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World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
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 Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 8:29 pm Post subject: Americans Are 20 Pounds Heavier Today Than Two Decades Ago |
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The findings, based on the annual Gallup Health and Healthcare Survey, show that men are reporting they weigh 196 pounds on average and women are reporting they weigh 160 pounds on average, up nearly 20 pounds from self-reported weights in 1990.
In addition, our "ideal weight" has also increased -- for men, it is now 181 pounds (up from 177 pounds a decade ago), and for women, it is now 138 pounds (up from 137 a decade ago), according to the report.
The findings also indicate that most Americans consider their weight as "just-right" -- despite a previous Gallup report showing that 61.6 percent of people in the U.S. are overweight or obese. |
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/25/20-pounds-heavier-americans-weight_n_1110883.html
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Earlier this year, a report in the Lancet suggested that half of Americans will be obese by the year 2030 if obesity and overweight trends continue as they are now.
"At the rate we're looking at right now, it's a dire prediction," study researcher Claire Wang, of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, told ABC News. "Something has to be done." |
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BananaBan
Joined: 16 Nov 2011
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| Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 4:43 pm Post subject: |
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| the design of our urban environments and the saturation of fast food outlets has contributed to this |
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cj1976
Joined: 26 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 4:15 pm Post subject: |
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It's amazing to think that despite America's numerous achievments that have cemented their place as the global superpower, their biggest enemy is the humble deep-fat fryer.  |
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pkang0202
Joined: 09 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 7:07 pm Post subject: |
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I would have to say it is the lack of physical activity. Nowadays there is more than enough stuff to do at home, you never have to leave.
Gaming consoles, Internet, home theaters. Hell, 20 years ago you had to get off the couch to go rent a movie at the store. Now you just use your remote. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 7:16 pm Post subject: |
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| BananaBan wrote: |
| the design of our urban environments and the saturation of fast food outlets has contributed to this |
Sitting all day has more to do with it. |
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Blockhead confidence
Joined: 02 Apr 2008
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| Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 9:32 pm Post subject: |
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Are we really bigger slobs than we were 20 years ago?
Do we really do less exercise than we did 20 years ago?
Who were these mighty beings of the 70s and 80s who practiced self-restraint in diet and exercised regularly?
It wouldn't surprise me if we actually did more exercise these days and maybe even tried to eat healthier more often than we did 20-30 years ago. Health and diet certainly comes up in the media more than they did then.
Yet we're getting fatter. And kids are getting fatter faster.
What if it's food? At Pepsi (see below link - sorry only the abstract is free) they micro-manage the first miliseconds before and after a Dorito touches your tongue. In other words, we've created snacks that are to the mouth what heroin is to the body, and they're often marketed as healthy. Then we get fat.
Forget 9/11 being an inside job:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/16/110516fa_fact_seabrook |
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alwaysgood
Joined: 15 Aug 2011
Location: Changwon
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| Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 11:29 pm Post subject: |
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| I am an American, and I'm about 100 pounds heavier than I was 2 decades ago. In fact, I am infinitely more heavy than I was 3 decades ago. |
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The Cosmic Hum
Joined: 09 May 2003
Location: Sonic Space
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| Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 1:37 am Post subject: |
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| Blockhead confidence wrote: |
Are we really bigger slobs than we were 20 years ago?
Do we really do less exercise than we did 20 years ago?
Who were these mighty beings of the 70s and 80s who practiced self-restraint in diet and exercised regularly?
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Except that they didn't practice self-restraint in diet and exercise regularly...they were fat then too...just fatter now.
One generation of self-indulgent fatties leading to the next.
Really kind of pathetic when you think about all the access to information.
Lazy and getting lazier.
As Kuros mentioned...the sedentary lifestyle is a huge factor. |
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The Floating World
Joined: 01 Oct 2011
Location: Here
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| Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 2:24 am Post subject: |
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| I wonder if there is a Lamarckian factor making the size increase exponentially over the generations? |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 10:55 am Post subject: |
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| Kuros wrote: |
| BananaBan wrote: |
| the design of our urban environments and the saturation of fast food outlets has contributed to this |
Sitting all day has more to do with it. |
Yeah. Overall I prefer my current job over teaching English in Korea, but one thing I did like about teaching was I was on my feet a lot more (and it always amazed me how fast the day went too). |
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Blockhead confidence
Joined: 02 Apr 2008
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| Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 12:22 pm Post subject: |
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Why do people keep bringing up the 'sedantry lifestyle' and sitting around at work, etc.?
There's no good reason to think we sit around nowadays more than we did 30 years ago. But we're unmistakably fatter.
Only one variable has changed significantly: food.
Back in Elvis' day he ate bacon and fried stuff, but it was just that. It was unhealthy but simple.
Food now is incredibly complex and has had huge amounts of research put into its 'experience' (which includes more than just its taste; it includes the tingles of smell just prior to engagement with tastebuds, among others).
