Everyday Systems

This corroborates what I've been thinking and saying for a few years. Our level of activity has declined to the point that it affects our weight.

What Housework Has to Do with Waistlines

This is so interesting - thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the share, it's an interesting idea! Though I don't really fancy doing more housework than I do at the moment I think the key is to be busy instead of idle.

Reinhard's shovelglove page makes some good points too, about how strange it is that we have removed so much useful exertion from our daily lives only to spend our spare time running on the equivalent of hamster wheels in the gym!

I did notice that I gained weight after I stopped carrying my DD around and picking her up a lot. (She was four, I think.) I carried her piggy back for a while after that, but it wasn't enough to keep the pounds down.

Men have also gotten fatter and they did not traditionally do housework. There should be a study called "Lack of Farming in Fields Causes Rise in Obesity Among Men."

leafy_greens wrote:Men have also gotten fatter and they did not traditionally do housework. There should be a study called "Lack of Farming in Fields Causes Rise in Obesity Among Men."

I can think of any number of things that have changed in the activity levels of men over the last 50 years, too. One could start with the development of the remote control.

For years and years studies for nearly everything were conducted on men only. Within the last twenty years or so researchers have finally started looking at women separately because we are different, even in how, when and why we gain weight. And we're complaining.

Granted, lower levels of activity have occurred for both sexes, but it's hard to make conclusions about men when women are (finally!) being studied separately.