Three-Quarters of US Adults Are Now Overweight or Obese 97
An anonymous reader shares a report: Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, according to a sweeping new study. The findings have wide-reaching implications for the nation's health and medical costs as it faces a growing burden of weight-related diseases.
The study reveals the striking rise of obesity rates nationwide since 1990 -- when just over half of adults were overweight or obese -- and shows how more people are becoming overweight or obese at younger ages than in the past. Both conditions can raise the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, and shorten life expectancy.
The study's authors documented increases in the rates of overweight and obesity across ages. They were particularly alarmed by the steep rise among children, more than one in three of whom are now overweight or obese. Without aggressive intervention, they forecast, the number of overweight and obese people will continue to go up -- reaching nearly 260 million people in 2050. Further reading: Adipose tissue retains an epigenetic memory of obesity after weight loss.
The study reveals the striking rise of obesity rates nationwide since 1990 -- when just over half of adults were overweight or obese -- and shows how more people are becoming overweight or obese at younger ages than in the past. Both conditions can raise the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, and shorten life expectancy.
The study's authors documented increases in the rates of overweight and obesity across ages. They were particularly alarmed by the steep rise among children, more than one in three of whom are now overweight or obese. Without aggressive intervention, they forecast, the number of overweight and obese people will continue to go up -- reaching nearly 260 million people in 2050. Further reading: Adipose tissue retains an epigenetic memory of obesity after weight loss.
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I also blame all this technology, everyone sits around now. Instead of walking down to the corner store to get food you have it delivered. You work from home? For most that means eating snacks all day while not having to go somewhere to work which involves walking even if you drive/ride.
Environment plays a big part of health, our current living environment is to sit around all day and h
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It does matter. Resistance training (weights, bands, machines) burn fat, and plenty of it.
The rest are there to make your cardio better. But if you want to melt fat -- resistance is the only sane choice.
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It does matter what you eat, because your body doesn't really have an evolutionary history to feel the right amount of satiety from pure sugars, starches, and fats, which simply don't exist in nature the way they do in grocery stores.
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Sorry, can't do that. We're working from home now which means sitting on our asses except when going to the fridge to snack every 15 minutes.
That 3/4 of Amercians are overweight or obese is not surprising when one considers how little they have to move now that they're at home all day.
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We're working from home now which means sitting on our asses except when going to the fridge to snack every 15 minutes.
The trick is to not have any snacks in the fridge.
Right now, my fridge has carrots, cabbage, tofu, soy milk, and some leftover bean & turnip soup, but nothing that I want to eat.
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Right now, my fridge has carrots, cabbage, tofu, soy milk, and some leftover bean & turnip soup, but nothing that I want to eat.
My fridge has home-pickled carrots, radishes and green beans. I find them more inviting as a snack than plain vegetables.
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Body fat is governed by hormones, as is hunger and satiety. Eat the right things and the body resolves a lot of the current food-driven ailments, like metabolic syndrome and stuff that falls under it. Too many people eat, in a low key way, to "get high" instead of eating for nutrition, and this has become highly normalized in western society. A heavy refined sugar/white flour diet throws some of these hormones out of wack and results in both excessive hunger and weight gain. I lost 50+ lbs by adopting a l
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I don't think these high obesity numbers are due to people not knowing how to exercise, or not knowing how to eat healthy food.
I think it is much more a matter of values. They don't consider it a problem that they are overweight. They are totally fine with that. They don't like exercising much and they DO like their eating habits. So, they are living the lifestyle of their choice, it suits them, and it includes being obese.
When they encounter judgey posts online ordering them to change their lifestyles,
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Order half portions at restaurants. or don't finish everything they put on your plate. Especially if you're going out or to a cafeteria for lunch every day.
People are usually shocked that a plate of butter chicken with rice and naan is like 3k+ calories.
More options for eating well: a Nutritarian diet (Score:1, Troll)
Example: "A Quick-Start Program to Reverse Type 2 Diabetes"
https://www.drfuhrman.com/blog... [drfuhrman.com]
Also on that nutrition theme and how intermittent fasting (like not eating after 5pm) can help:
"How Fasting Can HEAL You -- And Mistakes to Avoid Eat to Live Podcast"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
(explains why healthy carbs like beans are important in the right balance, and also explains why Keto and similar diets like Banting's may deliver short term weight loss results but ultimately are bad for your health)
Ag
Ugh (Score:2)
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The thing is people are just lazy, that is what any normal organism would evolve to be in an environment with limited resources, any creature that expends energy needlessly (i.e. not lazy) would probably die. The thing is we are now living in an environment where we have to do practically nothing to get food, you can just order it and not even have to leave the house. You can work from home, so you don't actually have to even get out of bed to work. I know people like, it but in the long run its not good fo
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Frankly, keep it simple. Walking an hour every day and not eating processed food is a good start for most people.
