http://pewresearch.org/assets/social/pdf/Obesity.pdf

very interesting . . .

Do you think this is the problem? Do Americans just not realise they're fat? Come on!

very interesting . . .

Do you think this is the problem? Do Americans just not realise they're fat? Come on!

I think it is the problem in SOME cases, but not most... most people just don't want to admit to other people that they are fat... and if you're doing a phone interview, who's to know if you are or are not fat?? I don't recall if the paper said the interviews were done in person or over the phone, and honestly I didn't read the whole thing... but if it was over the phone, there is no way that they (the interviewers) could confirm if the person was or was not fat in actuality. Also, I know a lot of women that are fat, but not too fat, and they really do just think they're a bit overweight, and not really FAT... and since, unfortunatly, the trend is going towards more and more moderatly fat people, they consider themselves at a 'normal' weight.. it's just sad

One of the problems cited was the fact that people overestimate their height, and underestimate their weight.

"The women reported they weighed a median of 150 pounds and had a median height of 5 feet five inches, which would put them just barely on the borderline of being overweight.

But national statistics indicate that U.S. women in fact have a median weight of 155 pounds and are only 5 feet 4 inches tall, which puts them squarely into the overweight column."

Interesting but not surprising. I know plenty of people who say things like "I need to lose about 20 lbs" when I, having lost weight myself, can say it's more like 40+. I have often made the mistake myself of thinking that "in 5-10 lbs I'll look ripped up". I lose the 10 and then I realize in truth I'm only about half way there. Fat is nefarious like that. If we look at it in the right light or angle or frame of mind, it's easy to pretend we're not as fat as we should be. We've all heard from a chubby guy statements like "The BMI says I should lose 50 lbs but if I did that I'd be a rail!" Fact is, probably not. He does need to drop 50.The survey finds that most Americans, including
those who say they are overweight, agree that
personal behavior – rather than genetic disposition or marketing by food companies – is the main reason people
are overweight. In particular, the public says that a failure to get enough exercise is the most important reason,
followed by a lack of willpower about what to eat. About half the public also says that the kinds of foods
marketed at restaurants and grocery stores are a very important cause, and roughly a third say the same about
the effect of genetics and heredity.I'm glad people know it's their fault, for the most part.

more on this topic...

"More than three-quarters of obese Americans say they have healthy eating habits, according to a survey of more than 11,000 people.

About 40 percent of obese people also said they do "vigorous" exercise at least three times a week, the telephone survey found.

"There is, perhaps, some denial going on. Or there is a lack of understanding of what does it mean to be eating healthy, and what is vigorous exercise," said Dr. David Schutt of Thomson Medstat, the Michigan-based health-care research firm that conducted the survey."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060802/ap_on_he_me/diet_obesity_survey;_ylt=AicmUmw3e4HD37zDprOF8k.s0 NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3czJjNGZoBHNlYwM3NTE-

Or there is a lack of understanding of what does it mean to be eating healthy, and what is vigorous exercise,"

My HUGE bone to pick with that is the medicos go into brutal detail with what they think is healthy eating.

But what they think is vigorous exercise?

Seems to me they have taken the point of view that "if we don't make it really easy, people won't even try".

So many people answering a survey might have been exposed to the fact that 45 minutes a day of 60%MHR LISS can have important health benefits (and that is true - it can) and translate that into "well then walking around the block is vigorous exercise isn't it?"

Don't get me wrong, walking can be effective exercise. But you can do a lot better. And if you are at all concerned with health and aging, resistance exercise is being shown to be a lot more important than people previously thought.

This is a very interesting article.

One of my neighbors is a 10 y\o obese kid. I had some chances to talk with him about his weight. By those talks , I understood that he is aware of his weight problem, though as a 10 y\o he hasn't got to a stage where it bothers him. His big brother (3-4 years older) is in the same condition. I used to think that they both have Genetic causes for the Obese state they share but after having lunch with them today and noticing of what they eat I realised that they are simply have an awful diet .

The kid has no problem talking about his brother's problem or any other overweight person he sees or knows. Though talking about his problem is something he tries to avoid constantly.

I was planning to open a thread asking if anyone have dealt with such a situation where you can't really do anything to help a kid, when he is too young to make the change by himself and his parents are to "lazy" to push him on the right direction. But for now I think I'll give it up, I have my own diet to deal with.

