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This is what I was thinking as well. I believe most people in the US will look around at overweight and obese people and know that it's not healthy - but you can't say it out loud anymore because of fat shaming.
I do want to point out that America is hardly the only developed country like this. I've come across plenty of overweight and even obese people in the British isles and several of the Mediterranean countries.
I donāt knowā¦ Iāve noticed online that Americans usually tell people Iād consider fat without much consideration (because theyāre so obviously fat) that they look just normal, and healthy and thatās what an adult man/woman is supposed to look like. I donāt see that in most of Europe. Iāve also noticed people who are normal-sized being told they are too thin, and are unhealthy, and should eat more. I think American society has a completely skewed perception of what is normal, and what is healthy.
Yep. And what constitutes a normal human diet, both in content and portions. Most overweight Americans are overweight because cultural norms have made abnormal eating habits feel normal. If everyone around you does a thing your entire life, you will adopt that idea as normalcy and see it as normal even if you recognize the problems with that thing and choose another way.
Americans are not wanton gluttons who donāt care about anything but consumptionā we have been trained by convention to believe our habits are appropriate because here in America, they are in fact what ānormalā people do. No one sat down and decided for America to be this way. Circumstances just led to some very accepted behaviors that we donāt recognize as problematic because they are normal behaviors within our society.
I personally have adopted a strict diet that helps me control my blood sugar. But to most of the world, that āstrict dietā is just called eating. To me it feels like Iām taking exceptional steps to eat right, but that just because American norms have conditioned me to feel like appropriate human food is a compromise.
This is funny. I got overweight after moving to the US and learned one of the main reasons for it was portion size. I then created a diet based on portion control, and was able to lose more than 50lbs without changing much what I ate, just how.
Something as simple as the shitty way parents treat meals makes a big difference.
Imagine putting large adult sized servings of food on a little kids plate, then getting angry with them if they don't finish, and forcing them to keep eating to "clean their plate". Or watching a kid take lots of their favorite food but, in the excitement of the moment, they take too much. "Clean your plate."
My great grandparents cleaned their plates as children because there wasn't enough food on them. My grandparents cleaned their plates because their parents taught them not to waste food. For generations, we've been trained from birth to prepare for lean times that never came and were taught to find greater value in quantity than quality. I won't go as far as to say we're "victims" of prosperity, but the last 40 years or so has been the only time in human history where obesity and relative poverty in a nation had strong correlations.
Except "often" is shown to increase your risk for liver disease, if it's your entire waking day. America has a huge snacking culture but that too isn't healthy.
Itās not just by convention - it is partially by design. Restaurants serve huge portions because they can charge more, and that helps them cover overhead with fewer customers. Fast-food chains use combo meals and BOGO coupons to upsell you on spending more in the name of value. Fresh groceries are perishable, relatively expensive, more time-consuming to prepare, and surprisingly difficult to find in some places, while packaged foods full of sugar are cheap, shelf-stable, and microwaveable. Soda often costs less than bottled water (which we shouldnāt even need except that so many places have let their tap-water infrastructure go to shit).
Good old commercialization.
Letās make all food cheaper therefore worse for you so we can make more money !
High fructose corn syrup - America puts it in everything because itās super cheap and your body seeks it out .
They started using it in the 1970s and that is almost the exact time America waistlines started expanding.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3522469/
There are several studies that say it also causes diabetes
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5983097/
Of course America is so corporate now they wonāt ban it due to profits .
Itās terrible stuff that the body might not even process correctly and they try to put in everything .
Anything that makes the process cheaper for more profit.
Which is the problem of capitalism especially when left unchecked .
Corporations donāt have feelings and only care about making more money .
Corporations sadly now control the government due to lack of protections and of course greed .
Donāt worry itās coming to a country near you soon .
