Why have so many Americans become Obese?
 

Twenty years ago, fitness and health were the word of the day. Now over 60% of Americans are obese, and we've become the butt of the world's fat jokes. Is electronic media to blame (computers, video games, TV, DVD's), is it apathy, lack of self-respect or just plain gluttony/laziness?

It's a mix of all of the above. Another factor is the amount of jobs that are sedentary vs the amount of jobs that are active. When the computer boom hit, it created a huge amount of sit on your ass all day jobs, (programmers, help desk, tech support, etc) so instead of bricklaying, etc, you became a desk jockey.

Also, technology advanced to the point where so much stuff is automated, it's not "hard labor" anymore (unless you work for Kathy Lee.)

But yeah, all those things are factors, the main problem is that our kids aren't outside all day anymore, their inside playing video games and watching TV. THe mom and dad are tired from working, (desk jockeys get mentally exhausted) and so they veg in front of the TV. Only a small percentage of people actually "work out" to stay fit, so you get obesity in huge numbers.

Actually, I am one of these obese people (I have PCOS, so that makes it harder, but not impossible to lose weight), and one of my resolutions this year isn't to lose weight (I'm just over 300lbs now and 6'1) but to do SOMETHING for a half hour, 4 days a week. Walk, swim, exercise, whatever. I'm not going to diet, I already eat as healthy as I'm going to, but I'm resolved to get up and move my fat ass for 30 minutes. We'll see what happens.

I just got a pedometer. It's hella-motivational to "get the fat ass moving" (and mine is definitely in that category!) I'm trying to reach that 10,000 step level that is touted as being "active". I figure, for $22, it's a good investment.

BTW, OC -- your analysis is spot-on.

Yeah, what OC said.^^

plus the crappy food we eat in overly large portions.

obesity and general health
 

I'm in this club. 6'1" 280lbs, hypertensive, hypothyroid, depression.
I'm starting to try to change my evil ways, thi first thing I did was stop going to the vending machine when I'm bored at work( which is often). Step two, start doing pushups and dumbbell swings between jobs. I feel better already!
But I'm still fat and hypertensive.
My kids are starting to hassle me about it. I need to rearrange my life somehow but am having a hard time doing it.

It comes down to willpower.

*MY* definition of willpower is: Finally "having enough of this" and achieving a level of motivation to do what you know needs to be done to achieve the goal. Whatever that goal is.

When I'm really tired of being fat, I'll finally get up and do something about it. When a person is being abused, they will take it until they have "had enough." No amount of talking or coaxing is going to make them change their life until they reach the point at where they have "had enough." It is at that moment you achieve the willpower to change your situation.

It goes for eating, drinking, drugs, your career, your relationships, exercise, everything in your life hinges on this basic concept.

The question then becomes: have you "had enough" yet?

Hm. Yesterday I bought a fabulous thing: a big, fat, quasi-steel-sided girdle.

I want to fit in at college.

My biggest problem, RE: fatness: THE CELLAR!

Always blame others, if you can. ;)

As a supporting theory, in conjunction with all of the above, I think that it is our diet which sets us at an immediate disadvantage. Deeply-ingrained in the American psyche is a meat-heavy diet: the "traditional American meal" is hamburger; the white collar version is steak. We barbeque, we grill, we rotisserie-roast: Holidays come bundle-wrapped with Turkey.

I'm not prepared to argue that simply eating meat is a problem -- but, to borrow a metaphor, it is very much like cocaine: acceptable as a special treat, harmful as a habit.

Most of what we eat from animals can be crudely summarized as "animal fat and protein" -- meat (& other animal products) contain a larger amount of calories by volume than most vegetabley foods do (foods made with large amounts of oil notwithstanding.) With a denser sort of food (nevermind that, by having such a diet, we have all sorts of deficiencies and subtle malnutrition), the adverse effect of overeating is more dramatic.

WHAT??

Naw. Obesity comes from repeated eating of 2400+ calories per day.

To do that with fatty ground beef, you have to eat 36 ounces, or nine quarter-pounders (just the meat). To do that with lean steaks, let's say queen prime rib, you have to eat four of them. Every day!

Obesity comes from the chips.

and dip.

And tater tots.

I'm inclined to believe it'sedentary jobs with long hours coupled with the ready availability (and ease) of high calorie foods often loaded with corn syrups. Corn syrup is a nasty nasty thing since it doesn't make you feel full. Soda is a big culprit.