What is considered a 'serving size' has also increased, but I'll grant you might say this is an effect rather than a cause of obesity.
Speaking for myself, I live in the West now but have lots of Korean friends. Time after time Koreans turn up here and put on lots of weight - they all discuss this phenomenon. I've seen what they eat, and it's snacks, processed food. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 1:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Blockhead confidence wrote: |
There's no good reason to think we sit around nowadays more than we did 30 years ago. But we're unmistakably fatter.
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http://www.healthymagination.com/blog/is-too-much-sitting-putting-your-health-at-risk/
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Katzmarzyk and colleagues found in a recent U.S. study that since 1960, the estimated daily energy expenditure from work-related physical activity has dropped by more than 100 calories per day for both women and men. In the early 1960s, almost 50% of jobs required moderate activity whereas now, five decades later, less than 20% of jobs require moderate activity. That 100 calories per day may not seem like much, but over a year, the lost opportunity to burn 36,500 calories accounts for a significant part of the overall increase in U.S. body weights.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/health/26beha.html
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| Those who watched television four hours or more a day were 80 percent more likely to die of cardiovascular disease than those who watched two hours or less, and 46 percent more likely to die of any cause. And it did not matter whether they were overweight, according to the study, which appeared Jan. 11 in the online edition of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. |
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17sitting-t.html
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His initial question � which he first posed in a 1999 study � was simple: Why do some people who consume the same amount of food as others gain more weight? After assessing how much food each of his subjects needed to maintain their current weight, Dr. Levine then began to ply them with an extra 1,000 calories per day. Sure enough, some of his subjects packed on the pounds, while others gained little to no weight.
�We measured everything, thinking we were going to find some magic metabolic factor that would explain why some people didn�t gain weight,� explains Dr. Michael Jensen, a Mayo Clinic researcher who collaborated with Dr. Levine on the studies. But that wasn�t the case. Then six years later, with the help of the motion-tracking underwear, they discovered the answer. �The people who didn�t gain weight were unconsciously moving around more,� Dr. Jensen says. They hadn�t started exercising more � that was prohibited by the study. Their bodies simply responded naturally by making more little movements than they had before the overfeeding began, like taking the stairs, trotting down the hall to the office water cooler, bustling about with chores at home or simply fidgeting. On average, the subjects who gained weight sat two hours more per day than those who hadn�t. |
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johnnyenglishteacher2
Joined: 03 Dec 2010
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| Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 2:57 pm Post subject: |
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| Blockhead confidence wrote: |
Back in Elvis' day he ate bacon and fried stuff, but it was just that. It was unhealthy but simple.
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Hmmmm... not exactly the best example you could mention to illustrate the relative benefits of the food of yesteryear. |
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The Floating World
Joined: 01 Oct 2011
Location: Here
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| Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 3:55 am Post subject: |
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A lot of it is lymph.
Wimin be need to get off da porch an do mo walkin' than shoppin'!
Right?
Seriously, lymph, too much water retention also. |
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Blockhead confidence
Joined: 02 Apr 2008
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| Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 1:48 pm Post subject: |
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| Kuros wrote: |
| Blockhead confidence wrote: |
There's no good reason to think we sit around nowadays more than we did 30 years ago. But we're unmistakably fatter.
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http://www.healthymagination.com/blog/is-too-much-sitting-putting-your-health-at-risk/
| Quote: |
Katzmarzyk and colleagues found in a recent U.S. study that since 1960, the estimated daily energy expenditure from work-related physical activity has dropped by more than 100 calories per day for both women and men. In the early 1960s, almost 50% of jobs required moderate activity whereas now, five decades later, less than 20% of jobs require moderate activity. That 100 calories per day may not seem like much, but over a year, the lost opportunity to burn 36,500 calories accounts for a significant part of the overall increase in U.S. body weights.
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That first study is the interesting one, thanks for sharing.
There are some reasons to doubt it.
Physically Active Lifestyle Does Not Decrease the Risk of Fattening
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Increased food energy supply is more than sufficient to explain the US epidemic of obesity
But admittedly both of these pre-date your study.
Another point your article missed is this one:
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| In the nineteen-eighties, rates of obesity started to rise sharply in the U.S. and around the world. In the nineteen-nineties, it was considered an epidemic. |
We would expect a corresponding spike in occupational changes in the 80s and the 90s especially.
More importantly, this was not covered:
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| ...childhood obesity, which is growing even faster than obesity in adults. |
(Both from here again.)
And lastly I would say that your study, Kuros, just goes against what I and many others see these days.
Office jobs existed when I was a kid (the 80s), and exercise and sport had already taken off as popular and encouraged leisure activities. But the phenomenon of insanely obese people that I see today - people whose weight is so excessive it's a miracle their skeletal system can bear the load - is recent and startling. There are several in my small company alone.
Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if in six months' time another study comes out emphasising food again - the debate is far from over. |
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