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More than 73% of American adults are overweight or obese

diabetes.co.uk

171–180 of 217 posts

Re: More than 73% of American adults are overweight or obese

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mcdonalds has chicken burgers. The cheapest chicken sandwich at McDonald's is slathered with mayonnaise. Of course one can specify that the mayonnaise be omitted, but then one is confronted with the fact that the factory-made chicken patty is fairly unpalatable by itself. The main question about Subway is which is more disgusting: the food or the way they treat (especially immigrant) franchisees? I can't think of a s…

What are you on about? You can get a perfectly health meal at subway for $5. Just get a turkey club with vegetables or whatever. If you think Subway is garbage food, the problem is not Subway, the problem is that you're a rich food snob.

A couple of months ago, the Irish Supreme Court ruled that Subway's 'bread' wasn't bread (the reason this went to court was that it's important for setting a VAT rate), due to containing too much added sugar. In Ireland (and, as far as I know, most places in Europe) it would not be normal for bread to contain added sugar _at all_.

So, yeah, a sandwich made with what is legally cake seems fairly garbage (though, I do see the problem in that it seems to be hard to get normal bread cheaply in the US).

This does point to a potential solution, though. As I understand it, the determination was only directly relevant to taxation. However, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to imagine that a country could take the stance that advertising sandwiches made with non-bread as sandwiches wasn’t permissible. That might be enough of a marketing problem for Subway that they’d just drop the sugar.

Re: More than 73% of American adults are overweight or obese

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mcdonalds has chicken burgers. The cheapest chicken sandwich at McDonald's is slathered with mayonnaise. Of course one can specify that the mayonnaise be omitted, but then one is confronted with the fact that the factory-made chicken patty is fairly unpalatable by itself. The main question about Subway is which is more disgusting: the food or the way they treat (especially immigrant) franchisees? I can't think of a s…

What are you on about? You can get a perfectly health meal at subway for $5. Just get a turkey club with vegetables or whatever. If you think Subway is garbage food, the problem is not Subway, the problem is that you're a rich food snob.

A) Subway is not garbage, but it's neither good nor good for you. If you get rid of the loaves of sugar and nitrites, you're left with a small amount of salad, which shouldn't cost $5.

B) I typically bring my lunch from home, and that costs less than $5.

[EDIT:] It's not too late to edit out the baseless "rich snob" accusation... you're calling me "rich" and you regularly waste $5 on terrible unethical food.

Re: More than 73% of American adults are overweight or obese

#173
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can lose 10 kg in 20 days of not eating anything but electrolytes, so it's definitely not one-way ratchet. It's just difficult to do so. Once you eat anything with calories, you disrupt your 100% fat burn and it makes you totally miserable as the body switches over to energy preservation, while with 100% fat burn you feel plenty of energy.

When I weigh myself daily, I realize I can fluctuate over 5kg just depending on if I've shat, been fasting for 24 hours, and/or consumed much water that day. I wouldn't start counting score until you have a few months of data to average. All of those "lose 10 pounds in two weeks!" magazine programs just have you emptying your poop chute where you get immediate results. Because they never try to scale to 20 pounds in…

Those +/- 5kg are coming from the water inside, that's normal. I am talking about real fat burning. Think about it - if you don't eat at all, aren't you going to lose weight? Our ancestors often went through feast-famine cycles and survived, likely because they accumulated fat during feast periods and then spent it during famine periods. Our issue is that we are always in the feast period and can't allow body to enter the famine one. The first three days are usually the worst, then it feels normal (assuming you take your electrolytes).

Re: More than 73% of American adults are overweight or obese

#174
post #62

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I've only ever visited San Francisco in the US, and the first time I was there I was slightly surprised that in terms of obesity it seemed pretty similar to Dublin (which wouldn't be the thinnest city around, but is middle of the road European). Then I flew back via O'Hare, and really saw the difference when waiting for the transfer; quite dramatic levels of obesity. I wonder how much of it is just down to urban Amer…

It’s all diet. I visited Nashville a couple of years ago and everything on the menu was fried or just terrible for you. Most of weight is diet. Exercise helps a tiny amount but is more for your cardiovascular health and strength. Running for an hour burns far fewer calories than half of a muffin.

Input into the system is a big factor, but to maximize fat loss you also have to induce the system into expending prioritized fuel sources before it saps into fat reserves. And exercise probably induces that during but also after exercise too.