"Properly working out", just scares people away.
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Frankly, keep it simple. Walking an hour every day and not eating processed food is a good start for most people.
"Properly working out", just scares people away.
Working out is actually not required and may not even be that healthy. Some exercise is good though. As to "processed foods", that is false advice. It really depends on what is in there. Avoid sugar and its camouflaged forms. Keep sodium low. Make sure fat is not low quality, but the amount of fat is non-critical. Hence eating processed foods is not a problems as long as you actually read and understand the info on the package. What is a massive problem is eating low quality processed foods.
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eating processed foods is not a problems as long as you actually read and understand the info on the package. What is a massive problem is eating low quality processed foods.
But that's the problem. Theoretically the amount of processing and the level of quality could be independent, but in reality, most processed foods are low quality. And that's just talking about weight and diabetes. There's also the issue of all the unpronounceable chemicals that do other bad things.
We're almost there! (Score:1)
I wonder how long until we get to 100%?
Re:We're almost there! (Score:4, Funny)
This is America and we always give 110%
There goes my karma (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe we should make it ok to tease fat kids again? Or at least go back to the 80's concept that being fat was undesirable. Crazy, I know, but being incredibly overweight is actually a bad thing.
Re:There goes my karma (Score:5, Insightful)
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Example: Mom arrested for 10 year old walking to store [go.com]
When I was 10, my 8 year old sister and I would walk around a mile each way to the store on weekend mornings to get stuff to bring back home for breakfast with parents.
Because being a dick makes everything better (Score:3)
This has been a public service announcement.
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You invoking the word 'asshole' is your solution to get your way... Obviously being slightly mean is a way valid forward in your book, but you don't seem to realize it.
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How about, crazy though this sounds, we just let people have their own relationship with their body and respect their choices even though they may be different than ours....
The idea that you give two craps about anyone else's state of health is laughable. If that were the case, you would be just as irate about a thin person who eats garbage.
Just let people live their lives. They don't need anyone to tell them how to live.
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How about, crazy though this sounds, we just let people have their own relationship with their body and respect their choices even though they may be different than ours....
The idea that you give two craps about anyone else's state of health is laughable. If that were the case, you would be just as irate about a thin person who eats garbage.
Just let people live their lives. They don't need anyone to tell them how to live.
Recent studies indicate that approximately 77% of young Americans are ineligible for military service, with obesity being a leading disqualifier. Who are we going to have defend us if our political leaders get us into world war 3? Also as people are more obese they have shorter lifespans, quality of life issues not able to participate in activities they might want to, depression, amongst many other issues. All of these things compound. Maybe you don't care, but the solution is actually quite simple to put d
He's not my brother, he's heavy. (Score:2)
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Maybe we should make it ok to tease fat kids again?
Now that's just not fuckin' fair. Kids don't get to choose what sort of crap their parents fill the fridge and pantry with, so it's not their fault when they end up rotund.
It's not that the kids are lazy and not getting enough exercise, because it takes a ridiculous amount of physical activity to burn off all the calories from an unhealthy diet. The human body is quite fuel efficient.
If you want to make fun of the parents, however, have at it.
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Not a coincidence (Score:2, Insightful)
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So you want to keep us in overpriced rentals that are associated with good public transport in a very few urban centers. You may be thin, but your retirement account is not with you but your landlords estate in rural america.
There is some truth to this. Rent is high in dense areas, and mass transit is poor. At least that's the way it is in the US. However, that's not the way it is in many countries, especially in Europe. Somehow, the US is different, but it's not just that the combination of density and poor transit is unavoidable. Many other countries have made it work, but not the US.
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Funny, I used my car -- a gasser -- to go to the store, buy me a weights set, and bring it home. I fit a 6 ft barbell into a mini.
Mehtinks you place way too much blame on the instrument (the car) and not the people who own them.
Oh, I should just live in a city and go to a gym full of gym rats, pilates addicts, and everyone judging you. Fuck that.
Can you imagine bringing home a 6 ft barbell and 135 pounds of iron plates in a bus? Train? You make me laugh.
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I am pretty confident if you had to carry that barbell home you would have got more exercise. Its not about exceptions, its about if life makes you do exercise as part of living well you will get exercise. If you force people to walk 30 minutes to work then they will get 1 hour of exercise every work day. Sure SOME people will lift weights in that time but most people won't and just sleep in an extra half hour. The thing is we are talking in general not finding examples that are exceptions to normal human b
Re: Not a coincidence (Score:2)
It adds up.