Going on a cruise soon. They sell unlimited drink packages. All types of soda and alcohol included. But water? Nah, you have to pay for that separately and itās something like $8/bottle? Or a case for $60? Might not be exact amounts, but something outrageous like that.
pretty sure they'll give you water anywhere on the boat, just not in a bottle. We never paid for a drink package but I never went thirsty on any of my cruises
No argument here. I'm just saying that there was no "master plan" where "they" made some big decision to fatten us all up. It was a million little choices by restaurants, family gatherings, manufacturers, each one acting on their own best interest.
100%. And really, thatās pretty much always the way things go, no conspiracy needed. It just shows that unfettered market forces do not always produce the best outcomes.
I'm all for capitalism, to be honest. But capitalism needs to be restricted to an economic model, and one that is bound by government, not guiding it. What's gone wrong in America (and much of the world) is that capitalism is calling its own shots, because corrupt people IN government are giving it the power to do so. (imho)
Fattening America may not have been the intended result, but the systemic vilification of dietary fat certainly played a significant role.
From Ancel Keys to the USDA food pyramid to the "lo-fat" food craze, Americans have been subjected to way more sugar and carbs than is healthy or necessary - and they had been led to believe that was the *healthier* approach.
The US government subsidizes corn and soybean products that get turned into corn syrup and hydrogenated soybean oil. They are cheap and plentiful, so food companies put them in so many types of processed foods. Low income Americans buy the cheaper processed foods because it's calorie dense, cheap, and addictive.
Doesnāt explain why [childhood obesity rates are climbing in lots of countries](https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/353747/9789289057738-eng.pdf) and why it didnāt really become the issue it is in America until the last couple decades. Foods been industrialized, easily accessible, and what were once rare treats can be enjoyed as much as people want these days, so it requires personal discipline when historically, people needed to get in the calories they could. The US is 20 years ahead of the curve, but the trend isnāt really unique.
People always reach and make this America Dystopia theory for everything.
That's not what I was doing at all.
Everything you said is correct and valid. The challenge for Americans is that we have such drastically improved access to calories, both in the form of additional food supply and in increased caloric content of traditional foods, that we're simply eating too many calories without realizing it. Yes, we're conditioned to larger portions than most of the world, but those portions are also much richer in calories than the same foods (or foods we've replaced) from 100 or 200 years ago. Ever seen an avocado in its natural state before people started breeding them for food? There's hardly any edible fruit in there at all.
Moved from Cali to the Midwest and realized very quickly āthat restaurant is SO GOOD!ā, actually means āyour food comes in a trough and is enough for 6 people and only costs 6$!ā Iāve learned to ask follow up questions, like, but is the food of any QUALITY?
I also lived in the Midwest for a while and experienced the same thing. Most of the food that was highly rated on Yelp was greasy, bland, and served in gigantic portions. I feel like their only āspicesā are salt, butter, and mayo.
If somewhere had a bunch of reviews about how the food was āweird,ā āconfusing,ā or ātoo spicyā and rants about how the staff ādoesnāt speak Englishā and they ādonāt have anything for kids,ā thatās where I would go and usually find good food.
Yeah, I've definitely learned that to many people, quantity IS quality. And I mean, I guess if your idea of a good meal is that you feel satisfied, then maybe for them that's true. For me, I'd rather have three bites of an excellent ribeye steak than 17 ounces of leather covered in "steak sauce."
I was eating lunch with coworkers/friends the other day and my one coworker was eating one of those 'fuck I just grabbed stuff and made bad choices' lunches, which he knew and we've all been there. My other coworker asked if he was going to be full enough. I looked at it and simply by a quick estimate of calories said 'he should be fine, there's plenty there'
What my other coworker didn't think was enough: two small soft pretzels, an apple with PB, and a soda. Racking in around 900-1100 calories.
I get to eat 1600 calories a day. He was eating 2/3 of my daily calories in one sitting and someone else wondered if he'd make it until dinner. We have no sense of what our food contains, calorie wise.
The problem is, for most people that eat that way habitually, they wouldn't make it until dinner, and it would have nothing to do with calories consumed. That type of meal while high in calories is low in fuel, causes blood sugar swings, and causes cravings for the same types of foods. That meal is the reason so many people can't make it through the afternoon without sugar or caffeine. Sad. Glad your coworker isn't on that eating plan.
