In unfair scientific discoveries: Adults living in the ’70s could eat more food and exercise less without weighing more, while present-day people who eat the same number of calories and exercise just as much are pretty much doomed to gain weight, according to new research recently published in Obesity Research & Clinical Practice.
In the study, which tracked the diets of 36,400 Americans between 1971 and 2008, and physical activity logs of 14,419 people between 1988 and 2006, found that people who eat and exercise just like people living in the last millennium weigh about 10 percent more today.
The findings prove that weight management is much more nuanced than balancing the calories you eat and the calories you burn. In statements given to York University and The Atlantic, the study authors theorized on factors that could be at play here: They blame pollutants, antibiotics, and pesticides found in many foods for changing hormonal processes responsible for weight control; lifestyle factors like exposure to light at night, stress, late-night eating; an increase in prescription drugs like antidepressants, which can promote weight gain; genetics, which could affect the speed of your metabolism; and gut bacteria, which could be changing due to the increased consumption of artificial sweeteners and meat-heavy diets.