The reason is that the foods many people eat are those that were designed for agricultural workers who typically burn 4,000 + calories per day. An office worker is lucky to burn 2,200 per day. In the past 50 years, sedentary jobs have replaced manual labor jobs. Hence, people have gotten fat.
“The reason is that the foods many people eat are those that were designed for agricultural workers who typically burn 4,000 + calories per day. An office worker is lucky to burn 2,200 per day. In the past 50 years, sedentary jobs have replaced manual labor jobs. Hence, people have gotten fat.”
You are exactly right but I’d like to add one more point, portion sizes. They have gotten bigger and bigger over the last 30 years. So we have more sedentary jobs and huge portion sizes. It’s not rocket science to see why people are getting so big.
There is a great book out, called “The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite” by David Kessler. I read it cover to cover and highly recommend it, to understand why Americans are getting so big.
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Far more people are in sedentary jobs but mechanization has reduced the “work” in manual labor jobs. My dad started building with hand tools and his work evolved into mostly power tools, which meant less calories being burned. This has been the trend in most occupations.
I grew up on a farm and eventually, after years of a fairly active occupation became a desk jockey and had to exercise and watch what I ate. I remember, during one taxing period at work, working 10-12 hour days, that I started gaining weight. It was simply because I was “hitting” the snack machine when it was time for dinner and then eating dinner when I got off work. That extra snack day after day began to show eventually.