For conclusion:
This morning I it was a child I deal with. After reading this article I know I'm dealing with a "Problem of a Nation". Its sad to know that adults deal with problems the same way a 10y\o kid does....
It trully saddens me....

Personally, I think Americans by in large are very lazy people.

- Too lazy to take the initiative
- Too lazy to cook
- Too lazy to exercise
- Too lazy to educate themselves on what is healthy
- Too lazy to *STICK WITH IT*

That's why the gym is packed every January and it is back to normal within six weeks.

BTW, I have been guilty of each of these from time to time, but certainly have never simply let myself go to the point that I would be anywhere near obese.

Staying fit is simply a choice...

OK, off my soapbox.

Personally, I think Americans by in large are very lazy people.

- Too lazy to take the initiative
- Too lazy to cook
- Too lazy to exercise
- Too lazy to educate themselves on what is healthy
- Too lazy to *STICK WITH IT*


And it certainly isn't just confined to Americans. I really despair at the excuses I hear from people as to why they don't exercise or spend time cooking something healthy. Actually what really gets me is the fact that they are not willing to admit that they are just that, excuses.

My two penneth,

Personally, I think Americans by in large are very lazy people.
That's why the gym is packed every January and it is back to normal within six weeks.

That's why workers in the United States put in more hours per year than any other developed country. (http://archives.cnn.com/2001/CAREER/trends/08/30/ilo.study/)

Dunno about your gym but mine is the same year round.

Blow that lazy comment out your *** bud. It HAS nothing to do with laziness. Americans are some of the hardest working people in the world.

It has to do with the "Give it to me now" mind set. What isn't instant now a days? Faster cars, faster internet, faster pizza delivery, hell faster breast augmentation during the lunch break (don't know if that is too much of a problem...;) ).

I eat a bag of oreos, it won't effect me immediately, therefor it isn't a problem.

I bust my ass for 2 hours lifting, I won't see the effect immediately, so what's the use?

Like it or not, we want and NEED everything right away. If it's late, it's as good as not wanted.

Besides, once we nail the proper fat loss pill form, we won't have an obesity problem. And the way we are spending money on that stuff, it'll be here in 5 years. Tops.


Regardless, I don't think obesity is quite the problem we are lead to believe. That BMI stuff is garbage. Absolute garbage.

That's why workers in the United States put in more hours per year than any other developed country. (http://archives.cnn.com/2001/CAREER/trends/08/30/ilo.study/)

Dunno about your gym but mine is the same year round.


I was gonna reply the exact same way about American's "laziness", til I saw your post zen.

I don't like calling it "laziness" and then shucking the issue aside. What other issues might CONTRIBUTE to problems?

Over-advertising? An average person see's about 250,000 advertisments a day, even more if you live in a metropoliten area. A lot of these advertisements are for food.

Does the fact that we work harder than everybody else lead to this problem? I say maybe, since things like fast food and take out are much easier to get done after working 55 hours in a week.

What about the "ideal" image of beauty nowadays? There have been many times I've been watching TV and said "I could never look like that". JohnStonefitness.com is one of the first things that got me out of that thinking. Could these ideals be de-motivating the public?

I don't know if any of these things are real reasons, but I'd rather not just toss out all obesity as a problem of "laziness".

People have a difficult time being objective when it comes to evaluating themselves. I don't think it is necessarily denial per se, but rather, you just don't have the perspective that everyone else has...and, let's face it, you tend to give yourself the benefit of the doubt. Some of us JSFers may be more tuned to our bodies than many, but I would bet that everyone in this thread thinks they have above average intelligence, are more honest than the average person, are harder working than the average person, are better looking than the average person ... etc. etc., when statistically, that is very unlikely to be true. So, I don't think it is surprising, or necessarily a negative thing that people are unable to be objective about themselves -- its just a basic quality of human nature and the limited perspective we have about ourselves. The key is to get people to pay attention to the numbers rather than their subjective feeling about their weight/health status.

Also, I noticed that during my fatter days, I didn't even recognize visually that I was fat. In my early 20's, I exercised pretty obsessively (admittedly too much), and had a very active lifestyle. I weighed in the vicinity of 195-200 pounds, and was pretty shredded. Once I graduated college, I quit exercising and slowly started gaining weight. I got up to about 215-220, and even though my friends/family were telling me that I was getting fat, I just didn't see it when looking in the mirror. I thought I still looked pretty good. Plus, I was telling myself that I was only 20 pounds heavier than my shredded days, so I couldn't look all that bad. Of course, it never occurred to me that after 7-8 years of not exercising, that all of my muscle had atrophied and been replaced by fat. Anyway....long story short, I finally realized just how fat I was when I saw some vacation photos of myself. I couldn't believe that fat guy in the pictures was me! I was shocked that I looked so fat in the pictures, but I didn't seem fat when I looked in the mirror. So, not only do we not have a neutral emotional perspective on ourselves, but often times, our limited VISUAL perspective of our bodies (that relegated to what is visible in the mirror) can fool us into thinking that we aren't as fat as we really are.