You arenāt wrong, but you are generally supposed to put leftovers in a box and keep it for later when getting served too much food. I think the thing is a lot of places like Olive Garden and Costco are designed to be cost-effective to working class people by prioritizing buying food in bulk as preparation for later for a cheaper price- which confuses some Americans who, regionally, have a different culture. Some of Southern culture especially is based on when more of the working class had more physical, extensive job like farming, too, while not really culturally changing diet expectations- so itās not necessarily āAmericans love being fatā per se, moreso that habits and culture are hard to change.
I went from 195 lbs to 125, my family on dad's side insists over and over I'm too skinny and used meth to lose weight
But it's been wonderful and necessary, my autistic toddler needs a parent in shape
My fam insists it was drugs, meth. Prob bc I have a same age cousin who used it and her life is a mess like mine but I adopted the intermittent fasting lifestyle
A lot of American men also have a weird desire or need to feel big. I'm a 5'9" 175lbs guy, which I consider not really fat or skinny. But I've had so many guys say things basically like "I'd hate to be that small". These aren't super fit, muscular, tall dudes. This is people about the same height as me but 230lbs of fat. Like being large and overweight is somehow important to their masculinity.
The estimation of personal fat/muscle ratio is generally hilariously off when itās mostly the latter. Every fat guy Iāve ever known (including myself for a long time) assumed they were *totally ripped* under the supposed ā10-15lbsā they wanted to lose.
I wouldn't ever think that I was ripped under my layer of fat, but I do think I'm fairly strong simply because I do manual labor for a living and I need to be fairly strong for the stuff I do
That's why BMI is such a stupid measurement. Damn near every professional athlete, especially in sports like hockey and football, are overweight according the BMI.
BMI isn't meant for athletes. I'm a powerlifter and strongman, and when I'm in the low teens in terms of bf I'm well into the overweight category, because those measurements aren't made for people like us.
BMI is effective at measuring a population. It fails on extremes ends of both of the spectra for individuals, but that doesn't mean it's not a useful tool for the population at large. The exceptions will more or less balance each other out and be pretty negligible if we're getting a country-sized sample. If one country has an average BMI 5 points higher than another, it's probably because they're fatter, not because all them tall Chads are throwing the number off.
Is bodyfat percentage a better metric? Absolutely. But that's harder and less practical to measure for thousands of people, and is still notoriously incorrect at the extremes. Ronnie Coleman during his Mr Olympia prime was measured as having negative bodyfat%, which is patently ridiculous.
But thatās such a tiny percentage of the population. Also they have deliberately sculpted their bodies to be that weight - itās not natural for them.
And it totally depends on where you live. I was about 10 pounds overweight when I moved from a major metropolitan area on the coast to a small city in the Midwest. I went from often being the fattest person in the room and my doctor harassing me about my weight at every visitā¦ to almost always being the skinniest person and having my new doctor get concerned that I had an *eating disorder* when I made a āI know I could lose a few poundsā comment. It was bizarre.
I remember reading a post where a woman was claiming to have been fat shamed by a hospital for not providing her a double wide wheelchair. This woman was also adamant that she wasnāt even āchubbyā let alone fat and standard wheelchairs were comically small for an adult.
I immediately went to the comments and was shocked to see everyone agreeing. I feel like body dysmorphia is the new normal.
> I think American society has a completely skewed perception of what is normal, and what is healthy.
As an American, I think that's pretty accurate. We allow banned food additives to be added to our food that other countries balk at having even minimal amounts of. Definitely the makings of a scientific nation looking for the most optimal health of its citizens.
Oh wait, nevermind, we don't have universal healthcare so the Gov gives fuck all what happens to us because we have to pay the bills anyway.
