34% of Americans are obese

[quinnox]

I read a story in USA Today that said the percentage of obese Americans in one year went from 31 to 34%!

Obese is defined as 30 or more pounds overweight. I'm close to that and embarrassed, and I do see a lot of Americans walking around who are fat and overweight. My opinion is our culture plays a role in this, with fast food and unhealthy food available every 75 feet easily.

That Americas are fat and lazy is a cliche, but there is some truth to it I think.

Americans need to get in shape and stop eating so much junk food and sitting on their asses, and I include myself in this critique!

[Kalyke]

1. Americans are also growing more and more poor.

The cheaper foods also happen to be the least healthy.

Common Sense Rule: Shop the exterior of the store and ONLY venture into the mushy middle for planned items (like salt or toilet paper or the OCCASIONAL pasta, unless it's whole wheat pasta, then get all you want). The exterior of stores general hold the fresh fruits and veggies, the in-store-made bread (i.e. no HFCS, but check the label to make sure), dairy and meat (lean if you eat it - no pork!!!).

Do that and you'll lose 10 pounds in two months.

[hlthe2b]

15. Eating healthy takes work and often more $$

It means cooking, something I never found time for until the pounds started really creeping up and I started looking at the crap contained in even supposedly "healthy" fast food or pre-cooked choices.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are readily available to most of us--but in the lowest income areas of many cities, hardly at all. It is a crime that ensures a cycle of increasing obesity and poor health among the poorest and least educated among us.

[sinkingfeeling]

20. Did you know that lean pork has less fat than lean beef? 8 ounces of pork tenderloin has

247 calories and 5g of fat vs. top beef sirloin with 297 calories and 9g of fat.

http://www.pork.org/documents/Pork%20Chart%20FINAL.pdf

[piedmont]

45. But Americans were both poorer and leaner during the Great Depression. nt

[gmoney]

48. but a cheap meal then was still real food

now if you have $1, you basically can't buy the fixings for anything at the grocery, except maybe a pack of Ramen Noodles. But you can take that $1 and buy a double cheeseburger or a chicken burrito. Plus, if you buy the burrito, you don't have to take time to prepare it, or have a place or kitchenware to prepare it, or clean up after yourself.

[piedmont]

53. That's what I was getting at-- there's more to it than the fact people are getting poorer.

From what I can tell, the main thing is that people aren't cooking for themselves anymore. You could spend the same amount of money per day (or less) on food you cook yourself as fast-food, and end up with a healthier diet. But that requires a couple of hours per day of prep, cooking, and cleanup plus the equipment and knowledge of cooking. This knowledge is not being passed on to children and young adults either by families or schools to the extent that it should.

[T Wolf]

2. Especially worrisome is the high percentage of our kids who are overweight. I don't have a

solution except for each parent to take responsibility for their own children in this.

[soleft]

3. There is probably an even higher percentage who are unheathly

People should be encouraged to live healthy. This would help a lot of people who don't exercise, eat crap and are walking timebombs despite the fact that outwardly they comform to society's ideal weight. Focusing on people who carry extra external fight ignores this group of people, and stigmitizes people who carry extra weight but are otherwise very healthy.

[Scout]

7. +100

people need to quit obsessing about FAT and focus on health.

i'm fucking sick of the numerous assholes assuming everyone who is fat is a lazy overeating unhealthy slob. the only people in my family who have had heart attacks or strokes are the skinny ones with HIGH CHOLESTEROL.

i'm fat and all my numbers are excellent. i'm active, i'm very strong for a woman my age, no osteoporosis (just walking is weight-bearing exercise), no diabetes, no high blood pressure. i just carry more fat than some fucking skinny idiot decided i'm supposed to. if someone doesn't like it, they can GO FUCK THEMSELVES.

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

17. You seem rather, I dunno . . .

. . . sensitive, or something, about this issue. It seems to me that you might end up feeling a bit better about yourself, and be less angry, if you dropped a few pounds, even if you are otherwise healthy. Couldn't hurt, could it?

[Missy Vixen]

22. You seem rather, I dunno....

...smug and self-satisfied? You might feel better about yourself if you spent less time bullying and shaming others, and more time worrying about yourself and your life. I can't even imagine what might help you and your attitudes towards others, besides some intensive therapy.

Then again, that would require thinking, and I believe you do very little of that.

