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OECD Obesity Update: Almost 39% of American Adults over age 15 now classified obese
- Thread starter Madness
- Start date
So what you're saying is, it's more believable to see America as mostly muscular as opposed to mostly obese?
depths20XX
Member
Uh, around my area it sure looks like that.
Wow, I was jealous from your initial post but you worked so hard to bring your weight down. I'm hovering around 220-230 and it's been a bitch to bring my weight down. I was 210 last year due to working two manual labor jobs and that was the thinnest I've been in 10 years.
I've changed alot of my eating habits but I just can't cut calories, I enjoy food too much
Head of Vengarl
Banned
You get a skewed vision of Americans when you live in coastal Southern California. I went on a Caribbean cruise a couple years ago and there were a bunch of people from Middle America on it, and holy fuck was it shocking - they were huge! There were 12 year olds who weighed more than me.
Magic Mushroom
Member
I work long hours and eat outside a lot, but you don't have to eat at McDonalds. There are lots of healthy places with fresh food. Even better when you combine eating outside with walking or cycling.
Childhood obesity wasn't so crazy in middle america where I grew up when I did, but looking at people from my high school class now is crazy. It's like about 75% of them turned into weird balloon versions of the people I knew.
ArkhamFantasy
Member
Alot of parents are proud of their elementary school kids being 200+ lbs, "Gonna be great football players!"
With self-reported stats? I'd say it could make a hell of a difference. Who is honestly going to admit "yeah I'm terribly obese"?
And yeah living on the east coast in well-educated and well-off cities distorts your view of the average American pretty heavily. But the difference just between people living in Manhattan and Brooklyn is pretty stark, let alone hitting poorer suburbs and rural areas.
Thaedolus
Member
The problem is there's no simple solution. Diet is the major factor, exercise less so, but time, money and motivation all play into those. Being more affluent and working a white collar job, I've got more time and money to spend on quality food and exercise stuff (like cycling equipment). A lot of people don't have the time or money to spend on healthy shit, so they just grab garbage because it's cheap and easy. And once you're in the cycle of feeling like shit all the time cause your fat and out of shape, it's super hard finding the motivation to change that. I struggled with my weight because my parents raised me while they were in that cycle. Breaking out of it as an adult has been a constant struggle. Only now that I've got more free time and more money for good food and doing active stuff is it feeling easier. But I've also got an active wife who won't let me just sit around. A lot of people aren't that fortunate.
I spent sometime not working out at all and eating only when I felt hungry. I ended up eating one meal a day and losing weight gradually. Within two weeks people started commenting about my weight loss.
As long as you don't have health issues preventing weight loss, it can be easily achieved by cutting back on food intake.
It's really fucking simple really. You work harder you're allowed to eat more, you work less you get to eat less.
Fallout-NL
Member
Stereotype?
That's the nice part about tracking. You can see how multiple cheats can ruin a diet.
is there a developed country that has been able to reverse the obesity trend? I don't think so but maybe I'm mistaken.
R10Neymarfan
Member
There's a lot of solutions being thrown around anf the trying to pinpoint a problem. But the thing is that there are a myriad of problems that all connect and all cause a engative cycle into the result we have.
Pretty much one of the way is making and consuming whole foods mostly from plant sources. Making and serving your meals will result in lower proportions and eating whole plant foods provides the lower calories, low fat health benefits.
Another thing is daily activity which is hard since work schedules take over your life more and more.
This can be solved but the core problem is that the major players in the food industry won't allow this to happen. Too much money and lobbying. It's quite sad. This is late stage capitalism. Where corporations are killing us from every stage to long hours to prevent activity, and need to convenience crap foods that are really cheap because of govt. subsidies, that people buy because they don't get paid much and get by paycheck to paycheck. To crap healthcare when the problems build over time.
The only thing we can do is grassroots community education along with providing available whole plant foods to everyone (including those in food deserts). As well as Community based exercise. Because just changing the culture is best, but it won't work without government intervention and that's very very unlikely at this stage.
Pretty much one of the way is making and consuming whole foods mostly from plant sources. Making and serving your meals will result in lower proportions and eating whole plant foods provides the lower calories, low fat health benefits.
Another thing is daily activity which is hard since work schedules take over your life more and more.
This can be solved but the core problem is that the major players in the food industry won't allow this to happen. Too much money and lobbying. It's quite sad. This is late stage capitalism. Where corporations are killing us from every stage to long hours to prevent activity, and need to convenience crap foods that are really cheap because of govt. subsidies, that people buy because they don't get paid much and get by paycheck to paycheck. To crap healthcare when the problems build over time.