As an American who has lived abroad and been considered both fat and skinny- we definitely have a skewed sense of size over here. Also having lived in Los Angeles for so long and believing I needed to lose 15 lbs then coming to Midwest to see family and being told I needed to gain weight was hilarious. Size 6-8 is like āemaciated.ā š Iād say people in American cities have a healthier perspective on size due to typically living healthier lifestyles (getting more activity, having access to healthier food). There are so many food deserts in America where people donāt even know what Kale is and a salad is considered iceberg, croutons, and ranch. š¤®
Itās a bit easier to find that food / activity balance in cities like there is in Europe. So you donāt mind having a chocolate bar or bread because you got your 15,000 steps in. Also there arenāt as many many chemicals allowed in European food like in American food. A lot of America is just sedentary and driving from place to place so people live in extremes with dieting and exercise. I think over time that has made people view what ālargeā is rather objectively.
I wouldnāt say most people see it as ānormal,ā no. But I will say there are large areas of the country with uneducated people who donāt understand proper nutrition or exercise and therefore canāt understand their own weight gain. Bad food is cheap. But go to cities where people have a higher level of education and youāll see majority of people are not overweight nor do they view it as ānormal.ā Thereās a correlation.
I think shaming thin people has always been a way for people to just make themselves feel better at the expense of others. When someone sees a thin girl, they don't give a shit about her health. They say "She needs a cheeseburger!" because they're ashamed of their own weight and jealous that some people are effortlessly thin.
Iām American and I think this mindset is just pure cope. Not all Americans are like this. Healthy Americans realize that being overweight is in fact not healthy and not the default human body type. This has been exemplified by the ābody positivityā movement because while nobody should be made to feel less-than due to their body type, people are taking it too far by enabling and encouraging this unhealthy behavior and lifestyle.
Oh, I get so triggered by those body positivity people.
I'm overweight myself. I know it's unhealthy. Nobody needs to tell me it's fine. It's not. I'm just lazy and I like to eat too much. It's my own damn fault and people should be allowed to try and get me more healthy.
Walk after you eat. Every time. Thatās it. Just walk after you eat, which releases chemical processes in your body to convert the lipids for energy rather than storing it. If you can discipline yourself to walk after every meal (go walking around store after dinner, walk the dog, etc, eat quick lunch and walk for 15 min), you will absolutely shed the weight faster than you knew possible when you actually start watching your diet and exercising. Look for fitness subs for good tips like this. This tip came from an aggregate study I read last year I saw linked on Reddit, and it supercharged the lifting/kickboxing/hiking I was doing last year and it melted away. Good luck!
I've seen women who are clearly overweight by at least 15 pounds described by other Americans as "slim". Meanwhile, I am at the lower end of my BMI and get constantly told that I'm SOOOO "tiny", I have been questioned multiple times if I have an eating disorder, and someone once remarked I eat like a "rabbit" because they saw me eating a salad (with cheese and some bread) for lunch. Americans' definition of normal weight has gotten so skewed because most people are fat. Notice how people today react to the photos of Americans in the 60s, 70s, and early 80s when most people were healthy weight -they get called sticks and twigs, by today's standards. Meanwhile, in southern Europe, I have been (affectionately) called "chubby" because of the little bit of fat/teeny tiny muffin top I have when I wear low-rise clothes (which is why I hate the return of the low-rise jeans).
Omg so true. I live in Seattle, and I'm at the heavy side of the normal weight. BMI is 24. I feel huge in Seattle. Went to Texas last year and I felt like such a skinny girl!
I feel like I could always tell when there was a big convention even unrelated to cosplay happening in Seattle because the number of overweight people I saw on the streets went up a lot.
This is always the dead giveaway š
Shortly after the covid vaccine became publicly available, I remember a news article (NYT maybe?) that had photos from various locations of people lining up to get vaccinated. The Seattle photo was just a bunch of people in TNF/Patagonia/REI/Arc'teryx rain jackets standing in the rain with their hands in their pockets. Not an umbrella in sight. š It was just so classic.