:eyes:

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

29. Carrying a few extra pounds . . .

. . . yourself, are you? Feeling a little put off as a consequence?

I take your point. Sorry.

[Missy Vixen]

41. Actually, I'm fairly sick of the bullying that goes on here

in the guise of "concern".

As always, your concern's been noted. Enjoy your stay.

:eyes:

[Scout]

52. note that YOU must be fat too, else you wouldn't have commented...

at least in small minds that's why.

and i'm not only fat, i'm angry and don't feel good about myself, and need to lose a few pounds to take care of that!

:rofl:

yeah, their "concern" is noted all right.

[Scout]

47. "It seems to me that you might end up feeling a bit better about yourself"

it seems to me that you are a smug, clueless idiot who really doesn't know anything about me.

i feel fine about myself ... it's clueless smug assholes who have a problem.

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

56. I apologize for upsetting you . . .

. . . but it seems to me that the observation that I, too, "must be fat" is logically inconsistent with the further observation that I'm "smug."

That is, if I were indeed fat, what I said to you wouldn't reflect my being "smug" about my own weight, would it? Rather, "smugness" on my part would more likely indicate that I'm not fat and think myself somehow superior to, or otherwise have issues with, people who are (or, to be more precise in your case, freely represent that they are) fat.

See what I'm saying?

[Marr]

60. How about "asshole"?

Is that any better?

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

63. Heh-heh . . .

. . . Okay. Touche'.

[Scout]

66. *i* didn't say you were fat....

perhaps you need to learn how to read a thread?

and you didn't upset me.

you are smug, whether or not you are fat though.

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

68. Oh, sorry . . .

. . . I am relatively new here, and I admit that I misread the thread.

Anyhow, I'll 'fess up: I am smug, but I'm not fat.

Now, what don't you admit that I DID upset you, I'll apologize, and we'll leave it at that, okay?

[Scout]

70. i'm not "admitting" anything, you can do whatever you want to with an apology n/t

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

72. Well . . .

. . . I apologize anyway.

[uppityperson]

59. Ah, true, you "dunno". eom

[kstewart33]

40. Geez, you're angry.

And you're an exception. Every person who is obese does not overeat as you've demonstrated, but most of them do.

That's the unfortunate fact that feeds the stereotype.

[Scout]

50. so what if i am angry, so what if i'm not

that's neither here nor there in regard to the discussion.

nice attempt to shut down the discussion though.

geez, you're overbearing.

[sense]

69. Read the studies...

That isn't what they say. Obese people tend to eat less than thin people, as a whole. It's just not that simple. There is so much bigotry and prejudice that no matter what people see obese or heavy people eating they assume they're eating too much or that they eat all day or that they eat that same thing all the time. It's prejudice, not science. Our bodies are very complicated and we find out new things every day. Calories in, Calories expended doesn't apply to beings as complicated as we are. It only applies if you're talking about putting calories in a box and expending them from the same simple box, with no interaction with hormones, enzymes and all the other complicated chemical reactions that are constantly going on in our bodies. Then there's the poison we inhale and ingest in the form of toxic chemicals in the environment and hfcs, etc. The skinny people who're genetically fortunate, among other things, like to feel superior others, based on something most of them have no control over. Exteriors don't tell anything about a person or how we should value them. It also doesn't tell you whether they overeat. Fat may be something obvious we can denigrate someone for, but there are far more important components of people we should be "looking" at.

[Scout]

73. oh, you've done it now.

the "calories in, calories out" simpletons will be along any time now to tell you how wrong you are!

do you have a flamesuit?

i didn't start actually losing any weight until i followed my trainer's advice and started EATING MORE in addition to working out. and i lost 50 pounds by eating MORE than i had previously. imagine that!

[endless october]

4. it takes a lot of work to keep the weight off.

i work on it every day. i was once obese myself.

going from very fat to very thin was worth it, though. i'll exercise and keep a food diary for the rest of my life or as long as i'm able to.

losing weight is the smartest decision i ever made besides quitting smoking.

[wtmusic]

6. .

:thumbsup:

[quinnox]

11. Congrats

Its nice to hear its possible to make such a dramatic turnaround in the weight department.

[CoffeeCat]

36. How did you do it?

I used to be skinny, then gained weight. Now, I'm working to get the weight off
and I have embarked on an exercise program.

I like to hear about success stories! As you know, when you are just starting out--it
feels daunting. You wonder if you can really lose the weight!

