Why exactly is there an obesity problem in America?

[Albert the fish]

Uhm well yeah, psychologists would agree with me in saying that the majority of the time, skinny implies healthy lifestyles. That in turn sub consciously tells the opposite sex that they can handle themselves in many essential aspects of life. Not to mention the majority of the public finds looking at skinny/fit people more pleasing to the eye.

Stop trying to find excuses for overweight laziness (thyroid/medical conditions not included). If you have a half hour to spare, that's a half hour of exercise. Also, "Not being able to afford the changes" is bull, if you know what you're looking for, you can find cheaper solutions.

As for the people who deem that they're big and beautiful and some people find that attractive, go you, go look for those people who find it attractive. However, don't get all upset because Mr./Mrs. fit at your local workplace/gym/whatever won't even consider dating you because of your current situation.

im not a psychologist, just a psychology student, but that doesn't sound a thing like anything my professors would say, in fact most of them say virtually the opposite.
closer to "using outward appearance to infer anything only leads to misdiagnosis, let a trained psychologist explore with the potential patient what, if anything, is wrong."

[Deleted]

Obesity is a problem in most developed countries, not just the States.

I think enforcing the "Clean your plate." doctrine has a dramatic effect on obesity levels, when, from a young age, people are encouraged or strongly coerced at meal-times to eat everything placed in front of them, which becomes increasingly difficult and unhealthy, as retail and restaurant portions are getting increasingly bigger and the Zeitgeist approach to eating out is placing value on quantity over quality.

[allaiva]

From what I see it's a mix of laziness and the fact that the majority of the US lives in a world of excess.

Some people have no drive to try and lose weight cause they don't care or too lazy to start and while that may be true for some, it's not the case for others. For them, it's generally that though they may exercise and do the "right" things, they eat a lot of fast foods, or even may eat healthy, but eat far too much for their daily caloric usage.

Weight is all about balancing the intake and usage of food, and generally eating the right kinds. A friend of mine is battling that very problem in her family. Both her parents are gaining wait constantly and it's because of the amount of food they lay at the table each meal. Whenever I go over I feel like i'm staring at a typical thanksgiving style meal each time, there is just THAT much food out all the time. And though they exercise and try to be healthy, eating that much food will always override a typical exercise plan.

Myself? I eat slow and until I'm satisfied, not til I'm full. I run 2-3 times a week and the rest of my free time generally goes into video games. Maybe not the healthiest of lifestyles but I never have weight problems and am "healthy" by the doctor's standards.

[Lilly32]

Obesity is a problem is most developed countries, not just the States.

I think enforcing the "Clean your plate." doctrine has a dramatic effect on obesity levels, when, from a young age, people are encouraged or strongly coerced at meal-times to eat everything placed in front of them, which becomes increasingly difficult and unhealthy, as retail and restaurant portions are getting increasingly bigger and the Zeitgeist approach to eating out is placing value on quantity over quality.

I think the whole "clean your plate" while growing up was actually to get kids to eat healthy. I remember growing up and I wouldnt eat the two servings of vegetables my parents cooked and put on my plate with my meat and starch. Thats why they said clean your plate to get me to eat the vegetables, not so I would gorge myself and get fat.

[ngc2440]

I also stopped doing what was bad for me and it was easy and OMG what happened...I immediately started losing weight. I was stupid before thats why I got fat because I didnt care I just wanted to eat stuff that tasted good. Once I started caring about my body I lost weight. So I guess overweight people really just dont care.

What I am getting from the things you are saying is that "it was easy for me so it must be easy for everyone else" which, by the way, is a gross exaggeration at best. Yes, quite a few people that are overweight are that way due to what they eat. Something you got to understand is that being overweight is a complex thing with many variables other than food and exercise. Medicine and genetics play a big role in it as well. Of course most people tend to skim over those two and think people are just lazy. Easier to point a finger than lend a hand and all that.

[MYTHRIZ]

Uhm well yeah, psychologists would agree with me in saying that the majority of the time, skinny implies healthy lifestyles. That in turn sub consciously tells the opposite sex that they can handle themselves in many essential aspects of life. Not to mention the majority of the public finds looking at skinny/fit people more pleasing to the eye.

Stop trying to find excuses for overweight laziness (thyroid/medical conditions not included). If you have a half hour to spare, that's a half hour of exercise. Also, "Not being able to afford the changes" is bull, if you know what you're looking for, you can find cheaper solutions.

As for the people who deem that they're big and beautiful and some people find that attractive, go you, go look for those people who find it attractive. However, don't get all upset because Mr./Mrs. fit at your local workplace/gym/whatever won't even consider dating you because of your current situation.

Yeah im not arguing against that majority of times skinny implies healthy lifestyles and all that.
What im arguing against is that majority of people belive that you have to be skinny to be beautiful.

