Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Identifying the future fatty

Science discovers that fat women hate exercise:
While the women viewed the pictures, the functional M.R.I. machine monitored their brain activity. The resulting readouts revealed that overweight women’s brains were put off by exercise. Shown images of people being active, these women developed little activation in the putamen region of the brain, suggesting that they did not enjoy what they were seeing. At the same time, a portion of the brain related to dealing with negative emotions lit up far more when they viewed images of moving than of sitting. Emotionally, the brain scans suggested, they anticipated disliking physical activity much more than they expected to disdain sitting.

Leaner women’s brain activity, by and large, was the opposite, with the putamen lighting up when they watched others work out and envisaged doing the same themselves.
The same approach was used to show that "many overweight people’s brains operate differently than the brains of thinner people when they look at images related to eating.  In previous neurological studies, when heavier volunteers viewed pictures of food or food preparation, they typically developed increased activity in portions of the brain involved in reward processing, or an urge to like things, including in an area called the putamen. At the same time, their brains showed relatively blunted activity in areas that are thought to induce satiety, or the ability to know when you are full. These changes generally are reversed in the brains of thinner people shown the same images."

In other words, if you're a young man attracted to a woman whose eyes light up at the sight of cake, and who moans at the thought of exercise, the chances are that she's a future fatty in the making. Throw in an overstuffed mother, and you've pretty much got a guarantee that she's going to chub out in the next ten years.

Now, that's fine if you're a portly gentleman yourself, or if you happen to prefer big beautiful women. But regardless, it's a useful science-based metric for predicting if a young woman is going to blow up or not.

16 comments:

Dexter said...

To identify the future fatty... and the future fugly... look at her mom.

Unknown said...

Dexter has it right.

The worst time I ever ignored my father's advice was when I met my overweight future mother-in-law. My then-girlfriend who is my now-wife has gone from a soft 7 to a 3. In 20 years she has put on 100 pounds. I knew our bodies were going to change as we aged, but I never thought that the 160 pound six footer I married was going to turn in to a land whale.

Boys, LOOK at her mother. Imagine waking up to her mother, day in and day out for the REST OF YOUR LIFE.

Yohami said...

We dont need brain scans to figure this out. Science-validation-seeking is making everyone stupid.

vartank said...

Two things:

1. What about both responses? I exercise 6-7 times a week AND am a huge foodie who eats like a monster, surprised there wasn't a dual response.

2. Best advice I ever got from my happily and only married friend: if you wouldn't sleep with her mom, don't marry the daughter, marriage is forever(or should be).

Guitar Man said...

The worst time I ever ignored my father's advice was when I met my overweight future mother-in-law. My then-girlfriend who is my now-wife has gone from a soft 7 to a 3. In 20 years she has put on 100 pounds. I knew our bodies were going to change as we aged, but I never thought that the 160 pound six footer I married was going to turn in to a land whale.

In some ways, you as her husband are a failure for not directing her to make healthy choices these years. I would never let my wife get obese. She's always been a health nut, so I guess my task is easy.

Anonymous said...

Or you make an agreement to lock her in her room and feed her only water until she returns to acceptable weight... :D

Bob Loblaw said...

I'm curious about the subjects they used in the exercise videos. No fat woman can stand the sight of a slender, hot woman in tight clothing. It may just be jealousy.

And as for the food... well, sure. Fat people have only one source of physical pleasure in life, and that's it. Probably why it's so hard to lose weight when you get fat. They don't have sex (at least not as much or as well), they don't get as much enjoyment from social situations, and anything that requires physical activity will be both painful and depressing.

One Fat Oz Guy said...

Looking back on my first three relationships I realize how all three girls had manatees for mothers, so I guess I dodged a bullet there!

Allabaster said...

From what I have gathered, your lovely wife enjoys baking cakes as much as she enjoys pumping iron. Thank God the two need not be a dichotomy.

VD said...

I saw a young girl who was quite slender at the gym the other day. What was fascinating was the way in which a woman who was about 100 pounds overweight on the treadmill next to me was staring at her. As near as I coud tell, her expression was a blend of longing and fury.

