Americans Fatter in 37 States

[tjl]

The difference between today and yesterday's society is the fact that people cared more about their personal health rather than their looks. During my father's time of growing up, it was unheard of to go to the gym, and even more so, it was unheard of for men to want six packs abs like they do now. It's even more unheard of to worry about what you're eating. The rules were simple: eat your greens, eat everything on your plate, and drink your milk. With that system in mind at schools, no one worried about obesity, no one had the so-called health problems.

But didn't people back then get more exercise in their daily life than they do now? For example, walking around, walking up stairs, pushing lawn mowers (possibly unpowered) instead of riding them, kids playing ball after school, etc.?

Now it seems that people go out of their way to avoid exercise, even when (for example) walking up the stairs is faster than waiting to use the crowded escalator.

But also, didn't more people smoke back then? While smoking is extremely unhealthy (these days, smoking is considered to be as unhealthy is being 100 pounds overfat), doesn't it increase metabolism and dull taste and smell, both of which work against obesity?

 

[Phoenyx]

Southwest Airlines now has a Customer of Size policy requiring those who do not fit in one seat with the armrests down to buy two seats, with one being refunded if the flight turns out to be not full.

I think all Airlines should adopt this policy, personally (I even thought that when I was heavy). Especially right now when they're trying to charge astronomical prices just for a 2nd piece of luggage, all in the name of paring down weight for fuel consumption.

Wow, now that I think about it... I was squeezing in pretty tight on those seats last time I flew (last year). My flight should be a lot more comfortable in a couple weeks.

 

[Eric L]

Being obese and unfit is a personal choice. There are no excuses, statistics or reasons. It's a choice.

Once you make the choice of slacking off you will begin to become fat and unfit and become depressive and have low self esteem.

The only thing one can do is give himself a kick in the rear end to take him/herself out of the vicious cycle. I for one was at a whoopin' 240lbs 2 years back...now I am around 195 and have added quite a bit of muscle and let me tell you - I was stupid for making the choices I made...my life is much much better now that I am fit(er).

Some got it. Some don't.

Some need help to get the first kick in and they are good to go while others need more disciple a little more of a "go getter" attitude because they constantly need someone to hold their hands.

Society still encourages obesity with fast foods and whatnot...one has to see this and not give in.

I don't have an answer - but money doesn't help one bit either...as long as you will have people who are motivated by material gain (money) in society they will try and take advantage of human weaknesses in order to profit.

Physical activity is very partial to bad health. Diet, IMO, has a greater effect. Anything you put in your mouth has the ultimate say.

You can say: "Oh there are less physical jobs out there now then there was in the past.". But really...this isn't a reason or excuse. If you eat like crap you will become crap.

Fitness should be a strong discipline in everyone, IMO. And at a very young age.

Eric

 

[DJSlurp1200]

I don't think it's true. I mean when I go outside, I rarely see people of obese status. I question how they get these reports.

I lived in Maine for 6 years... alot of obese people up there... As depressing of a place it is to live and winter 9 months out of the year it's almost no wonder...

 

[theGOOCH]

I don't think it's true. I mean when I go outside, I rarely see people of obese status. I question how they get these reports.

Are you being serious? When I go anywhere I pay attention to this. I'd say 80% are overweight to some degree and AT LEAST 20% are obese.

It's really sad to see people so big they can hardly move

 

[olgappetra]

Now that more manual labor type jobs are done by robotics,

In my state, Colorado, there are also a LOT of workers from Mexico (including all the people that are illegal & legislators are making it easier for them to use our tax dollars) & from overseas doing the low-paying jobs that no one else wants to do!

winter 9 months out of the year it's almost no wonder...

Slurp, I actually get out MORE in the winter--I live up in the mtns where winter is always around the corner, even during summer months. I like how cool it is compared to other places that often swelter w/ heat & the incredible amount of things to do around where I live w/ in the winter!

Being obese and unfit is a personal choice. There are no excuses, statistics or reasons. It's a choice.

&

If people want to be fat let em, f**k em. Their choice, their problem.

Eric & Tom, I don't think you are realistic. I AM NOT fat & obese by choice!!!!! I became extremely ill because of a minor injury caused by someone else's carelessness at the gym I worked out in that caused what the doctors are calling a permanent *condition*. (I am trying, however, to prove them wrong) I did NOT choose to lose my health & fitness like that!!! I was bedridden for almost 2 years & gained a little over 60 lbs but NOT BY CHOICE! Maybe you should reconsider what you think you know about ALL fat, unfit or obese people!

Yep, those are my old jeans.

Wow Phoenyx, you are truly an inspiration for me! I sincerely hope I can post a picture like that next year!

1) Fat people need help
2) Fit people don't go to fast food

First of all, regarding (2) there are NO fast food places right where I live so I don't eat fast food or sit in air conditioning. (I sold mine when I moved here)
& (1) YES, I do desperately need help! That is why I asked my doctor for assistance regarding food plans & am coming here for help!