It's probably pretty common for people to grab a quick breakfast, eat at work, then come home too drained to cook a good meal and opt for fastfood. Not hard to see how the weight could pile on.

I think you are all missing a major cause. America is a land of obese people because it was settled after the invention of the automobile. America is the land of the sprawl. Most people have nothing near their homes that they can walk to, so they drive everywhere.

People who live in rural and outer suburban sprawl areas are far more likely to be obese than people who live in urban areas. It's a proven fact. There have been studies.

Using myself as an example, I have a mile walk to the metro, so I have a starting point of two miles of walking each weekday. Everything else I do is on top of that.

Obviously, cheap, readily availible junk food plays major role as well.

I think the increase in the average glycemic value of the American diet is probably one of the bigger culprits. High glycemic food digests much faster than low glycemic food so the caloric absorption is higher.

You'll gain a lot more weight eating 2,000 calories of baked potato and coke than you will eating 2,000 calories of skim milk and wild rice - even if the fat content of both meals is zero.

And the more weight you gain, the slower your metabolism gets which just snowballs.

Attitudes/lifestyles.

As a Brit in the US (been here 5 years), I still find myself amazed by the unhealthy lifestyles... and it's not as if the Brits are the health gurus of the 2000s!

OK, many US cities are set up so you have to drive to shop etc... but..... we went to a New Year's Party half a mile away and walked. All the other guests lived closer, had driven and were surprised that we had walked. Habit is not always a good thing. It has to be said, we walked because we wanted to drink alcohol, alcohol is much more of a taboo over here, but none of those driving home abstained. I'd much rather they'd been up front about drinking and walked.

Americans "exercise" more than Brits (imo), but they eat more, and a larger percentage of what they eat is highly processed. A standard meal at Applebees would feed a Brit family of four over a weekend. Brits "get more exercise" because they walk a lot.

American society is more "PC", and so being large is more socially acceptable (except in Hollywood;)), so it takes longer before people realise thay have a weight problem, then it's harder to fix. And more allowances are made if you are obese. You can get scooters in the stores and disabled parking advantages, neither of which help you work it off...

The cynic in me says the insurance system here is also partially to blame. There's no profit in healthy thin people......

Oh, and before anyone hammers me, I'm no thinny.

But I frequent bulletin boards for Brits in the US and for Americans in the UK, and there is definitely a trend that Americans lose weight when they emmigrate and Brits gain it, and they're pretty equal when it comes to hating the food of their adopted country ;)

How can you not hate spotted dick and blood pudding?

There is always, however, something to love in American cuisine.

We have cheesesteaks, hoagies, pizza, and foods stolen from every country in the world that we've made our own! (admittedly, we also have SPAM, scrapple, Krispy Kremes, and Hickory Farms Beef Logs. I know it's not all good.)

MMM... sounds like a lunchtime treat.

I don't know what the problem is.
I'm a delicate dessert flower.
A 6'3", 295 lb. flower, but a flower none the less.
At my last physical -
125/80 blood pressure, 70 pulse.
138 cholesterol, 102 blood sugar.
Dr. says to me "For a man of your size, you are in remarkable shape."
"Thanks, doc, but I'm married."

corn syrup and wheat

For the record, spotted dick ROCKS!!

When I was in croatia, I noticed something. The folks we stayed with didn't have a car. This meant we walked to the tram station (10 minute brisk walk), then took the tram to the nearest exit to where we wanted to go (usually Jelacica Trg) and then (since we were sughtseeing) we walked to the cathedral, walked to the cemetary, walked to the churches, walked to lunch (which was 4 links of pork sausage fried up and placed in a bit of pita-type bread served with a huge helping of raw onions and called salad) then it was off walking to the university, then thru the shopping areas, then back to the tram, then the 10 minute walk back to the house. By the time I got "home", I was exhausted.

Within two weeks of this every day routine, I lost literally, 20 pounds.

When I was living in Vegas and my husband (at the time) wouldn't let me take one of the cars to school or to work (don't ask), I had to hoof it 1 mile to the bus stop, walk to school, walk around campus, walk to the bus stop, then transfer, then walk 1/2 mile to my job. Got off work, walked 1 mile to the nearest working night stop, then 1 mile home. Lost a good deal of weight until I started having friends drive me. Gained it right back.

So I agree with the notion that we are a Driving People, and if we lived closer to where we worked, we'd be much better for it.

Corn syrup and over-processed wheat = calories that are cheap but basically nutrition-free.

