Althouse: Joe Rogan and Lex Fridman react to the claim that the #1 cause of obesity is genetics.

February 1, 2023

Joe Rogan and Lex Fridman react to the claim that the #1 cause of obesity is genetics.

Joe, talking about a man who lost a lot of weight: "He had to go through surgery to get his skin removed so he wasn't like... a flying squirrel."

41 comments:

tim maguire said...: Pointing to genetics is just more government lies—the more vague and complicated they make the problem, the more power and money (and less accountability) they get to battle it.

Genetics makes some people more susceptible to obesity than others, but there is only one “cause” for obesity—eating more than you exercise. And everybody knows it. We know the cause and we know the cure. I wouldn’t object to the government encouraging healthy lifestyles, but we all know the focus on genetics will do the opposite. They are deliberately discounting the value of healthy living.; 2/1/23, 5:39 AM
Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...: No. No. The leading cause of obesity is FORKS. We need "common sense" Fork Control.; 2/1/23, 5:47 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: "He had to go through surgery to get his skin removed so he wasn't like... a flying squirrel."

Playing the game of mediocre superpowers, there could be worse. Being "The Flying Squirrel" is comparably cooler than having xray vision that only works on glass or having the power to speak to animals as long as it's the duckbill platypus.

He should've kept the squirrel flaps.; 2/1/23, 6:25 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: One podcast host interviewing another. This biz is incredibly incestuous.

I gave up on Rogan after watching his interview with Tulsi Gabbard. She’s a very polite, restrained and decorous woman. Rogan seemed compelled to insert “fuck” into every sentence. He was downright abusive, although not in any way Gabbard could respond to. A decent, sensible men does not speak that way to a beautiful, old fashioned woman.

I lost 50 pounds five years ago, and I’ve kept it off. I was on the verge of losing my ability to walk. I’ve regained almost all my functionality.; 2/1/23, 6:39 AM
mezzrow said...: Must. Find. More. Victims.

The obese are victims of their genetics. That's the driver. Victims need protection, and there's a job there for some compassionate person. It's not the only factor by any means but at base, this becomes a jobs program for the compassionate. Only mean people would oppose that, right?

If you ask anything whatsoever of the victim, you are insufficiently compassionate in the world of 2023. These are, of course, first world problems. If we slip from first world lifestyles, these problems will disappear.

That may be the only solution, but it isn't a solution. And the beat goes on.; 2/1/23, 7:06 AM
MikeR said...: Rogan doesn't seem to get the idea. The genes affect the desire for food. You can overcome it, but it is a lot harder for some people than others.
Surely this is well known?; 2/1/23, 7:10 AM
gilbar said...: well, speaking as a morbidly obese person ( i was up to 370lbs this summer, when i was diagnosed as diabetic)..
THE CAUSE OF OBESITY IS EATING MORE THAN YOU CONSUME, FOR A LONG TIME

on the other hand, the cause of losing weight is eating LESS than you consume
(just stepped on on the scale, weighed 313.6lbs which is STILL obese)
My A1C was 5.2 last week, how was yours?; 2/1/23, 7:31 AM
gilbar said...: Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...
No. No. The leading cause of obesity is FORKS. We need "common sense" Fork Control.

do you REALIZE?
There are people in the United States.. Right NOW! with over TWENTY forks in their house; as we speak!
OVER TWENTY!!! They want a fork, they open up their FORK DRAWER, and Pull out another!!
THIS HAS TO STOP!!!
</sarc; 2/1/23, 7:35 AM
Wince said...: "He had to go through surgery to get his skin removed so he wasn't like... a flying squirrel."

Interestingly, Rogan conceded that, compared to weight-appropriate people, many obese people have had a more rocky life.

Bullwinkle was unavailable for comment.; 2/1/23, 7:49 AM
Koot Katmandu said...: Many people are just not genetically capable of eating what the government says is healthy. Cutting fat and eating more carbs makes me fat as fuck. Eating fat and cutting carbs I thin right down.

So in way, the white house lady is correct. Many of us do not have the genes to eat the highly processed food big agriculture and Big food companies promote as healthy. Then add in big Pharma making billions off of diabetes drugs caused by the over consumption of the processed crap.; 2/1/23, 8:03 AM
Bitter Clinger said...: If the number one cause of obesity is genetic, then how do we explain the rise in obesity over the past 40 years. How have the genes of our population changed?

There is without a doubt a genetic component to obesity. My oldest daughter looks just like her mother and has no trouble staying thin, just like her mother. My second daughter looks like me and has never been thin as a rail (although not obese or even truly "overweight"), just like me.

However, environment and behavior truly drive actual obesity. My father, mother, and two half-brothers (we have the same mother) all were obese for most or all of their lives (up to present). We all lived together so I had the same environment as the rest of my family and I inherited my genes from my parents and shared half with my brothers, yet I am the only one who was never significantly overweight.