Yes, I am fat, & in fact I am obese right now. Please don't say I am that way because I want to be! You will discourage others who will read that & then they won't come back if you disciminate & rant against them like that. Because I also have a pre-existing physical challenge (I hate the word disability) so you won't scare ME away, however. I am used to being made fun of.

Why not enourage & tell fat people to keep on keeping on

Oh yah, I lost my license for seven years because a woman slammed into me going 60 mph running a red light because I turned after everyone else had come to a stop. My insurance wouldn't pay, she sued & won because she had a *witness* in her car. I can't afford to declare bankruptcy, or pay the exhorbitant amount of her opportunistic lawsuit. I'm fascinated that someone can kill someone & lose their license for 2 or 3 years but I lost a lawsuit that shouldn't have happened & lost it for 7!

But according to a couple of you, it's my choice to not be able to easily go anywhere (I live in a very rural mountainous area & can't afford to sell my cottage & move), it's my choice to have been injured (again!) & sick, & it's my choice to have gained all the weight & get unhealthy like I have been & am. Please read my intro if you think I don't know what challenges are. It is NOT my choice & I am doing whatever I can to change that.

Speaking of which, if I don't stop writing my thoughts here, I'll miss my ride to the pool.:sport:

 

[theGOOCH]

Olgappetra,

I don't think anyone would be obese by choice (well OK, NFL linemen and sumo wrestlers, but I can't imagine who else)

I just think they don't want to lose weight as badly as they are tempted to stay in their current lifestyles. Even someone who is severely limited on physical activity or even bedridden can still restrict calories (you can't make mass out of nothing)

The concept of weight loss is simple.....execution is not easy.

P.S. Good for you for for turning things around. You can do it!!!

 

[olgappetra]

I agree, I just don't think people choose to be obese (like a couple of others here said so emphatically above.) I just became irate when I read that, and think people should realize that NONE of us have the right to pass judgement on other people who we see that are not like us/you when we know nothing about their circumstances.

Regarding watching calories when I was very ill, however, the last thing on my mind is restricting calories. Just being able to eat anything was my only so-called pleasure when I was at the sickest.

You are so very correct that wanting to lose weight & actually losing it (execution) are two different things. I am grateful I've done it before so I know I can do it again. I am also grateful for web sites like this that help me stay motivated & help me learn more about fitness & health.

Thank you for the encouragement, too I just swam laps today for the first time in a long while!! I've been gradually working up to that, & finally was able to today before the cramps hit so I had to stop. Now the trick is to keep adding to the amount of laps (w/out cramping), increasing other exercise & weight training, & to keep on keeping on. It was nice the store had a sale on veggies/salad stuff today too.

 

[goergen1]

Everytime I see someone obese, I wonder how they could let themselves get that way, and I want to help them,

When I go anywhere I pay attention to this.

Huh. Whenever I see skinny people, I feel sorry for them and wonder what it would be like to be small and weak. Do you think there is an overwhelming feeling of insignificance?

When I see people eating salads I think "Wow, they must really hate themselves to live in that sort of deprivation."

:sport2:

Where people care so much about how they appear alongside each other. Even more so, we now have "pity" groups where we feel sorry for people of larger size. Even more so, I'll bet many of us do the body comparison with each other when we walk into a room. It's quite common for one to make a comment, "Won't that make you fat?" Even more so, people can no longer eat food they like in front of others instead they must eat "health" food and keep the bad food hidden at home. How many times you go to a restaurant to see a group of girls eating salad? I mean come on. I've seen youthful people picking up a ton of candy bars to share with themselves... but yet one of the comment from another customer is, "You girls are going to get fat eating all that." I mean wow, is that what we've become? No one can enjoy the simple pleasures of life?

Excellent point. People do spend a lot of time judging others, and, it is ok to eat "bad" food.

I know this has not been brought up yet but I have a different take on the whole obesity thing.

If we look at the foods people ate in "yesterdays" society it paints a bit of a different picture. Lard was used, sausage and eggs were ok to eat, meat was good for you. Go ahead, put some butter on that.

I think the real problem lies in the overall quality of food. So much processed food is consumed these days. Chemicals, artificially processed ingredients, preservatives. There is a profound effect on the quality of food, all nutritious portions are stripped away.

Natural foods were what was consumed in "yesterdays" society. The meats, eggs, ingredients in everything, were not processed and enhanced to the point where the basic nutrition was stripped away. Flour and other baking and cooking ingredients still had natural vitamins and minerals. As opposed to nothing but calories.

Example -

I make an apple pie out of natural, organic ingredients. We put a piece of that pie next to a hostess apple pie. Even if the total calories are the same, the nutritional value is higher in one of these things than another. The negative effects of one of these items is going to be much higher.

Put the beef in an organic grilled burger next to the processed crap at most of the fast food places and there is a real difference. Even if the fat content is the same I would be interested to see the difference between a person who only ate the natural burger and a person who ate the fast food burger.