Blow that lazy comment out your *** bud. It HAS nothing to do with laziness. Americans are some of the hardest working people in the world.

Like it or not, we want and NEED everything right away. If it's late, it's as good as not wanted.


Personally I see those two as conflicting statements, and this is not anything specifically pointed in the direction of Americans, but at much of the western world.

Yes we are all working longer and harder and therefore the lazy comment may be a little unjust. However most people on this forum are in exactly the same position, I know I am, 50 hours plus in the office every week, and around a minimum of 20 hours additional work from home. But we made a decision that we would make changes to our lifestyle, for me it was getting out of bed an hour earlier to get the gym in the morning, not going straight home and slobbing in front of the TV, but instead spending the time on making a nutritional meal and using that as my "down time".

Lazy is quite a provocotive word, but the fact is a lot of people are not willing to put in the effort in order to achieve their goals, whatever they may be, and instead, as you rightly point out expect everything NOW and with minimal input from themselves.

As to how big the "problem' of obesity is... I'm with you, I don't believe it is as big as the current media attention makes it out to be.

Almost everyone here (not all PD ;) ) are too young to remember when work days were 9-5 with 1 hour for lunch included in there (when "lunch hour" really meant an hour.) That meant that people worked 35 hours per week, anything over was considered overtime and had to be paid overtime rates or comp time given. This was true even at pretty high level professional levels. And the 35 hour work week was considered a drudge.... Also, pretty much in the middle classes, only the man went to work, so the salary he earned on a 35 hour work week was enough to support a typical family of a wife at home as a housewife and 2-3 children, own their own home in the suburbs, provide good health insurance and other benefits.

(There was even a movie comedy with that name as well as a hit song by Dolly Parton (who starred in the movie along with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, and Dabney Coleman)

When women first started getting into the workforce in the early '80's at higher professional levels, it created families with huge amounts of money... DINKS (Double Income, No Kids) and yuppies. In the early 70's the US standard of living was twice that of the next highest country, which was Canada if I recall correctly, with Switzerland and Germany not too far behind Canada and the rest of the countries standard of living dropped off rather dramatically well below less than half of the US.

By the end of the '70's the disparity between US and the rest of the world shrank, as other countries improved their productivity and at one point in the '80's (I am not sure of the exact time frame) the US ranked only 5th in the world as opposed to twice the next highest country.

The relative rankings of countries are critical in terms of standard of living because it reflects the costs of imports which are a critical element in any country's economic well being, determing the cist of goods and services relative to income. So with the decline of the US standard of living, the # hours increased on the job, more and more women entered the work force and now there was pressure for parity of pay and access to good jobs, not just from the women but from the men as well as they wanted their wives to earn a good income so they could keep up their lifestyle.

More and more of a family's income were spent on time saving products -- including 2 cars (so each spouse could function efficiently) car for children when of age (so they could transport themselves) longer hours in the office, no time to prep, fast food, etc.

Though admittedly, one can make a lifestyle decision to get into fitness... it is a lot harder if you have children and more couples are choosing not to because of expense and lack of time... and just the stress of our lifestyle breeds lethargy from low level depression and lack of satisfaction in life, and turning to food and TV as comfort and distraction from this stress.

In Europe, where I was living for 4 years 2000- 2004, the pace was far easier. Things did not get done as well. Not like we are accustomed in the US.. but people overall lived happier, less stress free lives and were for the most part slender, though almost no muscles on either the women or men. But the incursion of the US approach to work was already being felt when I was there... fast food was beoming increasingly more popular, supermarkets with rather tasteless vegetables started to increase and correspondingly, it was being reported that the average weight was increasing over there and newspapers were already sounding the alarm by the time I left.

Of course, the European public services were advocating going on the extremely low fat moderate protein high carb diets that inflicted their destruction for 30 years in this country.

We will see what Europe looks like in another 10 years.... I hope they avoid our pitfalls... but so far it does not look like they will.