I'm convinced that the genetic influence, aside from heritable diseases and genetic abnormalities, amounts to some people will be thin without much effort and others will have to watch how much they eat, but no one is destined to be obese.

And by the way, it is extremely difficult to exercise your way to weight loss. Exercise increases appetite so one must still watch what one eats. The exception being if you are exercising so much, burning thousands of additional calories per day (e.g., military basic training, competitive swimming, etc.) that you can't physically eat enough in a day to not be in a calorie deficit.; 2/1/23, 8:03 AM
Iman said...: Bart Hall +10, LOL!; 2/1/23, 8:08 AM
Iman said...: So many incidents of Fork Violence have erupted across this land. Some have included wind instrument performances coupled with unusual, gelatinous dance moves involving humongous derrières.; 2/1/23, 8:14 AM
gilbar said...: Look at North Korea!
NO Forks! And No Obesity!
(well, they do have ONE case of obesity.. but they keep Kim Jong-un just to scare their people); 2/1/23, 8:27 AM
gilbar said...: If we JUST FOLLOW THE DEMOCRATS.. Soon! we will ALL Be as healthy as the North Koreans!; 2/1/23, 8:28 AM
Daniel12 said...: I mean, is anyone in that fat family even running marathons and eating grass-fed beef and plunging themselves into an ice bath every day?

IT'S SCIENCE, PEOPLE. Joe Rogan, medical expert.

FYI if someone has to exercise all day and eat perfectly to avoid gaining a bunch of weight, they might have a genetic tendency towards obesity.; 2/1/23, 8:31 AM
Daniel12 said...: "My A1C was 5.2 last week"

CONGRATS!!!! That's no easy thing to do. Wish you continued great success!; 2/1/23, 8:39 AM
BG said...: Congratulations on your efforts, gilbar. Keep it up! It's not easy, I know. I lost 50 pounds about 10 years ago. I've gained about 1/3 back. (I have a "sweet tooth.") I'm working on losing it again but don't expect much success until it warms up again. Quite a few of my relatives on both sides are overweight, ranging from slightly to moderately. One cousin was morbidly obese but health problems have turned him into a "flying squirrel" and basically home bound. I believe it's a combination of genetics and family environment. Losing weight can be done but it's harder for some more than others.

Confession: I just counted my forks. 38.; 2/1/23, 9:00 AM
Spiros said...: I sort of believe that obesity is mostly genetic. For example, Dutch scientists studied body fatness in 540 adopted Danish twins. The weight of the adults was closer to their biological parents despite being reared in adopted families.; 2/1/23, 9:05 AM
Carol said...: Semaglutide and the other GLP weight loss drugs are running short because Hollywood and everyone else have caught on. Gotta have it!

Pharmacists can't keep them or Adderall in stock. Now the compounding pharmacies are making their own one-off versions.

All to lose muscle and bone? No thanks.

And it's expensive like $1000 a month without insurance. When the Rx runs out the patients are going to balloon out and be worse than before.

Big Pharma - can't live with, can't live without em.; 2/1/23, 9:07 AM
Yancey Ward said...: I went through my fat period from after my freshman year in college until the end of my second year in graduate school. I gained 100 pounds, going from a ripped 180 to 280 in about 2 years before graduating from college. All of it was due to me stopping regular exercise and playing sports in order to devote more time to studying for my classes. I finally got my ass out of the chair to working out again and playing sports, and I changed my diet to cut out all fast food and junk food- habits I picked up in that 2 year period. It took me about a year to lose the 100 pounds. Other than a few stretch marks that faded over the next decade, I didn't have to worry about flabby skin- I had changed course early enough in my life that my skin naturally tightened up as I lost the weight. I was miserable for those 4 year of being fat, and vowed to never allow that to happen again, and it hasn't.

Yes, there is no doubt a genetic aspect to body weight, but one can always control their weight if they have the will to do so, and believing one has no control is just a lie.; 2/1/23, 9:19 AM
Sebastian said...: "Joe Rogan and Lex Fridman react to the claim that the #1 cause of obesity is genetics."

Not sure how you determine relative causal weight here. But somehow the genetic "cause" of obesity came to the fore only in a particular period in history when calorific food became cheap and plentiful.

Now that we have trans gender and the beginnings of trans age, can't we just solve the obesity problem the same way--by having people declare themselves trans fat?; 2/1/23, 9:22 AM
Aggie said...: There's a distinction between 'not my fault' and 'completely outside of my control'. That's what tackling weight loss is. When someone maintains they can't lose weight because of genetics, maybe they should produce the person that doesn't eat and stays the same weight.; 2/1/23, 9:28 AM
Tommy Duncan said...: Blogger tim maguire said...