I know that I felt and looked a lot better when I was thinner and I'm ready to be in that
place again.

Kudos to you for tackling this issue. It's tough! We have to deal with food several times a day.
We can't just go "cold turkey". So, if you succeed, you've truly accomplished something amazing!

:applause:

[Zywiec]

5. Obese but completely healthy

Those posts should be coming in no time.

:crazy:

[Scout]

8. yeah, read mine.

are you going to call me a liar because i don't fit your narrow little world-view?

[RedEarth]

9. I'm not overweight, however, I've lost 15 lbs over the last six months

just by cutting out junk foods(chips, pretzels, crackers, etc.) and watching my sodium intake. My blood pressure had been creeping up over the last five years, so by dropping some weight and cutting back on sodium I've been able to drop a few points off my bp.

What's interesting, I did find by cutting my sodium intake to no more than 1,000 mg/day I wasn't as hungry. Not sure if there is any proven correlation between sodium and the desire to eat more, but in my case(and my wife as well) I found I wasn't nearly as hungry when I cut the sodium back. The hard part with sodium is you have to realize you can't buy packaged food or go out to eat very often.

[quinnox]

10. good for you

It sounds like a good plan that you outlined.

[hlthe2b]

14. It is appalling how much sodium is in nearly everything...

It is not easy to restrict to 1000 mg/day when even milk and cheese naturally contain it. One glass of milk and one ounce of cheddar cheese and you've consumed 1/3 of your daily salt limit. Obviously, anything pre-packaged is loaded and even the low salt varieties (e.g., soup) are not all that low.

I have never been a "salter" per se, but it is easy to get it from nearly everything in US grocery stores that isn't raw. DItto the problem with high fructose corn syrup. US Markets of death, my european friends like to say... They aren't altogether wrong.

[RedEarth]

43. It really is appalling how much sodium is in prepackaged food

I had no idea how much sodium I was consuming until I starting paying attention to the food I ate. As far as cheese goes, I don't eat it anymore...it's got way too much sodium. Milk has approximately 120 mg per 8 oz serving and I use about 4 oz on cereal(Shredded Wheat..0 sodium) in the morning.

I used to eat "fat free" pretzels for a snack thinking I was eating something half way healthy. Little did I know I was consuming nearly 1,000 mg/day just on pretzels. Now, I make my own granola which is not only cheaper, but it is actually healthy. I also starting using sodium free peanut butter(buy it from the Oklahoma Food Coop) and sodium free bread(Ezekiel Low Sodium). Also bought a low sodium cookbook from the Mega Heart website ( http://www.megaheart.com/ ) and buy some products from the Healthy Heart Market (http://healthyheartmarket.com/ ). Also, my wife has asked our grocery store to carry more products that are no or low sodium and they have started carrying a few more.

It wasn't very easy the first few months, but it has gotten easier as time has gone on. Mainly, it's just taking time to read the labels and then appreciating the taste of real food instead of sodium ladened prepackaged food.

[Submariner]

12. I'm afraid I am creeping up to fit into that percentage

so I happen to have an elliptical exercises machine being delivered this Thursday. Now, I'm taking away the excuses to go to the health club, like too cold, too far, etc. I'm looking forward to melting away 20 to 30 pounds in the coming months.

[Lance_Boyle]

19. your heart will thank you, but the pounds may stick around

exercising to lose weight is really hard. Like 1.5 to 2 hours per day, every day, of hard workout. Weight loss is far more associated with restricting food intake than with increasing work output. A healthy mix of eating less (and better) along with exercise seems to work nicely.

[Submariner]

26. Forced into semi-retirement my days have become too sedentary

so I want to work up to a regime of 1 to 2 hour workouts and get rid of the belly. I have just started making the switch to better foods. More expensive, but better for me.

[kstewart33]

38. Good for you.

Losing weight is hard. Last year, I lost 20 pounds over four months, and it wasn't easy.

My deep condolences to anyone who has to lose more than that.

But I found that once it came off, my motivation to keep it off is high simply because I don't want to go through that again.

[winyanstaz]

13. For those that simply are not aware......

Fluoride will make you obese.
It shortens the attention span.
It also makes you extremely docile.
Hitler used fluoride in the camps to keep the prisoners under control.
The prisoners didnt get fat simply because they were starved and worked to death..but excessive fluoride has already been PROVEN to cause extreme obesity.
It is also the main ingredient in todays rat poisons.
Most cities have already reciently upped the doses of fluoride that they are putting in our water.
People are not rioting over this for two reasons.
1...They dont know about the dangers of fluoride and believe the speal about it being good for teeth (no it is not and in fact can cause bone loss)
2....They are too drugged/docile to care and are sitting on their asses hoping someone else will do something.