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I know how! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I know how! (Score:4, Insightful)
Just keep calling people fat. Eventually they'll get the hint.
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It worked for smoking. The number of people who smoke has plummeted over the decades [gallup.com] through continual warnings of its dangers. Just keep calling people fat. Eventually they'll get the hint.
It probably has more to do with banning smoking in more places, more employers screening for nicotine usage, and the ever increasing price of a pack of cigarettes. 20 years ago a pack was like $3 and these days its at least $10.
Humans evolved as hunter/gatherers (Score:2)
MAHA (Score:4, Insightful)
Can we please start by banning known unhealthy ingredients?
https://legalinsurrection.com/... [legalinsurrection.com]
The European and Asian nations don't allow much of the crap permitted in American foods because they are unhealthy.
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Can we please start by banning known unhealthy ingredients? https://legalinsurrection.com/... [legalinsurrection.com]
The European and Asian nations don't allow much of the crap permitted in American foods because they are unhealthy.
And yet if this information were to somehow go from Insightful status to Well-Known status, do you really think the personal responsibility deficit is gonna change much?
In 2024 EVERY cigarette smoker knows the risks. And yet it’s still a leading killer. I fail to believe society hasn’t quite grasped the concept of shitty unhealthy addictive food yet. They know. They don’t care.
So What? (Score:1)
Typical American foods are tasty but fattening. Diet foods taste like blip, and few will force themselves to eat them; Andy in Foxtrot is a joke when she serves such food. And nobody has time for health clubs with more-than-eight-hour work days and televised sports on the weekends.
I am sure the authors want the State to intervene, but with the Trump in charge, that is never going to happen. In fact, there will be less intervention to make the food execs happy.
So why did the authors even bother?
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"Diet foods taste like blip,"
I actually quite like vegetables so speak for yourself. I don't know how you yanks can just eat nothing but tasteless meat, bread with way too much sugar and that yellow sticky gunk thats amusingly called cheese.
bad link (Score:2)
Link goes to /. story, not original article
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Look at who posted the article. Surprised?
The msmash script must be malfunctioning.
This isn't a Uniguely American thing, but it is. (Score:4, Interesting)
Other nations are starting to have this issue as well but Americans have to be first in anything not good for them or the rest of the world.
1. Cheap, non nutritious foods are high profit margin and addictive. Corporations promote the hell out of them for this reason.
2. American society continuously gears itself towards convenience over health. The top complaint I hear about any town center is there is never enough parking. Campus? Never enough parking. We don't build around public transit and therefore want to take our cars everywhere, right up to the door. Strip malls won out over large malls because they are "cheaper" but also require less walking. People just drive from store to store.
3. Who has time to work out or pay for a gym? I myself am exhausted after a day's work even if that involves sitting at a desk. That and when kids are involved, energy is devoted to them. If the weather is terrible, a park isn't an option.
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It's largely US portion sizes
In the UK if you buy a sandwich it's two slices of bread with a slice of ham and a slice of cheese.
In the US if you buy a sandwich it's a monstrous loaf-like sub with about an inch of cold cuts jammed in there.
Go to the movies in the US and get a literal bucket of popcorn.
Of course US tendency not to cook at home and eat unhealthy fast food doesn't help either.
But really, just stopping eating so much !!! If you're inactive, then go out for a brick 20-30 min walk once a day.
Catch-22 gained weight, now Catch-44. (Score:2)
Places where there's more public transportation are noticeably thinner. People walk the last 6 blocks or so to and from destinations.
The problem with US public transportation is that mostly the desperate and substance-abusers take it, making it too risky for the middle class, or at least it seems too risky*. It's a Catch-22: can't get enough middle class to take it until enough middle class take it.
* Car accidents are arguably more average risk than an attack on a tram.
Yo Yo effect (Score:4, Interesting)
Change of obesity definition (Score:1)
Let me guess, 1990 was the year that the definition of what was considered "obese" was adjusted sharply downwards. Nobody's weight actually changed but, suddenly you might be redefined as obese overnight. It was a media sensation!
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No. That was 1998 [nih.gov].
Without compensating for that (or even mentioning it), this "study" is just marketing for weight loss drugs.
LOL (Score:1)
Link to main article? (Score:2)
Wrong linked article? (Score:2)
What many aren't saying (Score:2)
A big part of the problem is the fact that the majority of Americans spend far too much time dealing with work, and don't have enough time on recreation. By the time people are far enough into their careers to get more time off from work, we have been conditioned not to be as active, because every time we turn around, we get text/SMS messages or e-mails from work asking about this and that, even when we aren't on the clock.