The only thing we can do is grassroots community education along with providing available whole plant foods to everyone (including those in food deserts). As well as Community based exercise. Because just changing the culture is best, but it won't work without government intervention and that's very very unlikely at this stage.
Yeah I'm going to right back on track tomorrow and actually I need to meal prep today. I have a my first actual full time job now and last week I learned just how little waking hours you get on work days. Was scrambling to eat my diet in the short amount of waking time I had on top doing my workout.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
A couple of differences off the top of my head:
USA's extremely heavy and ingrained car culture.
Japan and Korea have greater access to public transport, which encourages pedestrian activity.
USA's stupid non-science nutritional science campaign in the late 70s and 80s.
Traditional diet of Japanese and Korean food is pretty healthy and contains lots of veggies.
Much much greater societal pressure against being fat in Japan and Korea.
Extra Sauce
Member
Eventually being a non-obese American will automatically make you a major movie star.
I'm not surprised.
I'm from Canada. My girlfriend and I were in Hawai this winter. We went to Cheesecake Factory. Dear god.
We split a lunch sized portion of Louisiana Chicken Pasta. That was more than enough for the 2 of us. It was 1400 calories. The dinner sized portion is 2050 calories!
Someone could go to Cheesecake Factory and order the following for dinner:
Pasta Carbonara with Chicken - 2290 calories
Coke - 160 calories
Piece of Chocolate Truffle Cake - 1680 calories
That's 4130 calories in a single meal. And without even factoring in the free bread/butter or any appetizers. I mean, a single piece of that cake is more calories than most people should eat in a single day.
America has a problem with food portions, no doubt.
I'm from Canada. My girlfriend and I were in Hawai this winter. We went to Cheesecake Factory. Dear god.
We split a lunch sized portion of Louisiana Chicken Pasta. That was more than enough for the 2 of us. It was 1400 calories. The dinner sized portion is 2050 calories!
Someone could go to Cheesecake Factory and order the following for dinner:
Pasta Carbonara with Chicken - 2290 calories
Coke - 160 calories
Piece of Chocolate Truffle Cake - 1680 calories
That's 4130 calories in a single meal. And without even factoring in the free bread/butter or any appetizers. I mean, a single piece of that cake is more calories than most people should eat in a single day.
America has a problem with food portions, no doubt.
TAJ
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
The most obese state has almost twice as much obesity as the least obese state so going to one area doesn't mean much.
Baron Doggystyle von Woof
Member
We should all eat like Japan. Almost no obesity and high life expectancy.
Magic Mushroom
Member
Fucking hell.
ArkhamFantasy
Member
And americans think white rice and carbs are bad for you.
That pasta probably has 5000 mg of sodium in it too. The cake and soda is hundreds of grams of sugar. It's poison.
When I moved from California to Illinois my first thought after going to a few restaurants was "why are you also serving me lunch for tomorrow and why are the vegetables only a garnish?"
Went to the OECD website and the chart there says almost 70% of Americans are overweight (including obesity). Fuck.
There's so many factors here that have come together and made this a perfect storm. Poor nutrition and physical education, huge portion sizes, sneaking sugar/HFCS into everything, poor walkability in many areas..... It's a fucking mess and I don't know how we could possibly reverse it at this point.
There's so many factors here that have come together and made this a perfect storm. Poor nutrition and physical education, huge portion sizes, sneaking sugar/HFCS into everything, poor walkability in many areas..... It's a fucking mess and I don't know how we could possibly reverse it at this point.
I know how BMI is more a general statistic for the general population, but I like how almost half of this thread has a BMI of over thirty but is not obese, nope, they're that one outlier you see.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/dutch-turn-around-obesity-epidemic-trend-329090.html
While Japan definitely has more healthy snacks, when I lived there I didn't think they were eating that much more healthy. I'm sure genetics plays a part here too.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/dutch-turn-around-obesity-epidemic-trend-329090.html
While Japan definitely has more healthy snacks, when I lived there I didn't think they were eating that much more healthy. I'm sure genetics plays a part here too.
That stuff is downright vile. Yeah no shit people will get fat off of ridiculous meals like that.
I'm not sure I know anyone at all that goes to Cheesecake Factory and actually eats their whole plate of food. Yes, our portions for an actual meal are out of whack in the US but I think out of country people don't realize that when most of us go out to eat we're bringing back half or more of that food. My fiance usually gets three meals out of restaurant food and I can get two. Unless it's a diner breakfast or something which usually isn't hitting above 2000 calories.