[hobbit709]

16. woo woo! nt.

[winyanstaz]

32. try doing some reseach before you post...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=fluoride+poisoning&aq=1&aql=&aqi=g10&oq=Fluoride+

talk about woo woo....hobbit.

[hobbit709]

35. Try posting links to factual data

Yes, flouride is a poison, so are about 900 other things in the human body in large concentrations.

conspiracy theory website links don't count. Give links to factual data.

[SallyMander]

64. Are you questioning the scientific validity of Google search results???

Man, my dissertation would have been a hell of a lot easier if i'd known this was how science worked... :rofl:

[Lance_Boyle]

21. This sort of ridiculous claptrap makes all of DU look bad.

Are you planning to bust out the "dangers of dihydrogen monoxide" next? :eyes:

[winyanstaz]

30. Before you post mean posts...shouldnt you at least look it up?

I forgot to add...that another reason people don't do a damned thing about the fluoride in their water supply is because they are simply stupid...like some posters. Either that or they simply don't know how to use their computers to look things up.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=fluoride+poisoning&aq=1&aql=&aqi=g10&oq=Fluoride+

[hobbit709]

31. You put it out there, you provide the links.

[winyanstaz]

33. I did...its called google....

[hobbit709]

37. Google just shows hits on search terms used

Try links to factual data for your claims.

[Zywiec]

62. DUers looking ridiculous on threads dealing with weight?

Never!

:rofl:

[Forkboy]

24. "Have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of water?"

[Starbucks Anarchist]

74. Beat me to it.

[Forkboy]

76. The movie never goes out of style.

:)

[Codeine]

54. Unmitigated bullshit. nt

[Odin2005]

58. Oh Noes, the Commies are contaminating our precious bodily fluids!!!

:rofl:

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Think corn syrup

and look at the relationship with this.

Oh and don't be embarrassed, you can take the bull by horns and do something about it.

It takes work, and chiefly awareness of your body and feelings of satiety.

[Peacetrain]

25. Oh so true... so true.. it skips that 5 process of digestion and keeps you hungry

[nadinbrzezinski]

44. Yep... why we avoid it as much as we can

[Silver Swan]

23. The OP seems to have misinterpreted the article.

This is the USA article:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/weightloss/2010-01-13-obesity-rates_N.htm

"The percentage of adults who are obese hasn't increased much over the past 10 years after several decades of skyrocketing growth, an indication that America's obesity epidemic is finally starting to level off, according to a landmark government analysis released Wednesday."

"About 34% of U.S. adults — almost 73 million people — were obese (roughly 30 or more pounds over a healthy weight) in 2008, up from 31% in 1999."

So it wasn't a one year increase, it was a ten year increase, and it seems to be leveling off. I know the obesity threshold was lowered in 1998--could that account for part of this increase?

[Name removed]

27. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[quinnox]

28. Yea, I did get that part wrong

I thought it had been one year but it was ten years.

But still, even if the rate only increased by 3% in ten years, 34% is still a hell of a high number of obese people for an entire nation.

[Scout]

49. you got it

"So it wasn't a one year increase, it was a ten year increase, and it seems to be leveling off. I know the obesity threshold was lowered in 1998--could that account for part of this increase?"

same thing they did with high blood pressure.

let's lower the numbers, more people will be "sick" thus more people on meds.... more profit for doctors and pharma

[Iggo]

34. Don't worry. We can always change the definition of "obese".

Just like "torture".

[Scout]

51. they already have done so ... that's why there's more "obesity" now n/t

[izzybeans]

39. Our infastructure is also not helpful.

Don't have a link, but I recently read a study that compared "walkable" communities to "driving" communities. Walkable communities, defined by a residents ability to access sidewalks and have them lead to commercial and civic destinations, tend to have thinner and healthier residents (even better than "driving" communities with bike and walking trails). It appears that people who walk all the time to get what they need fair better health wise.

