Current Events > How is obesity so high in the US

(+) Yeah! (+)

1 out of every three people is not just overweight but OBESE

how is that possible
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Cheese with everything

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1) Corn Syrup
2) Weird additives on the food
3) Hidden sugars/carbs in restaurant food
4) big portions

BMI doesn't take into account where the weight is coming from. A muscular 200 pound person can be considered obese by the BMI definition, which is obviously misleading and unrepresentative of how healthy this person actually is.

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Ok in 2014 Americans ate on average 3,770 calories every day. wtf?? How can you be that hungry every single day?
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Serving sizes are big here
Healthy food is expensive
A lot of jobs are sedentary so not much exercise just doing your job
The country is so car-centric that walking and biking for commutes or leisure isnt really much of a thing.
A lot of the country has long cold winters that make outdoor exercise difficult. A lot of the other part of the country has grossly hot and humid summers

Thats a list that doesnt cover everything but I think it covers a lot of bases

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It's weird considering I'm in a pretty populated area (about 950k I believe) and don't see that many fatties

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Sugar
Less exercise

Coastal_elite posted...

1) Corn Syrup
2) Weird additives on the food
3) Hidden sugars/carbs in restaurant food
4) big portions

Pretty much this.

Combined with actual healthy food typically being more pricey, and servng size being bullshit(That small bottle of juice? Two servings and more total sugar than a can of coke).

Plus is nutrition even really taught in schools? I mean seriously so. When I was in high school there were vending machines everywhere.

And people complained when they tried to make healthier meals in the cafeteria...

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A lot of places in the south are really hot most of the year so no one wants to go outside, cities are super spread out so you have to drive everywhere instead of walk, and typical cheap food in america is super fatty and sugary.

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a homemade hamburger is like 450 calories

a fast food burger is like 900 calories

a restaurant burger is like 1200 calories

People don't cook their own food in america

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Damn_Underscore posted...

How can you be that hungry every single day?

Snacking + food designed to make you feel hungry again in a short period of time.

It's not like you eat 2k calories and suddenly you no longer want to eat anything that day.

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Coastal_elite posted...

1) Corn Syrup
2) Weird additives on the food
3) Hidden sugars/carbs in restaurant food
4) big portions

Yeah but canada is basically the same and.... oh nevermind. Were just over 1 in 4 so thats pretty brutal too.

BC is at 16%. Fittest province baby. >_>


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We drive everywhere, put a huge emphasis on in-home entertainment and social interactions through the internet, eat junk foods (even if you try to eat normal foods you find shit like blueberries with preservatives in them).

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Large portion sizes and junk food is too easily accessible

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also it's really easy to drink a lot of your calories. people line up and get their coffee every day, and don't realize their morning coffee could have like 400 calories because of the foam and cream and sugar

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In the south we fry everything. That combine with big portion servings is a bad idea.

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mew4ever posted...

Serving sizes are big here
Healthy food is expensive
A lot of jobs are sedentary so not much exercise just doing your job
The country is so car-centric that walking and biking for commutes or leisure isnt really much of a thing.
A lot of the country has long cold winters that make outdoor exercise difficult. A lot of the other part of the country has grossly hot and humid summers

Thats a list that doesnt cover everything but I think it covers a lot of bases

This. Our food intake is only half of the problem.

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I'm convinced the only way you can be fat of you possess 1 of 2 bad habits or both:

1. Eating out too much. Calories in takeout food are full of fat most of the time, so they are generally very high calorie. Any burger and fries meal typically runs about 1500 calories with a soda, which is the amount of calories most people under 5'7" and >=145Lbs need/day to maintain their weight with no excercise.

2. Junk food consumption such as chips, canned sodas, or snack cakes from supermarkets. These run in the same line as eating out too much. Someone will usually eat 2 servings of chips when they go for some, which instantly makes your day's diet gain 500-600 calories. If this person has 1 soda, there is an additional 220 calories, and 1 snack cake is about 250 calories as well. If someone does just that amount of consumption 3-4x a week before you figure up any other food they eat, these habits create a net intake of 980-1080 calories per day they have such habits.

These food items don't seem to make you full so you ignore it, but the calories they add can easily make you go over on your budget for the day.

If you cook/prepare 100% of your meals and avoid frying the food you eat, the reverse happens. It becomes difficult. Very, very difficult to maintain calories. Because you can put 20-40 mins in a meal of chicken/steak + brocolli and rice and only come out with 600 calories if you have a water. If you make a sandwich with sugar free bread you are probably only getting 400 calories. And if you havea bowl of health cereal with 2%milk, you are probably only getting 300 calories. On average, you'd only hit 1300 calories per day and you'd feel pretty full from having actual food and stay losing weight because on reality you're not getting enough to maintain weight

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Hexenherz posted...

We drive everywhere, put a huge emphasis on in-home entertainment and social interactions through the internet, eat junk foods (even if you try to eat normal foods you find shit like blueberries with preservatives in them).

Good point, America has possibly the worst car culture in the whole world

People will drive their car 1/4 of a mile, no joke, instead of walk or bike because there is nowhere safe to walk

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I want to know how poor people are so fat

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Bad_Mojo posted...

I want to know how poor people are so fat

Cheap food is packed with salt, sugar, etc.

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A 5 dollar box at taco bell with enough food for 3 adults.

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gotta have the body mass to store their ego

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I'd say lack of exercise is probably the main culprit


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food doesn't feel filling

we are on average more full framed than the rest of the world mostly (look at the average asian, and then the average american, we are taller and more muscular), we don't struggle to find food most of the time(unless we're dirt poor, unlike third world countries where they have to portion), weather makes going outside rather unappealing, sedentary jobs as there are a ton of 9 to 5s, healthy food is expensive as shit, a plethora of reasons really

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Captain_Qwark posted...

It's that after work apathy

"I just got done with a nine hour shift and still have to drive home. Do I want to do that and then spend 30 min-an hour cooking? Or just pick something up on the way?"

Probably how it goes for most adults

Ah. One more thing we can blame on feminism.