obvious: 63.4 per cent of us are overweight or obese. Almost 5 per cent have type 2 diabetes, and the incidence of that largely preventable disease is growing rapidly. Diabetes can lead to blindness, amputation and early death. If we don’t do something, average Australian life expectancies will decline.

Fortunately, a solution for obesity is at hand. On the excessive eating and drinking front, groups like the Greens and the Australian Medical Association want to impose taxes on junk food and soft drink. These, they hope, will guide overweight Australians towards healthier dietary alternatives.

Since the introduction of the GST, however, we’ve already experienced a pseudo tax on junk food — and it hasn’t worked. Thanks to John Howard’s 2001 deal with the Democrats, fresh fruit, veggies and meat are exempt from sales tax. Yet still we prefer cramming our gobs with fat and GST-laden takeaway food.

Increased activity levels are the answer. And because too many of us lack the will to get out and exercise, some group coercion is required.

Apart from those who are physically incapacitated, no one really needs an escalator to go from one floor of a railway station, or shopping centre, to the next. All such devices should be removed, thus forcing otherwise inactive people on to the stairs.

The same is true for lifts in low-rise buildings. At 3AW, for example, we occupy the top floor of a squat, seven-storey structure. Climbing the stairs each day to and from our office would do both my colleagues and me no harm — and probably a power of good. So after the escalators at Southern Cross station have been dismantled, we should also remove unnecessary lifts.

And on public transport, why do so many people insist on sitting when standing is healthier? Apart from a small area reserved for the disabled, the pregnant and the elderly, the seats on every tram, train and bus should be replaced with safety straps.

More commuters will be accommodated during busy periods, and standing erect for an hour or so each day won’t hurt office workers whose main form of exercise consists of manoeuvring a computer mouse around a desk.

Usually I’m not a fan of banning things. But rising levels of obesity threaten our collective wellbeing. If unnecessary labour-saving devices like escalators, low-rise lifts and seats on public transport are eliminated, we’ll probably whinge a bit — but our shrinking waistlines will reap the benefits.

— Tom Elliott is 3AW drivetime host, weekdays 3pm-6pm.

[JoSixChip]

Obese? You’re Probably Too Lazy to Exercise

In my case, he's probably right. But I more then pay my freight.

[chris37]

He’s correct.

[KC_Lion]

[buffyt]

I get up at 4am, work all day till 6 or so, cook dinner, do dishes, never sit down all day. Still fat. Article today said doing household chores keeps you healthy and fit. Still fat.

[digger48]

I lost weight because I’m too lazy to get up and go to the fridge.

[a fool in paradise]

Remember 20 years ago when the big talking point was that 50% of Americans were obese and the world had a big laugh at the chubby Americans? The same was true of Europe and apparently Australia.

But the BMI standard of men and women weighing the same is wrong unless you are a hipster male wearing girl’s skinny jeans.

[Bob434]

[[But what is the main cause of our expanding waistlines?]]

inflation

[publius911]

Being flabby is the health crisis of our age. It’s the new smoking.

I don't believe it; Schadenfreude...

Can't wait to hear how being a beached whale is actually good for you! morbidly obese... Coming to an area near you.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ...

[Mears]

” Being flabby is the health crisis of our age. It’s the new smoking. “

—

Do you think there is any relationship to less smoking and more obesity?

Hmmmmm !

.

[Monterrosa-24]

What a zip-wad Aussie busy body. Instead of doing something about the problem like Jack LaLanne or Jenny Craig he wants government to push people around. “The Greens” want more taxes on so-called junk food and he is all for it. He is the one that is lazy. He is intellectually lazy.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Put one foot in front of the other
https://youtu.be/OORsz2d1H7s

[jjsheridan5]

He’s correct.

I doubt it. He rather simplistically assumed correlation implied causation, and his conclusion is quite debatable. I remember an interesting study that showed that people ~100 years ago, who got very little exercise by modern standards (there were certain professions where people got very little movement over a 12+ hour workday, so they made ideal subjects for study), were still quite thin, even when they had access to relatively inexpensive food. The conclusion was that rather than "laziness causes obesity", it appeared to be the other way around: obesity causes laziness (presumably by decreasing energy levels, increasing recovery time, causing chronic inflammation, etc.).

Personally, I think that this simplistic article is worthless.

[chris37]

I can tell you as a formerly large man that exercise will make fat go away.

Buy some inline skates, start skating 8 miles a day, start lifting weights four times a week, doing push ups, ab wheel extensions and planks daily, and see what happens.

It’s shocking.

And I still like to eat pizza, ice cream, popcorn and diet soda.

[publius911]

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences.”
-- C. S. Lewis

[jjsheridan5]

In some cases, yes, it will. But not for most. The first time I ran across this idea was from a very good trainer about 20 years ago. He trained professional athletes, bodybuilders, and also people trying to lose weight. He had been doing this for 30+ years, and he said that what he found was that people who were obese could lose weight through exercise, but most wouldn't, because the cumulative effects of the obesity would be so detrimental to energy, recovery, and also chronic injuries. What he did was to first get them to lose significant weight through dietary changes (mostly, very little starches and sugars, although heavy on the complex carbs, moderate protein, and very low fat -- transitioning to high, quality, fat over time). As a person lost weight, he would gradually increase the duration and intensity of their exercise routines (and also their relative intake of quality fats).

He said that if you tried to get people to exercise their way to leanness, they would be spinning their wheels, in most cases (there are exceptions, and obviously you are one). But if you approached it the other way around, and tackled the true causes of obesity first (excessive starches, sugars, and poor quality fats), and the effects of obesity later (those effects being poor exercise tolerance, among other things), then almost anyone could be cured of obesity.

[chris37]

Take some advice from a former fat man.

You don’t ever want to be a fat man.

It will kill you.

[chris37]

What I did to start when I was north of 300 lbs was multiple dog walks during the day, every day, one being long, and one at night. So 3 walks a day.

When I got around 280 I started lifting weights at night after dinner to help burn sugar out of my blood. I’m a type 2 diabetic, or at least I was.

When I got around 265, I started learning to inline skate. it took me a good while to be able to skate 8 miles on a daily basis, and of course I first had to learn how to not fall, bc that is a dangerous sport, and I’m not sure everyone can learn it. I rode skateboards when I was a teenager, so I think that gave me a slight advantage.

When I got around 250 or so, I started in with push ups, planks and ab wheel to strengthen my stomach muscles, which have always been trash.

I actually have visible abs now, which I’ve never had before in my life, except perhaps when I was a newborn, but I’m not sure, can’t remember.

Reason for all this is I became diabetic at 38, heart attack 1 at 39, heart attack 2 at 45, caused by a blood clot in my stent while I was skating. Fun stuff.

So I have no choice but to be active, or I’m going to die. Probably still going to die early anyway, but at least it won’t be on my knees or on my rear end. Gotta try.

[DennisR]

Obesity is typically caused by poor eating habits. It is very difficult to exercise to lose weight. Like a car, it takes just a few minutes to fill the tank but days to empty it. Reducing calories is the best strategy.

[DennisR]

Did you reduce calorie consumption?