We can all agree that Americans are overweight, and America has a very significant problem with obesity.

What we can’t seem to agree on is why America is slowly getting fatter.

Well, I’m here today to tell you that I think I know why. And it’s deceptively simple, and also just complex enough where it’s hiding in the shadows.

In this article, I want to shine a light on those shadows and expose a simple, and I believe truthful, theory as to why America is slowly growing its fat cells.

In order to address the issue of obesity in the USA, we need to first clarify that we are talking about averages. Meaning, the “average” American is overweight, and about 30% of US citizens are obese.

We are dealing in generalities, and statistics based on collective data. These types of numbers only work when you’re talking about big groups of people, and they break down when talking about individuals. No set of data is perfect, but we have to work with what we have. And in order to talk about a general idea like “30% of Americans are obese”, or “the ‘average’ American is overweight”, we need to talk about it in general terms.

So no, this theory will not exactly apply to you, your significant other, your best friend, or anyone you know.

However on a general statistical basis, I believe this greatly applies.

OK, so what’s my theory?

First we have to understand that…

• The more carbohydrates you eat, the less fat you burn. (4)
• If you eat more fat than you burn in a day, that fat will stick around on your body and make you fatter. (5)
• Eating about 350 grams of carbs could limit the amount of fat you burn a day to about 40 grams a day or lower. Eating about 250 grams of carbs could limit fat burning to about 50 grams a day or lower. (1)
• And eating sugar seems to decrease your fat burning ability more than starch. (1)
• Men burn more fat than women at rest. (6)
• Obesity rates peak around 30-50 years old. Then drop back off. (2)

According to the data (3), men in the 30-50 year old range, eat about 320 grams of carbohydrates, and 100 grams of fat a day. Women in that age range eat about 230 grams of carbohydrates, and 66 grams of fat a day.

Let’s “average” those numbers, because people don’t tend to say “men are obese” or “women are obese” they just say, “Americans are obese.”

So the average daily intake would be 275 grams of carbs a day, and 83 grams of fat a day. And that’s a problem.

At about 275 grams of carbs a day, and little to no exercise, we have a fat burning potential for the day at around 50 grams a day. If we add walking around, doing chores, and other easy activity, we might bump that fat burning up to 75 grams a day, if we are very generous.

And 83 grams of fat eaten minus 75 grams of fat burned equals 8 grams of fat left over on your body.

Of course that’s an average number over time, some days will be higher, some lower. But 8 grams of fat a day stored ends up being 7.5 pounds of pure fat stored every year. Which is about close to what we are seeing with overweight or obese people.

How do we reverse or stop this from continuing?

My personal recommendation won’t sound all that revolutionary, but I believe it has a very good chance of working.

We are operating on a “razors edge” here. Just a slight bit of excess daily fat being stored over time ends up equating to the problems we are seeing today. We just need to steer the ship back ever so slightly the other way. All we potentially need to do to stop America from continuing to grow is to get rid of that small excess fat storage.

I recommend that we do one, or all, of three things:

1.) Reduce carbohydrates by 50-75 grams a day.

Reducing carbohydrates can increase fat burning potential. But going too low has it’s own health issues. So just taking out 50-75 grams a day may do the trick.

2.) Keep the carbohydrates the same, and decrease fat by about 20 grams a day.

Decreasing fat intake, can decrease fat storage. But going too low with fat also has its’ own health issues. But cutting down fat by about 20 grams could stall weight gain, or cause weight loss in the “average” American.

3.) Exercise, even just walk more.

Exercise not only burns “calories” but more specifically, exercising burns fat. Even walking burns a significant amount of fat. So exercising could help increase your fat burning ability, and therefore keep the “average” American from gaining more fat.

And there it is. My theory of obesity in a nutshell. It’s simply a combination of too much carbohydrates, with too much fat, combined with not enough exercise. And because we’re growing so slowly as a nation—by just a few grams of fat a day—addressing any one of those three issues could turn the ship around in a better direction again.

Find out the 3 Forgotten Keys To Fat loss here: https://seanbissell.com/burnfat/

References:

1.) A Raben, I Macdonald, A Astrup. Replacement of dietary fat by sucrose or starch: Effects on 14 d ad libitum energy intake, energy expenditure and body weight in formerly obese and never-obese subjects. International Journal of Obesity (1997); 21, 846-859.

2.) Mendes, Elizabeth. “In U.S., Obesity Peaks in Middle Age.” Gallup. 31 August, 2010.

3.) What We Eat in America, NHANES 2009-2010.

4.) Ching-Lin Wu, Ceri Nicholas, Clyde Williams, Alison Took, Lucy Hardy. The influence of high-carbohydrate meals with different glycaemic indices on substrate utilisation during subsequent exercise. British Journal of Nutrition (2003), 90, 1049–1056.

5.) Klaas R Westerterp, Astrid Smeets, Manuela P Lejeune, Mirjam PE Wouters-Adriaens, Margriet S Westerterp-Plantenga. Dietary fat oxidation as a function of body fat. Am J Clin Nutr January 2008 vol. 87 no. 1 132-135.

6.) TIM R. NAGY, MICHAEL I. GORAN, ROLAND L. WEINSIER, MICHAEL J. TOTH, YVES SCHUTZ, ERIC T. POEHLMAN. Determinants of basal fat oxidation in healthy Caucasians. J Appl Physiol (1985). 1996 May;80(5):1743-8.