The study also noted that a huge majority of new development since the 1950s during the suburbanization boom made us more reliant on cars. These neighborhoods often have senseless sidewalks that go in circles and lead nowhere and are designed in such a way that forces you to hop in the car to get to grocery stores, the gym, etc. many don't even have sidewalks and when they do, they end abruptly because the developer that built the neighborhood did not coordinate with anyone to make sure there was a point to the physical landscape other than to make money.

[alp227]

42. And maybe the government should start making fast food restaurant quotas

Let's limit the number of fast food restaurants so that they don't exist every few blocks. That'll encourage people to eat healthier, in addition to an expanded food stamp program and other incentives to eat healthy.

[RT Atlanta]

46. Start by ditching the video games

Kids dont play outside any more... they just sit on their asses all day long and play games staring at a static box.

What happened to biking, playing tag, building forts, etc.?

[Odin2005]

57. No, Parents are afraid of letting their kids play outside. Might get kidnapped and molested ya know!

So they let the kids stay inside and play video games, it's "safer". Video games themselves have nothing to do with it, the parents can always unplug them if they wanted to. Many places don't even let kids under a certain age be outside unsupervised anymore, what is the kid going to do when the parents are both working 2 jobs?

[krabigirl]

77. Wrong. They are afraid of being reported by their neighbors.

[RT Atlanta]

78. How about Boys & Girls club or similar after school program?

Collectively, many parents don't seem to want to put in the time/effort it takes to "parent" any more, and hence turn to video games for the easy way out. Which means, "just plug 'ol Johnny" into the tube and forget about him for 3 hours. When the child could be out somewhere playing, interacting, or doing something else that involves physical and mental stimulation beyond playing with a handset and staring at a box for hours on end.

[itsrobert]

55. And it's not their fault

:sarcasm:

[uppityperson]

61. There is a difference between being obese and being unhealthy

Yes, some people who weigh 30+# more than they "should" are unhealthy, but simply weighing more than the charts say is healthy ON AVERAGE does not mean anything for any one person. And there are plenty of skinny unhealthy folks out there.

[sybylla]

65. Unfortunately the standards are pretty one-size-fits-all and very poor

I'm no where near 30 pounds overweight. Even at that, I'm 5 foot tall and I've been told I was overweight since I weighed 105. Based on BMI, I'm now borderline obese. I'd never say I'm not overweight, but given the history of the medical community to judge my fitness by my weight for thirty years, I've given up paying any attention to their judgment when it comes to determining my level of obesity or fitness.

Unfortunately, BMI as calculated by my doctor (on my last visit) simply based on weight versus height, would have made my husband obese when he was totally buff and fit and weighed far more than 30 pounds over "normal" weight.

So I find stories like this trend too much toward the Chicken Little variety and only serve to feed those with an agenda the fresh red meat they crave.

[Prometheus Bound]

67. That's nothing. 75% of urban Samoans are obese. And 79% of elderly Australians.

Australia’s obesity problem continues to grow
http://www.diabetesnsw.com.au/news_pages/ABS2009health.asp

Obesity and overweight
http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/publications/facts/obesity/en/

[Mari333]

71. just look at it from the persepective of quantum wave particles

and its just fine.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

75. 30 lbs. overweight by what standard. I'm nearly obese according to the BMI.

Of course I have a 32" waist and I'm not short. No one in there right mind would classify me as borderline obese.

[1awake]

79. Fat and Lazy?

I've struggled with my weight most of my life. Since I was born (13 pounds), I have had a gut. I have always lifted weights and at times done the running thing (though I hate jogging). I have also tried numerous diets with varying success. After all that, I can say it is NOT a question of eat less move more. If it was, I'd be slim and trim with no issues at all.

I have found that its BECAUSE I'm not eating enough at the right times that I'm not losing weight. I also found that eating more meals, smaller in size actually helps than skipping meals like I was doing. When I skipped meals.. my body would seem to not loose anything at all. It use to frustrate me to no end because I'd be eating significantly less than some of my friends who were thin, yet I was making no progress. I've come to think that dieting is a total waste of time. By cutting out fast food, junk food from the grocery store, and somewhat keeping track of daily calories (and forcing myself to eat breakfast no matter what), I have been having success. I also eat alot more salad with fat free dressing each day instead of avoiding it like the plague. The trick is, being a single father of three.. adapting my children to a healthier diet while keeping myself away from some of the things I buy for them.

I personally havent had anyone put me down about my weight, though like I said, I lift weights and bench over 350.. so that might have something to do with it. ;)