@noblehead The first paragraph of the report you reference says:
A study published in The American Journal of Medicine reveals that in the past 20 years there has been a sharp decrease in physical exercise
and an increase in average body mass index (BMI), while caloric intake has remained steady.
And then goes on
Investigators theorized that a nationwide drop in leisuretime physical activity, especially among young women, may be responsible for the upward trend in obesity rates.
Now it is statistically invalid to use such an association as any kind of proof that lack of exercise causes obesity. Not that the researchers are saying that. Indeed it is interesting that the researchers do not make a definite causal connection between the lack of exercise and obesity.
They say they have controlled for the caloric intake, but fail to reveal exactly what the diet is. Different types of food can have the same caloric value yet have vastly different effects upon metabolism.
So it is possible that the change in diet, though maintaining the same caloric value may be responsible for the change in girth.
The sharp decrease in exercise may in fact be possibly due to the devastating effects upon the metabolism of the garbage that we as a society are now encouraged to eat, plus the fact that people are too obese to exercise well.
Indeed many suggest that this is exactly what has happened over the last 20-40 years as diet has changed to refined carbohydrate, increased use of fructose (from corn syrup) as in pop/soda and the replacement fats in food with sugars to make them more palatable. This is what causes obesity in my opinion and in many more knowledgeable people than me (which isn't hard). I refer you also to the Australian TV programme videos I posted in Fat = Cholesterol = Heart Disease = Statins thread I posted.
I know, as I'm sure you do, that there are many thin people (without diabetes) who do little exercise and seem to eat quite happily and yet don't put on weight.
It is a fact, as I'm sure many folk on these forums can attest to that though they exercise really hard, their weight doesn't come down so easily if at all. They may even have exercised and still kept putting on weight. if exercise was they key to avoiding obesity and to getting rid of it then we simply wouldn't have an obesity epidemic. As everyone would know exactly what they had to do.
However, we all know that exercise is beneficial for a variety of metabolic and other bodily processes, but it isn't the solution to getting rid of weight, I only wish it was.
As for Gary Taubes, may I humbly suggest that you do get to know him. He is a very well regarded, experienced and award winning writer on scientific matters who in his book the Diet Delusion and elsewhere has written extensively and with full references on how the current obesity epidemic has come about - mainly because of The US Senate's decision that a low fat diet was the answer to heart disease - re Ancel Keys et al.
http://garytaubes.com/
And if you ever go to New Zealand the Tokelauans are a wonderful warm people who I'm sure would welcome you with open arms. ... and lots of white bread, rice, potatoes and pop
Oh and you are so sweet in pointing out that I'm a newbie to the forum. I'll never be able to match your 11,000 plus posts which is quite astonishing.
Cheers.