" I wouldn’t object to the government encouraging healthy lifestyles..."

Who in government gets to decide what is healthy? Remember the food pyramid that encouraged us to eat carbohydrates and led to widespread obesity and Type 2 diabetes? How about those healthy Covid-19 vaccines and boosters?

The government that governs best is the government that governs least.; 2/1/23, 9:58 AM
Rusty said...: Spiros said...
"I sort of believe that obesity is mostly genetic. For example, Dutch scientists studied body fatness in 540 adopted Danish twins. The weight of the adults was closer to their biological parents despite being reared in adopted families."
Ah. But how much of that is cultural? Danish twins being adopted by Danish couples will mirror the diet they are given.
One of the problems I have with a low heart rate is that I basically have the metabolism of a ground sloth. I have to move a lot to burn calories. So at 71 the minimum I walk every day is two miles. Carbs are right out. Bye pizza. Veggies, proteins and fruit.; 2/1/23, 10:05 AM
n.n said...: The number one cause is excess carbohydrate consumption and lethargy, which may have a genetic component. A diet rich in fat sheds the body fat.; 2/1/23, 10:11 AM
n.n said...: This biz is incredibly incestuous.

Socially progressive.; 2/1/23, 10:12 AM
Richard said...: It would be hard to tell genetics from family environment, even after adulthood due to eating habits.

My father and my four uncles by blood got some help going to college by football financial aid, such as it was in the late thirties. My father was a fast, tough end at UConn. 6'1", 185. Class of, iirc, 43. It took six months of Infantry combat for him to get his weight down to a "healthy" level.

Long as they lived, none of them were "overweight" except officially.

When I got out of OCS at 6'2", 205, I was in such good shape that the fearsome physical requirements of jump school were boring. That was "overweight".

Some decades back when the knees were up to it, I trained for a ten-mile road race--"Bobby Crim Festival"--biffed one due to a stress fracture, the next due to bronchitis. Finally got on. Forty-plus miles a week for some years. 215. Overweight.

Knew a couple of Infantry captains back in the day built like, as the saying goes, a beer barrel walking on two fire plugs.
One had played pulling guard for a small college. Don't know about the other. Getting crap for BMI. Could have humped their own weight of ammo up six flights of stairs.

Prepping the battle space. Their reinforcements are endless; the Little Hitlers of AGW and Covid who lived to make other people do stupid stuff.; 2/1/23, 10:42 AM
Static Ping said...: Everyone wants to be a victim as victimhood is power. This is merely another rung on the grievance ladder. I suppose I could go into a discussion of how much genetics impacts weight loss and gain, but it is irrelevant to the issue at hand. I am quite sure that the activists involved don't really care anyway.

Playing the victim is a tried-and-true strategy that can be very effective in the short term under the right circumstances. In the long term, wanting to be the victim tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. It tends not to be enjoyable.; 2/1/23, 11:05 AM
gilbar said...: cut out all fast food

i worked with a dietitian to create my "new, Improved" low carb diet*. Among the problems..
I road trip (a LOT!), and used to eat at McD's while on the road. I'd always get the #7 meal:
2 cheeseburgers, Large Fries, large coke.. This has a LOT of carbs. (32+32+65+77=206grams)
the dietitian and i looked online at the menu, and decided: NEW road trip lunch
McDouble, and Large Diet Coke.............. This has 33 grams of carbs (we ONLY care about carbs**).
But Wait! there's MORE! Both McDoubles (that's like a double cheeseburger) AND the large drink are on the dollar menu, so it costs about 3 bucks LESS to order instead of the meal..
AND! a McDouble is about 400 cals, whereas the meal is (300+300+480+290= 1,370 cals)

low carb diet* keto people wont think that my diet is low carb. It's Not really; just lower than it was.
ONLY care about carbs** seriously, they told *ME* 'don't worry about calories.. JUST grams of carbs'

ps. i have a printout on my fridge, with food's carb counts listed. I get 75 (SEVENTY-FIVE!) grams of carbs.. PER MEAL!! (woohoo!!) Plus! 30 grams for snax (AND! according the printout, i get a snack after (2 hrs after) EVERY meal!!!
i TOLD you it's not what keto people would think is low carb. And it's NOT, unless you compare it to regular humans.

pps. Moral of the story. It's Not burgers, it's not even really buns.. It's fries and cokes that kill you; 2/1/23, 11:06 AM
KellyM said...: While there's probably some validity to the genetics argument, diet and exercise is the biggest factor. As a kid I ate a lot of meat, dairy, and veggies, but I was not a big fan of exercise and was pudgy. I took a part-time job in high school working in the local college dining hall, and it meant a lot of running between the kitchen and dining areas. It didn't take long for me to lose that pudge.

