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Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S

cdc.gov

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Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S

#251

Post by nicolashahn »

nradov wrote: post #246
nicolashahn wrote: post #40

Anyone have statistics on what % of those overweight adults are actually healthy, or at least have an acceptable body fat %? Many athletes and weightlifters would be considered overweight by BMI due to muscle mass. And according to the "Adults" PDF, that's the metric they're using. It's probably not a large percentage but I get ticked off a bit to know that you can be in the "overweight" BMI category and have clearly…

Very few athletes are actually overweight. The Olympics are on TV right now. How many of the competitors look overweight to you? Even in America only a tiny fraction of the population is really "buff"; they have a negligible impact on the overall percentage.

My point is that those competitors ARE classified as overweight by BMI.

Don't forget that muscle is denser than fat - a flabby 169lb is going to have more body volume than a fit 169lb.

Any muscular sprinting/non-endurance athlete is probably going to be classified as overweight.

Here's something to think about: spindly Usain Bolt is 6'4" and 207lbs - which puts him at just over edge of "overweight" which is 25 BMI.

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/BMI/bmi...

Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S

#252

Post by nradov »

nicolashahn wrote: post #251
nradov wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very few athletes are actually overweight. The Olympics are on TV right now. How many of the competitors look overweight to you? Even in America only a tiny fraction of the population is really "buff"; they have a negligible impact on the overall percentage.

My point is that those competitors ARE classified as overweight by BMI. Don't forget that muscle is denser than fat - a flabby 169lb is going to have more body volume than a fit 169lb. Any muscular sprinting/non-endurance athlete is probably going to be classified as overweight. Here's something to think about: spindly Usain Bolt is 6'4" and 207lbs - which puts him at just over edge of "overweight" which is 25 BMI. h…

No the vast majority of Olympians really aren't classified as overweight. Check your data again. It's really only in a few sports which require short bursts of high power where you frequently see athletes muscular enough to technically fall into the "overweight" category.

Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S

#253

Post by scarface74 »

nradov wrote: post #245
scarface74 wrote: post #43

How many of these people are actually "overweight" as far as health and how many are "overweight" according to BMI? When I was in the best shape of my life from my mid 20s to my mid 30s, working out 12 hours a week (part time fitness instructor and a runner) with a body fat of 12% (measured with calipers) and a 29-30 inch waist, I was according to the BMI calculations 30 pounds overweight. Even now weighing 10 pounds…

Caliper measurements are notorious for underestimating actual body fat percentage. If you can afford $50 it's worth getting a DXA scan to accurately measure composition.

True. But they are much better than the body fat instruments that you hold in your hand or the scales that are suppose to measure it.

Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S

#254

Post by scarface74 »

antisthenes wrote: post #237
scarface74 wrote: post #43

How many of these people are actually "overweight" as far as health and how many are "overweight" according to BMI? When I was in the best shape of my life from my mid 20s to my mid 30s, working out 12 hours a week (part time fitness instructor and a runner) with a body fat of 12% (measured with calipers) and a 29-30 inch waist, I was according to the BMI calculations 30 pounds overweight. Even now weighing 10 pounds…

What's your weight and height?

5" 5 - 185. Like I said. I know I need to lose 10-15 pounds.

Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S

#255

Post by Avshalom »

Bartweiss wrote: post #231
Avshalom wrote: post #22

Of course "overweight" has as-good or better long term health outcomes so... Meh? https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/35/1/55/849914

This is an interesting paper, particularly the sections on how Americans have gained weight. "Obesity is up!" is much less informative than specifying which populations have gained how much like this does. That said, the section on health outcomes is not hugely compelling. The "normal weight has worse outcomes" studies (particularly the famous NEJM one) have a significant set of problems. NEJM simply didn't use the s…

I mean I don't know what's come out in the last months, that's just the famous one because it's such a large group but you can go poke around Wikipedia all the smaller studies seem to go back and forth though so if there is a negative effect it's probably a weak correlation or a weak effect https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Body_mass_index&i...

Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S

#256

Post by 3pt14159 »

bogomipz wrote: post #97
3pt14159 wrote: post #8

This is directly related to the way American cities are designed. It’s a car centric culture where big houses are far away from each other. That means driving everywhere. That means long commutes. That means TV over communal activity. That means big grocery runs with shelf stable food. Then pile on hyper sweet drinks and nutritional misinformation campaigns, and of course Americans are going to be overweight. The wor…

>"This is directly related to the way American cities are designed. It’s a car centric culture where big houses are far away from each other." New York City is perhaps one of the most walkable cities in the world. It's also a place where you absolutely do not need a car and the majority of residents don't have a car. Yet 34% or New Yorkers are overweight and 22% are obese.[1] The BMI statistic for the EU are none too…

I'm the OP.

I agree NYC should be better but a number of problems are present there:

1. Cultural. I haven't been there for two years, but people use the subway, not the bike lanes. And I remember as recent at 2010 taxis were very prevalent, although slightly less so last time I was there. Though that could be Uber. The walkability of a city isn't just its density, it's its zoning, the width of its streets, the expected work hours. NYC is fast food, finance, media. Though they're still better off than the average American, they are no Amsterdam.

2. They have many of the problems that most American cities have: Dirt cheap unhealthy food and sugar consumption rates that are unhealthily high.

3. Many people come to NYC to make it. If they're coming from the rest of America they're coming in overweight.

Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S

#257

Post by ghaff »

samsonradu wrote: post #228
izietto wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm italian and I visited united states a couple of months ago. In my opinion the biggest problem is that you don't have decent food at affordable prices. Healthy food has nonsensical high prices and if you want something at a human price you don't have much choice except fast food. What a shame.

Same here, I was chasing asian street food for breakfast. From my touristy experience US breakfasts consist of no vegetables and all sorts of sweets.

Not a lot of vegetables but eggs, sausage, and bacon are very common. But yes, if you’re vegan or at least prefer food that is more vegetable in nature you’ll have a tough time other than fruit.

Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S

#258

Post by ghaff »

nkkollaw wrote: post #194
RightMillennial wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was curious so I checked the bread in my cupboard. The generic loaf of white bread has high fructose corn syrup, and the fancy whole wheat loaf has sugar. Both are pretty high up in the ingredient list.

Yes because in European bakeries they might add butter to make it taste good, but in America no one would buy it because it wouldn't say "fat-free", so they add sugar.

By and large, the mass produced American breads aren’t very good. But the bread sitting on my counter right now from Trader Joe’s, which is not actually an artisanalproducer, doesn’t seem to have any added sugar. No it’s not a mass market product but it’s also something that’s more than “no one” buys.

Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S

#259

Post by lobster_johnson »

nradov wrote: post #232
lobster_johnson wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious about this. I lived in a predominantly Latino (mostly Puerto Rican) neighborhood of Brooklyn for a while a couple of years back. The supermarkets were full of fresh, cheap food, yet the customers (who were consistently overweight and often obese, including the kids) were piling their shopping carts up with terrible stuff -- sugary cereals (Froot Loops etc.), sugary drinks (sodas, fruit juices, Caprisun, i…

The funny thing is, Froot Loops has no more sugar per equivalent serving than most granola which people naively assume is more "healthy".

I compared them them [1] with a random granola product [2] available from Whole Foods. Percentages by weight:

                Total carbs  Sugar  Fiber  Protein
  Froot Loops           86%    34%    10%     6.8%
  Granola               72%    18%    14%    10.0%
Froot Loops definitely loses here. The granola has half the amount of sugar.

[1] http://smartlabel.kelloggs.com/Product/Index/00038000391187

[2] https://www.instacart.com/whole-foods/products/25454-kind-he...

Re: Obesity and Overweight Prevalence for the U.S

#260

Post by b3b0p »

Maybe it's not a problem, but I don't think it helps is when asking and/or researching what to go do, enjoy, see, explore, experience when traveling or moving to a new city. The most common responses almost exclusively and only mention food and local places to eat or drink. As if it's the only thing to do and enjoy? Anyone else notice this or is it just me?

I don't know about other people, but I only spend a small percentage of my day actually eating, needing, or hungry enough to sit down and eat. I've got a whole day not including sleep to do so much more! Food is good, but I want to have some fun, see things, explore, meet people, relax and not eat.

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