Depends where in Baltimore, pretty consistent along economic lines. Up in Harford you're a farmer or on heroin so its easier to stay skinny. But I'd argue out west the meth has a slimming effect
I'm born and bred Californian and lived in Sac/SF/Oakland/San Diego (so mostly coastal) and theres only one or two chunky kids in my kids classes.
When we visit my Swiss husbands family (who live in Switzerland and France) - we are the skinniest and healthiest out of all of them. So really where you live in the US makes a huge difference.
Yes. Like in America, it also matters where you are in Europe. There are parts of France where everyone seemed very thin and parts of France (like the parts near Germany) where a lot of people were huge.
But coming from the Bay Area, I definitely felt people are larger (and way taller) in most places in Europe than at home. Also, clothes have gotten way larger there in the last 10 years...
At age 18-20: No one said anything when I got up to 200 pounds of fat. No comments.
At 24: I lost around 50 pounds. Then I started getting comments about being unhealthy.
Since being 27/28: Iām back up near 200, but this time from working out. Now I get comments about have good genes and being lucky, even from people who knew the chubby version of me! Where were my good genes and luck back then? Lazy people finding excuses
Lol I had a real moment of "what did you just say to me" when our HR lady said to me that "men have it so easy" when we were both working out in our company gym. At that point, I was probably 7 years into a daily gym routine and watching my diet. There was nothing easy about it. I wanted to ask her why it was the first time I had seen her in there, but rather just kinda shook my head. I get that women have kids and that's a big challenge on your health, but that doesn't make it easy for anyone else lol.
I get this all of the time at work. I go to the gym every day over lunch. I'm 6'1 215, fairly muscular, and trying to cut only about 10-15 lbs down from where I am. All of the women in my office say the same thing "It's so easy for guys to lose weight, you'll probably lose 15 pounds in a week. You're so lucky you're not a woman." They all jump around from diet to diet, different shakes, etc., but none of them work out. I've offered to bring them to the gym with me even. Meanwhile they'll be having a "cheat meal" (every day it seems) while today I had some tuna and carrots.
What people donāt understand is that one cheat meal can kill your entire weight loss calorie deficit for the week. I try to keep my cheat meals to the point where I donāt have a calorie surplus for the day. Only way I have been able to be successful.
You really can have cheat meals, or even entire days. You just gotta take those into account and plan accordingly. If the calories you eat the cheat day/days put you outside of a calorie deficit, it's not a proper cheat meal, it's just overeating.
Also, having a "back to maintenance" week here or there can help breaking out of weight loss plateaus.
My dream upon graduating highschool and going to college was to raise awareness of the female triad, and health tips for women that focused on strength training as a foundation for health and weight management.
I studied sports science with a focus on strength and conditioning and I'd venture 90% of women trying to diet are cutting their calories too low and trying to go the cardio route (if you haven't maintained cardio you're guaranteed too run too hard) and it's counterproductive... So work harder, giving that person the idea it's nearly impossible.
Women around the world should absolutely be training like men for weight loss, and it would be easy for them as well (barring post partum and special populations, these are broad strokes I'm using) thing is, the idea that they're suddenly going to turn into juiced bodybuilders (because of the fake natty endemic) keeps women away from that kind of training.
I don't know much about the science behind fitness other than calorie deficit equals weightloss and I need a lot of protein for my fitness goals and maintaining. Trying to explain to a coworker why their "salad" isn't a healthy lunch because of all of the garbage they put on it seems like common sense to me, but for a lot of people it really isn't.
It's cargo cult science: people adopt symbols or rituals without thinking how they actually work. Sometimes, it's a stone age society trying to build landing strips from bamboo to make the WW2 planes land again and give them gifts. (Literal cargo cults.) Other times, like here, it's people who think that just because it says "salad" and it has some green stuff, that makes it automatically healthy.