Did you know that in the USA, there is no required amount of vacation time off per
Definition of obesity (Score:2)
According to the WHO, everyone with a BMI of 30 or more is obese.
I propose we raise that definition to 40 or more, because I don't want to be obese.
Not shocking, my advice (Score:2)
Re:Not shocking, my advice (Score:4, Insightful)
It's obvious - eat less while still covering your nutritional requirements. When you get to your desired weight, stop reducing your intake. Do not increase it. No brainer, right?
Nobody wants to hear it. They want an easy fix that doesn't involve not 'free feeding' whenever they want on whatever they want.
You might as well try and hold back the tide with a bailing bucket. They don't want to be helped.
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What is there to do? Most overweight people who say they want to lose weight are not serious enough about it to take the required action.
What I'd like to do next would help me, not them. I'd like to legally classify obesity as a deleterious lifestyle choice and legislate reduced tax-funded protection from the consequences of those choices.
Move the goal posts (Score:2)
So what? Just move the goal posts like they do with so many other things these days e.g. proficiency in math and English to qualify for a high-school diploma.
It's the crap in US food (Score:2)
We *know* high fructose corn syrup adds weight (per the 1970s: sure, your body processes fructose more easily and faster than sucrose... but I doubt that 1 in 100 /. readers do outside manual labor every day. The result is... added weight.)
Demonstrate that the horemones in US meats that go into your body when you eat it doesn't help put weight on *you*.
It's only anectdotal, but most people visiting Eurupe who have celiac, etc, suddenly can eat regular bread, etc (they grow different wheat in the EU).
And on,
me too (Score:2)
I agree I am 3/4 obese. Working to get it down to 1/2. It's someone else's fault, I'm sure.
Half in 1990? (Score:2)
> The study reveals the striking rise of obesity rates nationwide since 1990 -- when just over half of adults were overweight or obese
They make it sound like half is perfectly ok, but 75% is a disaster.
How was it not a wake-up call that most people are overweight? So here we are 35 years later, and nothing has been learned.
The obesity curve (Score:4, Interesting)
In North America, the poorer you are, the heavier you're more likely to be. Until you get poor enough that you get thin... The cheapest foods per calorie include white rice, white sugar, flour, and foods from flour (pasta, noodles, etc.). The greater the divide gets between the top an bottom, the fatter your populace is likely to become.
Of course exercise matters. But even with all else being equal, the quality of your food matters. A lot.
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> The cheapest foods per calorie...
If you don't want to be fat, then trying to maximize calorie intake shouldn't be your goal!
Cut out white flour products and go for wholewheat.
Eat more fruit and vegetables.
To be healthy and not gain weight you want to eat food that is bulky and NOT high in calories.
Good news! (Score:2)
At least our invaders won't need to destroy too much infrastructure and we get on with our Oreo trays soon after the new order is installed. I'm sure that's high on the list for rebuilding, the regional Nabisco factories. No American is going to be able to physically run (in any sense) for very long. And those who hunker and shoot will eventually run out of bullets. The unfit will sell out the goodie-goodies for a Ho-Ho or even Little Debbie. I, for one, welcome our new fitness overlords. Cardio cardio card
semaglutide & insurance? (Score:1)
Can we just make semiglutides affordable to everyone that wants one? Like under ACA and everything, $10 a month. Certainly insurance companies would do better in the long run if people were not as fat. Its like covering dental cleanings and not having to pay for more fillings.
RFK has the solution! (Score:2)
RFK knows how to solve this. Eliminate inoculations and stop fluoridating drinking water!! Woo-hoo! Problem solved.
{/sarcasm}
BMI is poor way to class people (Score:2)
BMI is poor way to class people
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Guess we have to redefine normal (Score:2)
If the majority is overweight then maybe that is the new normal. New headline: 25% of American adults are underweight
Not a real Study... Obesity is decreasing (Score:2)
Meanwhile, the CDCs study where they actually go out and collect data is showing actually showing less people are obese. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/o... [cbsnews.com]
Just For The Record... (Score:1)
...it isn't the food. It's the calories, period. I eat ALL the "wrong" stuff, fast food, snacky stuff, etc. Got tired of being heavy, bought a full-up, club-level elliptical crosstrainer and resubscribed to Nutri-System, and lost 47.5 lbs in 7 months. Just don't eat so much, no matter what it is, and work your buns off doing something aerobic, and the magic will happen. As long as calories burned exceeds calories eaten, you'll lose weight. End of story. So now you don't have some faceless food v