Weight Loss was Easier in the '80s

Today, less food and more exercise may no longer be enough to keep obesity at bay. New research belies the widely accepted concept that weight gain is quite simply a direct disproportion between calorie consumption and physical activity.

The study found that given the same amount exercise and the same amount of calorie consumption, people in 2006 registered a body mass index (BMI) higher by 2.3kg/m2 than those in 1988. To avoid weight gain, a 40-year old in this day and age would have to eat twice less and exercise twice as much than a 40-year old in the 1970s.

Canadian researchers from York University are hard-pressed to conclude from their findings that "factors other than diet and physical activity may be contributing to the increase in BMI over time."

Research team member Professor Jennifer Kuk says, "Weight management is actually much more complex than just 'energy in' versus 'energy out'."

"That's similar to saying your investment account balance is simply your deposits subtracting your withdrawals and not accounting for all the other things that affect your balance like stock market fluctuations, bank fees or currency exchange rates."

Although there are those who would see this as yet another issue of Generation X versus Generation Y, the study has yet to determine any hard and fast rule over the cause of this discrepancy. According to The Guardian, the research team suggests that changes in lifestyle and environment, eating patterns, stress coping mechanisms along with night light exposure, food pollutant levels, and gut microflora play vital roles. Genetics, higher maternal ages, and reduction of ambient temperatures variability may also be leading contributors.

This study, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and published in the journal of Obesity Research and Clinical Practice, based data analysis on diet and physical activity questionnaire answers of nearly 36,400 American adults. This survey was conducted between 1971 and 2008 by the National Health and Nutrition Survey. Kuk and her colleagues dispel any notion of changing levels of honesty among the respondents with the assurance that self-report bias remains constant across generations.

This said, the likelihood of obesity cases to keep increasing is an almost foregone conclusion. The Telegraph reports that obesity is expected to overtake smoking as a forerunner to cancer where an estimated one in every four adults in the UK are obese.