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Yuki's avatar

1. Fatness can decrease intelligence. Inflammation, plaque, etc all affect the cardiovascular system, and hence also the brain.

2. Fatness is variable. Brown fat. Visceral fat. Subcutaneous fat. Fat-adapted cold hunters with high metabolism. Though generally, the fat the majority of people possess in excess is bad (not simply a store of calories for famine/lack of food).

3. The propensity to care about physical features (in a maximally sexually attractive manner for short-term mating) is slightly inversely correlated to an increase in intelligence. Going to gym, etc.

4. Intelligence enables one to have higher incomes when combined with other personality traits; a higher income affords better food selection, more nutrition, a home gym, excerise, opportunities to be out in the sun, hence an indirect

negative correlation to excess fat.

5. Intelligence has a variable effect, mediated by cultures. In asia, it is more likely to be correlated with MOBA games (propensity for mental stimulation) than scholarly efforts for recreational time, hence an indirect correlation

with fatness. Furthermore, if one lives in Japan the portion sizes are smaller, likewise in EU certain additives are banned so food might be less enticing/less appetizing vs North America. Intelligence enables one to cognitively

understand nutritionally the food differences, and act on those choices, although willpower is variable amongst people (to not gorge calories).

6. Intelligent parents are more likely to be more choosy of their offsprings' environment, and their offspring also inherits this level of choosiness. Thus, more sports, more excerise, more opportunities, more variety of foods (not just junk),

thus a slight negative correlation with fatness.

7. Lacking intelligence means less likelihood of having income, and also less being able to understand one's health risks/benefits on a proportional basis, with less impulse control. All combined synergetic factors point to a high

correlation with fatness (in the low end).

8. Eating well and having nutritionally good food also boosts an offspring's intelligence (from a neurodevelopmental standpoint) up to their genetic potential, one can likely observe this effect from one's parents vs one's offspring,

at least in Asia/other countries going to NA and being taller/scoring better on tests/etc. General fitness is a proxy for intelligence to some extent.

9. Higher intelligence also means higher openness, which might mean less propensity to be affected by social norms, or more ability to tolerate dysgenic trends, hence a slight positive correlation to fatness for fat acceptance in NA.

Norms might be stricter in other countries where being fat affords you less opportunities, so a higher intelligence would understand such norms and thus be a slightly stronger negative correlation to fatness. On the other hand if you

are in an extraverted culture like South America and where the available foods are all nutritionally dense, you still would be more fat relative to you being somewhere else.

10. Intelligence also affords you to consider many other things which are not perceivable at lower levels of intelligence, while at average or low levels of intellect one can be a 'gym' master, you may have other competing mental interests;

research, academics, gaming, theorizing, observing, esoteric hobbies -- thus this can have a slight negative effect on you attending gyms/having a home gym and being more fat because of a lessened interest in body physique.

11. One usually observes fat and shorter people than the inverse, tall and fat (which also correlates with a lack of intelligence)

Overall there are many confounding factors; availability of foods, variety of foods, cultural norms, impulse control, income level, propensity for mental stimulation, acknowledgement of sexual attraction, etc.

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Societal Illusions's avatar

perhaps another way of considering this might be whether people judged "good looking" have higher intelligence test scores than those judged by others as less good looking.

In our society fit, not fat seems to be judged as "good looking." I expect there are studies out there to confirm.

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