I'm just making the point that there are a lot of factors and some very small changes can make a big difference.

 

[Typhon]

Are you being serious? When I go anywhere I pay attention to this. I'd say 80% are overweight to some degree and AT LEAST 20% are obese.

It's really sad to see people so big they can hardly move

It just runs on BMI and from your picture I'd say yours was about 27 which makes you overweight. I cross between overweight and obese all the time.

I think the issue is with perception, people consider overweight to be heavier now than they did in the past. When I look at men, anyone under a BMI of about 30 looks quite slim to me but that's probably because I spend too long in the gym around bigger than average guys.

Just for the record though, I think people should eat more than they do these days. They just need to eat better and exercise more.
What seems to have happened is that people lower their calorie intake to match their expenditure rather than increase expenditure to match intake and end up with scrawny looking 'Wii-fit' bodies

 

[theGOOCH]

It just runs on BMI and from your picture I'd say yours was about 27 which makes you overweight. I cross between overweight and obese all the time.

I think the issue is with perception, people consider overweight to be heavier now than they did in the past. When I look at men, anyone under a BMI of about 30 looks quite slim to me but that's probably because I spend too long in the gym around bigger than average guys.

Just for the record though, I think people should eat more than they do these days. They just need to eat better and exercise more.
What seems to have happened is that people lower their calorie intake to match their expenditure rather than increase expenditure to match intake and end up with scrawny looking 'Wii-fit' bodies

Yeah, I mean overweight by my standards...so even more would be overweight if you included reasonably lean people with muscle mass.

I just checked...my BMI is 25.7 Still overweight by their standards LOL but I'm probably 12-13% BF right now.

Why do people take such offense that you sympathize with a problem someone has? I haven't called anyone names or said they were less than me.

 

[theGOOCH]

More people are fat now than in the past because of many reasons. When my grandparents were growing up there weren't fast food places on every corner. Eating out at a restaurant was considered a treat that the average family might engage in 5-6 times a year...if that. There weren't 1000 kinds of chips, snack cakes, sugary cereals etc at the grocery store.

People didn't snack all day long...they ate meals. They may have had bacon and sausage for breakfast, but they didn't sit at a desk and eat 3 candy bars, a bag of doritos and a caramel mochaccino before lunch. They also tended to be more physically active in their every day lives

 

[Typhon]

People didn't snack all day long...they ate meals. They may have had bacon and sausage for breakfast, but they didn't sit at a desk and eat 3 candy bars, a bag of doritos and a caramel mochaccino before lunch. They also tended to be more physically active in their every day lives

I knew you were spying on me

 

[MarkMyWords]

I wouldn't wipe my ass with a BMI chart...useless.

And also, the salad comment hit a nerve...some salads are tight man, I had a chicken caesar salad that my pops made me, bout killed me it was so damn good.

But yeah, that's about all I have to say.

 

[theGOOCH]

I wouldn't wipe my ass with a BMI chart...useless.

And also, the salad comment hit a nerve...some salads are tight man, I had a chicken caesar salad that my pops made me, bout killed me it was so damn good.

But yeah, that's about all I have to say.

My grandpa used to pour bacon grease on his salads. He was never fat, but he only lived to about 60

 

[theGOOCH]

I wouldn't wipe my ass with a BMI chart...useless.

Me neither, I prefer bidets.

A one size-fits-all chart is not very helpful. Most Americans are overweight though.

Just as an aside...Have you ever been to the US Air Force Museum in Dayton MMW? Check out the old WWII uniforms and such. They are so small compared to nowadays they look like kids' clothes

 

[MarkMyWords]

My grandpa used to pour bacon grease on his salads. He was never fat, but he only lived to about 60

Mmmm bacon grease...

Well I think the biggest difference from "then" and "now" is that people used to HAVE to move. If you wanted your house heated, your ass chopped wood every weekend for a few hours, instead of turning a dial. If you wanted to eat, you hunted then butchered your meat, or at least had to walk into town to buy the meat. Basically, to survive required that our bodies stayed in pretty good shape.

 

[MarkMyWords]

Me neither, I prefer bidets.

A one size-fits-all chart is not very helpful. Most Americans are overweight though.

Just as an aside...Have you ever been to the US Air Force Museum in Dayton MMW? Check out the old WWII uniforms and such. They are so small compared to nowadays they look like kids' clothes

Haha bidets...don't they leave your a-hole wet?

Yes most Americans are in fact overweight, I won't disagree with that, ever.

I've been up there, but it has been a few years. I recall it being SWEET! But yeah, I'm sure the uniforms are tiny, now they need XXL size in the repitoire.

 

[Typhon]

My grandpa used to pour bacon grease on his salads. He was never fat, but he only lived to about 60

Bacon fat is a common base for salad dressing, it tastes gorgeous

 

[theGOOCH]

He also used to wake up in the middle of the night to smoke a cigarette *shakes head*