I'd assume that the extra cost from loosing all that weight would be quite large.
Imagine all the new clothes you would have to buy as you constantly lost weight .. i read on some forum about it ages ago. (Some woman had lost like 60kg /132 lbs, and had to pay up quite alot just to have clothes that would fit her as she lost weight, aswell as she needed new shoes since the ones she had would wear out too quickly when she excercised)

I myself has an underproductive thyroid gland, i have to put in so much extra effort just to keep my weight normal. Medicine for life .. ugh, exhausting.

[Blastit]

2 months ago I had a CT scan done and it showed fatty infiltration of the liver and also 2 ulcers in my stomach and small intestine. My doctor said I needed to start eating better or it would obviously get worse. I didnt even exercise and in 2 months just from not eating stuff like fried foods, fast foods, pizza, not drinking beer, and no snacks I went from 265 to 240. After getting rid of some weight I have now started exercising because its so much easier so I will probably lose it even faster. The thing is I didnt even crave any of that stuff I gave up. So since its so easy why are so many people over weight? I know there are people with thyroid disorders and cant metabolize correctly so they have a harder time losing weight and keeping it off but that has the be a small minority of people. Are people just lazy? Do they not care what they look like? Do they want to have heart attacks before they are 45?

Please OP, tell us what went through your head? When you clearly got obese. 240 is nothing to be proud of. Being 6 foot tall and pushing 190 is being over average weight in the US. losing 25lb does not give you the ability to judge people who are clearly exactly like you. Come back and act triumphant when you are down to 180.

[Cyriaa]

I think the whole "clean your plate" while growing up was actually to get kids to eat healthy. I remember growing up and I wouldnt eat the two servings of vegetables my parents cooked and put on my plate with my meat and starch. Thats why they said clean your plate to get me to eat the vegetables, not so I would gorge myself and get fat.

When I was a kid I would eat some of everything and keep going until I was full.
My dad would say things like "you better finish all of your food, there's starving children in africa that would kill for what you have"
He wouldn't let me leave the table until my food was done.
It wasn't a case of eating your vegies which I was already doing, it was a case of starving african children.

[MYTHRIZ]

2 months ago I had a CT scan done and it showed fatty infiltration of the liver and also 2 ulcers in my stomach and small intestine. My doctor said I needed to start eating better or it would obviously get worse. I didnt even exercise and in 2 months just from not eating stuff like fried foods, fast foods, pizza, not drinking beer, and no snacks I went from 265 to 240. After getting rid of some weight I have now started exercising because its so much easier so I will probably lose it even faster. The thing is I didnt even crave any of that stuff I gave up. So since its so easy why are so many people over weight? I know there are people with thyroid disorders and cant metabolize correctly so they have a harder time losing weight and keeping it off but that has the be a small minority of people. Are people just lazy? Do they not care what they look like? Do they want to have heart attacks before they are 45?

Just curious .. would you have gone through the change if you had never done that CT scan and the doctor would have never found a problem?

[Lefeng]

Obesity is so common in the US because we have grown into a society of excess. We aren't happy until we have the biggest homes, the best cars. By extension of that we are lazy, entitled, and selfish. Eating whenever and whatever we want, even to the point that it makes us ill, is something that we pride ourselves on. Other cultures and nations have a concept of moderation - getting by on "just enough." That is a completely foreign concept to Americans.

[Albert the fish]

Because carbs make you fat, and the current 'wisdom' is to avoid fats and eat lots of carbs. Never mind that fat doesn't actually make you fat.

carbs don't make you fat either.
excess caloric intake does. your body doesn't care that much where they come from.
~3500 calories = ~1lb
it's all a balancing game after that.

that's just weight however, composition is another matter, but carbs don't matter massively there either.

[Mihalik]

The FIRST AND FOREMOST reason for obesity especially in the western world and most importantly in the US but increasingly in the EU equally is PROCESSED FOODS.

By processed foods I mean the stuff that comes in a bag ready cooked, precooked pre prepared. Due to the way it is manufactured and the material they use to make it last long and cost effective it is anything but healthy.

Believe it or not the fries that you would make in your own home, by buying fresh potatoes, peeling them and then frying them in low fat non enriched vegetable oils has half the calories and fats and salt then the one you buy in a bag drop in some enriched cheap cooking oil. And the same extends to every single type of other food we tend to put into ourselves.

There is a reason why whole fresh food stuff is always more expensive then the processed crap. Our bodies are not built to handle processed food. It has way to much fats, acids, salts etc.

Now add to this our increasingly sedentary life style....

And there you have the two main components of obesity.

Then add to it the fact that the physcological factors of over eating, and the fact that processed food is not at all nutritious.

[Lilly32]

Just curious .. would you have gone through the change if you had never done that CT scan and the doctor would have never found a problem?