I think the American lifestyle is the root of all the poor physical fitness here. In the 70's the Japanese were considered the hardest working people in the world. Americans used to laugh at and think the Japanese were crazy. Everybody knew about "workdeath" that was not unusual in Japan. But here we are 30 years later... working every bit as hard, if not harder with its own consequences... :nono:

Yes we are all working longer and harder and therefore the lazy comment may be a little unjust. However most people on this forum are in exactly the same position, I know I am, 50 hours plus in the office every week, and around a minimum of 20 hours additional work from home. But we made a decision that we would make changes to our lifestyle, for me it was getting out of bed an hour earlier to get the gym in the morning, not going straight home and slobbing in front of the TV, but instead spending the time on making a nutritional meal and using that as my "down time".


Well, I think all people who work out have to give up something in order to do it. For you it was sleep, but well, some people don't get enough sleep as it is. I wouldn't recommend that everyone in the country give up sleep as losing sleep isn't necessarily good for your health. But, other people may give up other things. I knew this guy who dropped out of school because he skipped his classes to go to the gym. Me personally, I basically gave up my social life to go to the gym. I don't see it as people not putting in effort, I see it as people making sacrifices. And quite frankly, I'm not going to tell someone else that working out is more important than everything else in their life.

Also, I noticed that during my fatter days, I didn't even recognize visually that I was fat. In my early 20's, I exercised pretty obsessively (admittedly too much), and had a very active lifestyle. I weighed in the vicinity of 195-200 pounds, and was pretty shredded. Once I graduated college, I quit exercising and slowly started gaining weight. I got up to about 215-220, and even though my friends/family were telling me that I was getting fat, I just didn't see it when looking in the mirror. I thought I still looked pretty good. Plus, I was telling myself that I was only 20 pounds heavier than my shredded days, so I couldn't look all that bad. Of course, it never occurred to me that after 7-8 years of not exercising, that all of my muscle had atrophied and been replaced by fat. Anyway....long story short, I finally realized just how fat I was when I saw some vacation photos of myself. I couldn't believe that fat guy in the pictures was me! I was shocked that I looked so fat in the pictures, but I didn't seem fat when I looked in the mirror. So, not only do we not have a neutral emotional perspective on ourselves, but often times, our limited VISUAL perspective of our bodies (that relegated to what is visible in the mirror) can fool us into thinking that we aren't as fat as we really are.

You know, something very similar happened to me. I mean, I used to work out all the time, but I also ate like crap. So, I was basically very muscular, but I had a ton of fat at the same time. But, when I looked in the mirror I only saw the muscles and not the fat. Sometimes people said I was fat and I would think that they don't know what they're talking about because I have mostly muscle. But, then when I saw a picture of myself from graduation I was disgusted with how big my stomach looked.

Interestingly, when I started to lose weight I would still consider myself fat and people around me would say "What are you talking about, you're skinny." People tell me I'm in skinny or in great shape now, but I still see myself as fat. I really have no idea how healthy I am at the moment. Sometimes I look in the mirror and see a great body, sometimes I see a fat ass. If I gained or lost 10 pounds I probably still wouldn't know whether I was healthy or fat.

Not wanting to flog a dead horse, but also not wanting to be misquoted...

Well, I think all people who work out have to give up something in order to do it. For you it was sleep, but well, some people don't get enough sleep as it is. I wouldn't recommend that everyone in the country give up sleep as losing sleep isn't necessarily good for your health. But, other people may give up other things. I knew this guy who dropped out of school because he skipped his classes to go to the gym. Me personally, I basically gave up my social life to go to the gym. I don't see it as people not putting in effort, I see it as people making sacrifices. And quite frankly, I'm not going to tell someone else that working out is more important than everything else in their life.

I never gave up sleep, I simply started getting up an hour earlier. I agree completely that some people don't get enough sleep, however that is often the result of their own actions, not all cases granted, but I certainly know a lot of people that would feel the benefit of turning off the TV/computer whatever a little earlier. And there also people that spend to much time in bed, I was one of them, I was always chasing that extra 10 minutes, hitting the snooze button just one more time, there is no value in that time spent in bed for ones health.

I'm not a big one on sacrafice, I don't believe it needs to be anything as radical as that, small changes are often all that are needed, I couldn't give up my social life for example, my friends are very important to me, however I certainly don't go out to the same degree that I used to.

Also I, like yourself, would never want to tell anyone what to do, it is a decision that has to be made by the individual.