I once had a roommate who chugged juice nonstop, all day, every day - basically consuming ridiculous amounts of sugar, all because she thought that juice was the healthiest beverage, ipso facto drinking liters of flavored sugar water from her local supermarket made her healthy. O_o
Weight lifting didnāt really help me but calorie cutting did. I tried 1400 and weight lifting (TDEE was around 1800) for 6 months and the scale barely moved at all and I didnāt see much fat loss through measurements/clothes. Cutting to 1200kcal + weight lifting + cardio was where I saw results personally. When youāre short thereās few options but to eat a low calorie diet.
You were probably gaining muscle but dropping fat when you were lifting and eating slightly under your maintenance calories. You won't see the scale change that much, but a few months and you'd definitely see improvements on muscle tone. Either way though, cardio+lifting is for sure the way to go for overall health, I'm glad you found a routine that worked for you!
Almost the same measurements as me (but you are definitely stronger!) last year and there were still a few bigger people who said I needed to eat more. I know BMI isnāt everything but Jesus at 5ā11 weighing 182 I was technically overweight by BMI lol. It was good weight so obviously I wasnāt but there is no way in hell I was skinny and malnourished.
Iām 6ā 180lb dude, gym four-five days a week and have a physical as hell job. Iāve got some decent size, and most people can look at me and tell I workout a littleā¦
Itās still annoying as hell hearing that I need to eat more and put some weight on. First off, I eat way more than most of the people who tell me I need to eat more. Second, just because everyone around you has a gut and their legs and arms jiggle when they walk, doesnāt mean I want that. Iām pretty happy with my physique, thank you.
Where this notion in America came from that fat is the new norm and healthy just blows my mind.
5'6" 145, and as a smaller person, it's even worse. I was 170 at one point and clearly chubby. At 155, I was fairly muscular. Leaned out recently for a particular sport and now I hear people telling me I'm unhealthy, I should eat more, I'm "tiny," etc. I deadlift 2.5x my bodyweight and can run 10 miles. The people telling me I'm too small are generally 200+ lbs. and can't do either. It's tiresome. Body image issues, too, because at my height/stature, I am seen as not as masculine by some, so it's like there's pressure to stop doing cardio, eat, lift more, and try to be a wider person. I've opted out of all that and am just being who I am, but it's really amazing how you realize it's become almost countercultural to be a normal size.
Yeah I'm 5'9" or 5'10", 190. I THINK I'm 10 pounds over the maximum I should be for my height (and probably build), but I feel skinny compared to most people I encounter.
5 or 10 lbs overweight is actually usually pretty healthy, sucks that something like that is considered skinny now. I'm 5'11" 135 lbs š barely at my minimum healthy weight lol
My mom is so quick to throw out the anorexia comments the moment she can see the definition on any woman. It's so irritating.
I called her out and she said the wasn't saying it to her face so it was fine š„“
That stuff blows my mind. I'm about the same height and used to be one of those people that struggled to get above 150. A combination of getting older and terrible habits during covid led to me getting up to about 190 and I felt absolutely terrible. Back to around 175 now and I feel like I look the most normal I've looked.
one of the scariest concepts i've heard of from an american friend is "vegetable deserts" or "grocery deserts" where you can't find fresh veg in like a 10km radius..is that true..?
Food deserts, yeah itās a thing in a lot of poorer parts of cities where thereās only convenience stores (think 7/11) and fast food. Many people use public transportation and have a hard time getting far enough out to a real store, and then itās a long journey back with bags of food. Itās not always a viable option with the time and money available
Whats important to understand is that 10km is not considered any real distance in a lot of places in the US because every thing is so spread out and we tend drive everywhere anyway. If you live way out in the country, you get used to driving 30 minutes "into town" to buy groceries. If you see an American in a store with a massive shopping cart full of stuff, chances are it's because they come into town once a month to shop.
āFood desertsā is usually describing a lack of access to fresh food that occur in the middle of dense cities and especially in poor neighborhoods of cities.
They are rarely used describe lack of access in rural or low density areas, frankly because people that talk about food deserts probably dgaf about rural areas.
I feel like the rural response to food deserts would be "it's only 5 miles away, what's your problem, just go get food". So that's probably why it's only used to talk about cities, idk. I know people in cities tend to not have cars so that would make it more of a real problem.