I'm not disputing that we have a major problem with food portions, though. We absolutely do. Sedentary lifestyle plus some of the restaurant meals even cut in half is too much.
Nordic4tKnight
Member
Also could be that most of Asia is lactose intolerant so no fatty cheese and dairy. Not going to find much cheese in Asian cooking.
Widdle Puppy
Banned
It's because of all the snacks, soda, rich foods and eating out which is super addicting. Once you start eating like that you want to always eat like that because it tastes so good and now you're getting way more calories than you need. Junk food and super rich food has basically become part of the culture. People now expect a meal to be super fatty and filling.
Those child sized sodas too.
ArkhamFantasy
Member
The government would have to get involved.
-Proper education on health and fitness (I had to learn about this myself)
-Subsidizing water, fruit, vegetables, fish, chicken, dairy, grains.
-Taxing the living hell out of soda, chips, frozen pizza's, desert items, etc.
-Mandatory installation of calorie trackers into smart phones and giving consumers a discount for daily use of the app.
Portion sizes and the fact that Japanese people walk a lot are the major factors.
Are you a fan of negging to get dates too?
Of course none of this will happen because it would cause a shitstorm. Politicians and the public would rather just have everyone slowly die because of optics, corporate favoritism, and "freedoms."
That doesn't work at all.
Of course none of this will happen because it would cause a shitstorm. Politicians and the public would rather just have everyone slowly die because of optics and "freedoms."
There are at least two Federal programs related to nutrition education, SNAP-Ed and EFNEP. They have always been tremendously underfunded, but they do exist (at least till another year of TrumpCo).
I just googled what that means and nope, I don't agree with that strategy.
Of course it shouldn't be done in a harsh way. When a kid is starting to become fat, it's the parent's job to step in and make sure it doesn't get worse. My point is we should never allow obese people to be happy about being obese.
Storm Chamber
Banned
Even a half portion of that Chicken Carbonara is too much for a single meal (1140 calories). And there are still a lot of people out there that find it emasculating to share a meal, not finish a meal, or to take the rest of the meal home.
I think Ontario's new menu calorie law should be instated in every single restaurant, everywhere. No restaurant or chain is too small to be able to provide caloric data. I've heard owners complain that they are being penalized for giving generous portions, and I completely disagree with them. Restaurants should revise their business models with reasonable portions in mind.
It feels so wasteful when I go to Shawarma Palace and see half eaten plates left on tables, just because portion sized were too large. And you know that if someone failed to finish their plate, that they still overate anyways. The only thing overly generous portions encourages is food waste and obesity.
Sometimes you just gotta get a bag of oil soaked fries from five guys
DudeWithNoName
Member
Part of the problem is not as many families cook dinner anymore. In most cases, both parents work. They find it easier to drive by a restaurant for take-out versus heading home to cook something up.
And, IMO, this trend can be traced back to the lifestyle choices (McMansions, nice cars, etc) and cost of living driving dual income families.
And, IMO, this trend can be traced back to the lifestyle choices (McMansions, nice cars, etc) and cost of living driving dual income families.
I first went to the US back in 2000, when I was 12. Big family roadtrip. I was a big kid back then - not obese, but definitely on the heavier side. I remember all of us being absolutely shocked at the portions whenever we ordered food. We actually have pictures of us posing with the portions, with our hands besides the plates, heh.
We did a lot of hiking and stuff like that (beautiful nature, definitely jealous of that), and I just couldn't handle it. Already being out of shape and having just way too much food was a shock to my system when actually having to spend entire days walking. I pretty much switched to mainly salads because I woke up every day feeling like death. Which actually resulted in me leaving the US thinner than when I came in! I got my growth spurt not too long after that so I was fine from then on, but man, there was definitely a major difference in eating habits between the US and Europe.
Of course, this was 17 years ago, and we had to go out to eat almost every single day.
I've heard this a lot (including in this thread), but working long hours really isn't exclusive to the US. Me and my girlfriend both work full-time. Almost all my friends that are in relationships have both partners working - some of them have young children that demand a lot of time. The idea that one partner stays behind to take care of the household is a bit old-fashioned here as well. I don't think most of my friends could really afford to get by on just one salary. It really doesn't take that much time to cook healthy, and you can easily cook in advance if you need to.
You can cook a healthy meal for multiple people in less than 15 minutes. Everyone has 15 minutes left in their day. And if they don't, it's easy enough to cook ahead a couple of days.
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