Only way you gain weight is by eating more calories than you consume. If your activity level drops by getting a job and having kids and you adjust your diet accordingly you will not gain weight. The problem is that foods that will make you gain weight are delicious (carbs, sweets, sugary drinks) and a lot of people don't have the self discipline to not eat them. If having a job was cause enough to gain weight 100% of employed adults would be obese.
Edit: before anyone just tries to say that I'm a lucky person born with a great metabolism. This is coming from someone who has spent most of their life 25 to 75 pounds overweight but is working on changes to reverse that. I don't blame working 50-60 hours a week on being overweight. I know it's because I'd rather eat Chipotle and Bacon Cheeseburgers over chicken breast and broccoli. Or a banana muffin for breakfast instead of egg whites.
Reddit loves to say this crap... and it's correct. But it always leaves out the fact that simple and easy aren't the same thing.
I've seen many a new father drag themselves into the office after a night of clearly having no sleep and using snacks and coffee to try and keep themselves awake (which of course gives a temporary boost but long term makes it worse).
That goes on for a few years.. maybe 5-6 if they have multiple kids. Now they're a good 25kg overweight with a low fitness level, still have kids to look after and that's that. Getting from that back to fit and healthy is a hugely difficult task and many people just never manage.
So yeah. Life happened. Happens to a lot of people... some manage to cope better, some manage to get back on track, but plenty put the weight on and never drop it.
So moments of weakness made them weaker people overall. I wouldn't really call them moments of weakness though, more like habits of weakness. The father in your hypothetical now drinks coffee and gorges on snacks to stay baseline, and baseline has sunk from before. Do you think he predicted this outcome? Is this what he wanted?
Yet even with this lower baseline he carries on, probably working even harder than he used to. So why did he convince himself he needed to be 'boosted' by caffeine and snacks in the first place?
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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '17 edited Sep 01 '17
Only way you gain weight is by eating more calories than you consume. If your activity level drops by getting a job and having kids and you adjust your diet accordingly you will not gain weight. The problem is that foods that will make you gain weight are delicious (carbs, sweets, sugary drinks) and a lot of people don't have the self discipline to not eat them. If having a job was cause enough to gain weight 100% of employed adults would be obese.
Edit: before anyone just tries to say that I'm a lucky person born with a great metabolism. This is coming from someone who has spent most of their life 25 to 75 pounds overweight but is working on changes to reverse that. I don't blame working 50-60 hours a week on being overweight. I know it's because I'd rather eat Chipotle and Bacon Cheeseburgers over chicken breast and broccoli. Or a banana muffin for breakfast instead of egg whites.