Re: More than 73% of American adults are overweight or obese

#176
post #63

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> Yes, everyone realizes this already, and nobody who is in that position is going to be mislead into thinking they are obese. No, but someone who works out the numbers and realizes that the BMI doesn't match them well, or their circumstances well, realizes it calls the study and what it represents into question. Using controversial metrics because they are easily available is counter-productive in the long run, beca…

We have an epidemic of overweight people. We can worry about misleading BMI stats when we have an epidemic of bodybuilders who worry they might actually be overweight.

Isn't that exactly what I'm addressing? How using misleading or bad metrics can lead to a mistrust in what is being conveyed?

Think "Reefer madness" and all the bunk science out about Marijuana in the 80's and 90's. Did anyone trust the information coming out at that time? I would hazard most in their teens and twenties didn't, which is exactly who that information was intended to sway.

Trust is important. If people don't trust that what you're saying is accurate because it's easy to point out the shortcuts taken that muddy the results, I think eventually they are going to look at most results about that subject with a grain of salt. At that point they've been trained to do so.

The best ammo against a problem is clear and accurate information. Not fear-mongering and FUD, or even something adjacent that's just imprecise enough to be easily called into question. All that does is cause confusion and arguments over veracity.

Re: More than 73% of American adults are overweight or obese

#177

This isn't surprising. We're conditioned to eat great tasting food and lots of it. Most American cities have a car-oriented culture, along with sedentary lifestyles; therefore, not much walking or NEAT (Non-exercise activity thermogenesis). It seems over the years, Americans are burning less calories, but consuming more. I usually cook at home now, thanks to the Pandemic. Looking at all the recipes I found online, I…

> I realized how much high-calorie ingredients you have to add to make the food taste delicious What are these ingredients? When I'm cooking the ingredients I tend to overuse to make things taste good are garlic, ginger, chilis, and sesame oil. I suppose sesame oil is high in calories, but you don't use much of it. Deliciousness can come from lots of places!

Mostly fats and carbs (sugars). A teaspoon of olive oil is about 40 calories. And most people use a lot more than they realize, especially when it requires sauteing. That can add up quick.

Also, using fattier cuts of meat compared to leaner cuts (chicken thighs vs breasts). Of course that's part of the "fat" equation.

Besides flavor, mouthfeel is part of what makes a food taste good. Fats usually provide good mouthfeel for the average people.

What I do to minimize the amount of calories I need to use is use non stick spray (near 0 calories for a splash of oil), leaner cuts of meat, and sugar substitutes like stevia.

If you give people a meatloaf using turkey, sugar free ketchup, no breadcrumbs, and minimal use of oil OR a meatloaf using 80/20 ground beef with bread crumbs and real ketchup, they'll probably pick the "unhealthier" meatloaf if the seasonings are equal.

Re: More than 73% of American adults are overweight or obese

#178

For those interested in a different measure that is much more suited to athletes: A body fat calculator that requires just a tape measure. You measure your height, waist and neck (as a man). http://fitness.bizcalcs.com/Calculator.asp?Calc=Body-Fat-Nav... The site is in 90's retro style. You can click on the question mark at the bottom left to see an explanation of all fields. Someone with BMI of 27 ("overweight") and…

I was happy to close the tab once "Fit" popped up until I saw the waist measurement is to be done "at navel".

But can I inhale sharply and hold while measuring?

Re: More than 73% of American adults are overweight or obese

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of other countries where sweet and fatty things are cheap, yet they don't have the same obesity rate as the US.

Everyone is slowly getting there, some countries (UK, Arab countries) faster, but the development seems to be unstoppable. In my country, never particularly known for being thin, I can see a definitive negative development since the 1990s. Morbidly fat teenagers were basically nonexistent then. Now you meet them all the time. IMHO the worst offenders are soft drinks, which have zero satiating effect and consist of a…

>Morbidly fat teenagers were basically nonexistent then.

This is always striking to see in movies with the "fat" kid. As an example, look at Willy Wonka from 1971 and 2005

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37220788 ['71 on the left]

https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a798428/what-tim-burton-ch... [2005 on the left]

The fat gluttonous kid from 1971 barely looks abnormal today. While the one from 2005 is morbidly obese.

Re: More than 73% of American adults are overweight or obese

#180
post #60
post #22

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True, I started weightlifting for three months and my BMI went into overweight territory. I had an athletic build both before and after. Probably good for a lot of people but weightlifting really puts it into question. It's not like weightlifting is something only few men can do; most men can weightlift. Then they end up having healthy body fat levels, but end up with BMI in the overweight category. If something as s…

You don’t lose weight lifting things up and putting them back down. You certainly don’t put any appreciable strain on the CV system.

I was doing a lot of cardio training for an ironman and had really low body fat, but still borderline overweight according to BMI.
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