Were people who need to exercise more(to keep slim) better off in the wild hundreds of thousands of years ago?
Please don’t answer this question if you cannot answer it logically.
I notice some people need to exercise a lot more than others to keep slim.
Thousands of years ago, when food was scarce and everything was about manpower (hunting, running away from predators, farming), if you were equal to a skinny person today who has to eat a LOT of food(but still be skinny), wouldn’t you have problems in such an environment?
I am guessing really skinny people high extra high metabolisms, but would this be a bad thing in the primitive times(oppisite to now), since there is such little food and they need lots of food to survive, they would not be able to produce the muscles they needed.
Anyway, whether this is true or not, skinny people seem a little better off today since we have TOO much food, just the opposite to before. But it wont stay that way for long when we find cures for obesity and eating disorders.
ps Just in case some people misinterpret this, am not asking if it is superior to be skinny or fat, since no trait can be “superior”, but only superior in its current environment(for example, if you lived in a place where aliens killed people with beards, and you had a beard, you would be “inferior” and bearded people would disappear through natural selection).
pps My question doesn’t seem that clear. I should have said:
Were people who need to exercise more(to keep slim) disadvantaged in the wild hundreds of thousands of years ago?
Fastest Way to Lose Weight
Fastest Way to Lose Weight
It is not just about supply/quantity of food! We have introduced hormones that assure better yields of vegetables AND proteins.
When we consume fertilizers, hormones, food stabilizers, all those chemicals play a role in each person’s metabolism. Add to that the probability that NONE of us HAS to exercise, and you have fluctuations in metabolisms that cannot be rationally predicted. Add to that all the trans- and hydrogenated-fats, and you have a recipe for obesity.
I’m not even going to touch the family dynamics of using food as a way to comfort an imbalance in one’s private life–or life expectancy.
Need to lose weight?
I think you have correctly deduced your own answer.
The reason why so many people are obese now is that they still carry the genes of ancestors who ability to store food energy was vital for survival.
In archaic times (before the discovery of agriculture and animal husbandry) humans lived by hunting and gathering.
The supply of food in certain areas was not steady, consistent or reliable. People who could store fat effectively on what food was available had a clear survival advantage compared to the “skinny” person who needed more food relative to body mass just to function.
Now that food is plentiful all over the world, those of us that can easily store fat have to be careful not to over eat, especially since very few of us have to burn a lot of calories chasing our dinner!
This is largely a western problem, but even in countries like China, obesity rates are increasing due to an “expanded” middle class.