Guitar Man said...

I despise treadmills...waste of time.

Losing weight and maintaining isn't hard, I don't understand why everyone makes it to be.

Acksiom said...

Thing is, Dexter's point applies to a lot more than just weight. . . .

Single mothered? Likely to become a single mother too. . .by frivorcing *your* ass, if you "settle".

Carrousel mothered? Likely to be a carrousel rider herself. . .and the only ring she really wants is brass.

Career mothered? Likely to be a career "mom" herself. . .and thus no kind of "wife" whatsoever, after what little femininity she has is expended on the kids.

Yep, probably the best first metric of approximation for predicting women and girls' futures: their mothers' pasts and presents.

John said...

There's an excellent short story by Andre Dubus called "The Fat Girl" that should be required reading for all young men. An apropos alternative title would be "The Once and Future Fatty." It tells the story of an overweight young woman with a penchant for surreptitiously indulging in sweets who goes to college, rooms with an hot slender babe who naturally has no problem getting dates, and then, desiring the same attention, makes a concerted effort to lose weight and become more attractive with the help of said roommate. Over the course of a year, through diet and exercise, our heroine loses an impressive amount of weight and becomes attractive enough to win the favor of an impressive young up-and-comer, who ultimately marries her. Soon after the nuptials, our title character reverts to her prior bad habits and naturally plumpens (sic) as a result. Having a baby during this time doesn't help the situation. Her husband, as you might expect, is none too pleased with this course of events, and tries to get her to stop her expansive practices and lose the weight she's reacquired. He even offers to suffer along with here as a means of motivation. Fat girl isn't having any of it, though. Secure in her status as wife and mother, she no longer has the incentive to torture herself again. And torture is what that year of losing weight was for her. All she remembers about that year was "being hungry." Yes, she lost the weight, but it went against every fiber of her being. To all the young fellas out there, be wary of former fatties who "got it together." It might not keep. . .

Anonymous said...

Now, that's fine if you're a portly gentleman yourself, or if you happen to prefer big beautiful women

Sometimes I see the comment that fat people must line up with fat spouses/lovers, type with same type, but I noticed 20 years ago that if anything, there's this fat woman/skinny man dynamic out there. When I see a land whale, more often than not, her husband/boyfriend is fit or at most slightly padded. Allegory is not data, and I have no scientific study, but whenever I see both-heavy couples, they're usually what you'd call stout or husky, not obese. Fat guys I know who do date don't seem to be hurting for non-fatties. Their girls may not be pretty, but they're not always huge.

A guy in my unit in the Army was thin enough to hide behind a telephone pole, but his wife was so large her kneecaps were dimples, and he married her that way, so it wasn't a jeckyl/hyde. Seeing that made me notice the other thin man fat wife couples the way buying a certain car makes you notice the others on the road also. Then I knew this land mass dark as midnight about the size of ole Fridge Perry with gamey hygeine who had his pick of fit white women. I don't expect to understand, or justify unhealthy weight, or say fat won't cripple you in dating; all I know is being fat doesn't doom one to a fat sweetheart.

vartank said...

@MTS1: It is a curious thing that skinny/fit guys tend to be drawn towards thick girls more than big guys(black guys/fat white chicks is a great example of this).

I even found this to be true for me, I'm super short and small and always like a thicker type(not fatty mind you), and a lot of my friends expect me to be into girls who are shorter than me and super light-weight.

Revelation Means Hope said...

Interesting thing in my family...my wife has lost weight since marrying me and after having our child, although she was not overweight earlier, she is now size 0.
My younger brother married Easter European, she and her identical twin sister (also now married to American) have both lost about 20 lbs after quitting their high stress jobs and moving to America.
My older brother's wife is still overweight, but weighs less than when they got married and even after 3 children.

So, it is possible for women to lose weight after marriage, if the wives are given incentive to lose the weight and the husbands don't excuse it. But I wouldn't bet my life on the probability.

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