Yeah, what is wrong with wheat per se?

While training for a half marathon last summer, I lost 0 pounds, but did lose some inches. I was not dieting, as I wanted to have energy to run for heaven's sake. I did eat 'healthy' --no pop, chips etc. one sweet 'treat' a day, but as much bread, cereal, pasta, veggies etc. as I wanted.

Since mid November, I haven't been training, only a doing few miles a week maintenance. Inspired by the fasting/Ramedon threads, I decided to cut all my portions in half, but still allowed myself one 'treat' a day (cookies, real ice cream, snickers bar, Krispy Kreme, regular pop) only if I felt I 'needed' it. Even without all the extra exercising, I have lost ~6 pounds (and a belt hole) in 7 weeks. (135-7 to 129/130). My appetite has decreased significantly, and I feel fuller on less food now. In fact, I went out to lunch with a couple of work pals I haven't seen in awhile, and was amazed at how much they ate. Then I realized, they hadn't changed, I had. I used to eat just as much as they did. Yikes.

My opinion? We just eat too friggin' much. Exercise is great, but if you are still inputting more than you are outputting, you're probably just be a fit fattie.

Ok. I'm doing it. I am, as of this morning, going back on Atkins because I lost TONS of weight on it two years ago and I felt GREAT.

I know you guys all hate it but it worked for me. I didn't feel hungry (a thing I heartily despise) and my energy went zooming up. I also didn't have 9pm cravings for wildly inappropriate foods (like fries with mayo, or chocolate dipped in chocolate or similar.)

I. Am. Doing. It.

UT put his finger on it. The problem is the omnipresent over processed filler material which I was never aware of until my system became less tolerant of it. Empty calories. Oh and streaming diarrhea...

What is this filler material you speak of? Particular ingredients I can find on the label? --If you have web material or something that would be great. I would prefer to try to dodge any potential intestinal distress if possible :thepain3:

Seconded on the corn syrup and add in palm oil.

Ever wonder how one package of ramen, which is little more than noodles, contains 40% of your daily saturated fat intake? They dehydrate the noodles in pure palm oil. A lot of the other products you eat that didn't contain it years ago are now laden with the crap. The stuff is literally worse for you than pure hog fat and it is nearly unavoidable unless you prepare your meals from scratch.

If they made softdrinks with sugar, again, I'd consider drinking them. Man, I miss Coke.

Americans changed how they live their lives, but it is important to know that what we eat has radically changed, too.

If a diet really works, you wouldn't have to go back on it.

Stop doing Atkins! Eat less. Don't eat a lot of junk. Be active. Its simple, its healthy. You'll continue to be fit for much longer than after Atkins.

Exactly. Many people I know aren't willing to eat well because eating healthy takes time. Oddly, many of these people watch two hours of television a day and spend 0 hours preparing meals.

We non-breeders can feel free to pudge out.

Or get in shape to run away from them... They've nasty pack instincts, trust me. ;)

Edit:

Who said anything about "breeders"? You could be the uncle that gives piggyback rides. Maybe you're training to be a pack animal, or an apprentice fireman working your way up to carrying adults. Maybe you're a Big Brother or Big Sister and you want to be in shape for some physical fun. Maybe you actually like kids, but as a non-breeder, you're limited to adoption--works on them too. Maybe you have a desire to assist in a worker retraining program, for those poor youngsters displaced by technology.

There are plenty of creative interpretations beyond "breeders"!

I'm wheat intollerant. Processed wheat flour is so cheap that it shows up in all kinds of things that don't need it. Take a product like granola bars. You get the wrong bar you're getting corn syrup, palm oil, random sugars, and lottsa wheat.

Try these:

http://www.healthvalley.com/products...=106&cat_id=32

...made of rice flour instead of wheat flour. Mmmm... delicious.

Being Obese is a serious problem in our society,

we can't deny it, and must confront it head on lik us great americans know how to.

Maybe... a virus?

You could be the uncle that gives piggyback rides. Nope.
Maybe you're training to be a pack animal. Nope.
An apprentice fireman working your way up to carrying adults. Nope.
Maybe you're a Big Brother or Big Sister. Nope.
You want to be in shape for some physical fun. Nope.
Maybe you actually like kids. Nope.
Maybe you have a desire to assist in a worker retraining program. Nope.

Are you gonna eat that? :yum:

There should have been a all of the above answer. Thats what I would pick.
Pass the butter Please