Probably i was already cutting back on what I was eating. I could tell I had gained too much weight. I could tell I was having health issues with my digestive system: acid reflux, always feeling full no matter if I had eaten or not, sharp pains, constipated all the time. It doesnt take a genius to figure out if theres something wrong with your digestive system its usually because of whats passing through there.

[Deleted]

Dude, your "fat" food is cheap as hell compared to example sweden. I mean really, i saw your prices on "fat" food and "unhealthy" stuff, that stuff is GOOD but it's BAD for you. You have them at very cheap prices tho.

[frogger237]

2 months ago I had a CT scan done and it showed fatty infiltration of the liver and also 2 ulcers in my stomach and small intestine. My doctor said I needed to start eating better or it would obviously get worse. I didnt even exercise and in 2 months just from not eating stuff like fried foods, fast foods, pizza, not drinking beer, and no snacks I went from 265 to 240. After getting rid of some weight I have now started exercising because its so much easier so I will probably lose it even faster. The thing is I didnt even crave any of that stuff I gave up. So since its so easy why are so many people over weight? I know there are people with thyroid disorders and cant metabolize correctly so they have a harder time losing weight and keeping it off but that has the be a small minority of people. Are people just lazy? Do they not care what they look like? Do they want to have heart attacks before they are 45?

First off your making generalizations. Just because you don't crave the things you gave up and it was easy for you to lose weight doesn't mean its the same for everyone. Personally I have impulse control problems and while I don't have any problems with food, I do with drinking and other things which is why I try to avoid those things(altho it always doesn't work out).

Secondly, alot of people have grown up on fatty foods as were there parents and their parents before them, which was fine when jobs required more activity but we have kept the culture and lost the activeness of most jobs. Some people care more about tradition than being overweight.

Third, yes lots of people are lazy, also some just hate exercising for one reason or another.
Personally exercising is so boring for me it nearly drives me insane so I mostly only exercise when I get paid to or its for work.

Finally, some people can't afford to eat healthy, unhealthy food is alot cheaper.

[Aalyy]

You were extremely overweight so of course losing 25 pounds is going to seem easy. I wouldn't be so cocky just yet though. To answer your question, people are overweight because of easy access to delicious high calorie food like substances and companies that spend billions to convince us to buy that food. I say food like substances because so much of what we eat is adulterated with chemicals and over processing. Then add in the grains and sugar which make up the bulk of the modern diet....something we as humans didn't evolve eating...and there you have your obesity problem.

The obesity epidemic has many many causes and variables that all interact with each other. To blame it on laziness or people just being fat slobs is over simplifying in the extreme. The best thing to do is eliminate all grains (even "heart healthy whole grains"), refined sugars, seed oils, and processed food. Eat natural foods in their whole form whenever possible. Meat, eggs, vegetables, fruits, potatoes and sweet potatoes, and small amounts of organic dairy like yogurt, cream, and cheese. Get your fat from natural animal sources like that found on meat and butter. Coconut and olive oils are good too. Stay away from seed oils like canola, corn, and esp soy oil.

Eat clean, eat natural, and exercise. It sounds simple but in the modern world it's actually harder than it seems.

[Azutael]

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't food in general extremely cheap in the U.S ?
Anyway, that's not a good reason, as here in Norway food is insanely expensive, but we still get fatter and fatter..

All over the west people get fatter and fatter though, and not just the west anymore either.

To easily accessible food, and too little exercise throughout the day for most people. And ofc, too much stress and to little time to do our own cooking (usually).

[sheffield]

2 words.

portion size

[Deleted]

It's not just america. The stereotypic "fat american" is not really a stereotype anymore imo. Most western developed countries suffers from obesity.

[Albert the fish]

I am not sure, it really is more complex. Insulin and other things play a role.

Else riddle me this: My recommended daily calorie intake would have been 2500. I went on 1500 calories for a month. In that month I lost 30 pounds. That is 95 000 calories according to your calculation, but I only "saved" 30 000.

I have been losing (and gaining) weight over the years trying many things. Sport works. Cutting down calorie intake works. But nothing worked like what I did at the beginning of this year. It was insane. Couldn't belive it myself. (Yes, it is a diet that goes (s)low on carbs, lots of protein. No sugar. No sweeteners.) Altogether I lost 60 pounds in 4 months and now I am at a point where I normalised my calorie intake in the last two months and still drop like two pounds a month. (I am normal weight by now - BMI of 23.8 (recommened BMI for my agegroup is 22-27)

very true. all sorts of chemicals within the body play a part. i was strictly speaking about what you put in your body.

also you are not accounting for the calories you burned. that's where the math comes through. the basic notion is easy. actually figuring out how many calories you intake and how many you use during a set period? much more difficult and again this is just for WEIGHT. body health demands certain nutrients in certain amounts and is a whole other game that is infinitely more complex,

also keep in mind that the BMI system is horrendously flawed and even american doctors are going through the paces of getting rid of it in favor of other systems.