The last few years has been tough with working from home (the temptation to snack and not get out and get some exercise) and the limited mobility due to my bad hips. Now that they've been replaced, I'm starting to ramp back up with more activity, and I'm back in the office just about every day. But the issue for me is I like wine and that means a lot of extra sugar and carbs. So, no more on 'school nights' and reserving for Friday/Saturday nights. Will be a feat of willpower to keep that as the days get nicer and the temptation to have a few beers on a warm Sunday afternoon will be strong..; 2/1/23, 11:10 AM
gilbar said...: oh, sorry; more post script
while i don't care about, or count calories; You can see from the McD's example, that by cutting out the Fries and the Sugar water (and one bun), i AM cutting out A THOUSAND calories from THAT lunch).

I won't bore you with frozen Pizza, but suffice to say, i CAN (and DO!) eat frozen pizza ALL THE TIME.. BUT, i only eat 75 grams of carbs worth per meal (which is STILL a half a Jack's frozen pizza... mmmm Jack's Frozen Pizza! $4 per pie, $2 per half); 2/1/23, 11:11 AM
Hyphenated American said...: It’s ironic that obesity is genetic, but not intelligence. Is crime genetic too?

The fun part is that anyone who mentions that genetics affect IQ is called a “racist”. In fact, no studies of genetics and IQ are approved.

The “experts” are simply repeating the most politically correct, government approved narratives with no regard to logic, consistency or scientific data.; 2/1/23, 11:11 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: People lose muscle and bone on semaglutide the way they lose muscle and bone if they diet using the same food intake and exercise. If you want to maintain muscle and bone, you need to eat enough protein and do strength training while you lose. And only cut calories by a reasonable amount.; 2/1/23, 11:21 AM
LibertarianLeisure said...: Recently saw a random beach picture of a crowd from the 70's. Mostly skinny beachgoers. Thinking it must be the changes to our foods and grains and gmo's. Teenage girls and twenty something's are no longer mostly skinny.; 2/1/23, 11:47 AM
Narr said...: My mother and her brother were severely diabetic, and she got really fat (200 lbs @ 5'8"?) for a time. Spent 55 years with her blood sugar going crazy despite her best efforts to lose weight and keep it off. She spent her last five years obsessing with her weight, which was only about 110 despite her claims every week that she must have gained a ton (on a diet that would barely fill a bird).

My weight peaked at 275 (I'm 6'1" or used to be) but I dropped about 50 in the year or so after retirement. I've regained about 10.

My wife has also regained some weight that she had lost too; the difference is that she talks about it all the time, and fusses at me for bringing home irresistable goodies.

I tell her to take some responsibility for herself and her choices. She exercises and walks a lot, and does yoga. I walk and sorta exercise and check my sweetness three times a day.

A1C at last checkup was 6.7 IIRC.; 2/1/23, 1:08 PM
Michael K said...: Blogger Koot Katmandu said...

Many people are just not genetically capable of eating what the government says is healthy. Cutting fat and eating more carbs makes me fat as fuck. Eating fat and cutting carbs I thin right down.

Dr Atkins published a diet regimen based on this fact and was demonized for the rest of his life, and even after he died from a slip and fall on ice. I wrote a book on history of medicine 25 years ago and could not find one reference supporting his work. Now, the "Keto" movement is all about it.

Morbid obesity is largely genetic. There have been a number of studies showing that these people don't have the mechanism that tells us when we have eaten enough. I did obesity surgery back in the 80s. I've seen people who weighed 700 pounds. That is not due to poor eating habits.; 2/1/23, 1:08 PM
Michael K said...: I have also removed huge skin flaps from people who have had massive weight loss. That is not plastic surgery. It is medically needed. Some of the flaps I have removed hung to the knees in women who were otherwise normally proportioned.; 2/1/23, 1:11 PM
Narayanan said...: Is no one taught that #1 cause of most things in LIFE [as in being alive] is genetics?; 2/1/23, 2:00 PM
rcocean said...: I'm currently on a diet, but going slow. I'm trying to lose as little muscle as possible. My energy seems to pick up every-time I have red meat for dinner as opposed to chicken/fish. I dunno why - probably pychological.

Cut out the carbs as much as possible. So far, I've lost about 2 lbs in 2 weeks. Hope its all fat!; 2/1/23, 3:43 PM
Nancy Reyes said...: Genetics? Diet?
Embrace the power of "AND".
The Pima Indian study.

Those on the US side of the border eat a western diet, are fat and have the highest percentage of diabetes among any ethnic group.
Those in Mexico have a traditional hard working lifestyle on a traditional diet and are thin and fewer diabetics.

We see obesity in the young here in Asia also for the same reason.
What is not discussed: the low protein low fat and hard physical labor lifestyle means you don't develop diabetes and obesity, but you face death from infectious disease, like TB.; 2/1/23, 5:45 PM