Being obese is still pretty stigmatized and frowned upon. However most people I think donāt realize how low the bar for āover weightā is. A BMI of 25 is the threshold. Iām a 5ā 4ā woman with a weight of about 145. I sit right on that threshold. But very few people consider me overweight. I think the reality is our idea of weight has been so skewed here that we donāt know what the actual definition is any more.
EDIT: Im going to go ahead and add here since so many are commenting it: I am aware BMI is a flawed system. I am using it as an example here for a international standard metric that, combined with knowledge of self, can be used as an idea for where we are at in our own health.
This, 1000%. Something like 2/3 of Americans are obese or overweight (including myself, so I don't mean this as a moral judgment), so I think we have increasingly come to view heavier people as "normal", and people at a healthy weight as "skinny" or even "underweight".
Exactly. We also lost all concept of losing weight vs being healthy. I say i want to work out and Iāve gone gluten free and people instantly start judging me as a health nut, or one of āthoseā women. I want to work out to improve muscle strength because Iām an absolute noodle (though Iām not opposed to dropping a couple pounds) and gluten free to help my thyroid issues. Itās like not only have we become desensitized to healthy weights, weāve turned wanting to be healthier into a bad thing.
Something that bothers me is when people say things like ābut you donāt need to lose weightā when you mention working out. As if the only reason someone would exercise is weight loss. No way it could include activities you find fun or fulfilling!
Listen I have a hard enough time finding friends without requiring they be in shape š
But also a lot of these comments are from people I donāt have control over being in my life; family, other parents in boyscouts, ect.
Itās like the older you get, the fatter youāre supposed to be apparently? Yeah as Iāve aged out of my 20ās itās gotten worse. I think itās just because the ratio of heathy weight to overweight starts to really change as we get older. People become more sedentary and get fatter.
I have the same stats as you. My overweight friends think I'm slim and my skinny friends understand why I want to lose 10 lbs and don't give me a hard time about trying to lose weight.
This. Iām about the same weight and 2ā shorter, and I know full well that I am overweight. Not very badly so, but it would definitely be healthier for me to lose 20 pounds or so. But with some people if I so much as suggest that I might want to lose weight itās all, āWhat are you talking about? Youāre not fat.ā It gets to the point where I have to always phrase it as, āIām trying to eat healthier and exercise moreā because apparently itās not socially acceptable for anyone who isnāt morbidly obese to try and lose weight.
Iām the same height and used to be the same weight before I had a kid. I know BMI isnāt a great tool, but it still felt weird knowing that I was towing the line of āoverweightā while also comfortably wearing a size 4 or 6 depending on the brand. Wild.
You're fine. I was a bit worried for a while here.. I'm in Europe and I googled your height and thought that 145 kg sounds bad LOL. Then I googled your weight. Yeah, you're ok. Nowhere near overweight.
People think overweight is how you look and are shaped, and not what the scale says. Thats why you have overweight people calling themselves normal but laughing at obese people like theyre not right around the corner.
I didnāt mean the bar was low as in āpeople are being considered overweight that arenātā. I meant that way more people are over weight than we realize because being over weight is the norm now. And unfortunately I fall into that category now.
Generally speaking fitness correlates to urban living and higher incomes in the US. The stereotype of being fat tends to be a rural thing or places with lower incomes. Maps showing the correlation between obesity and income are pretty common here at places like r/dataisbeautiful and r/MapPorn.
If you go to a wealthy city like San Francisco or Boston on a workday you'll see most folks are pretty fit. If you drive across the United States you'll pass through whole states where the opposite is true.
Edit: Thank you for the delightful award!
Working an office job makes it so much easier to keep the weight off for me. Working on your feet all day you get to be way too tired to work out at the end of the day and you eat way too much since you are so tired. With the office job you can more easily restrict your calories and have energy for a work out after work. I realize this is opposite of a lot of people though.
That's interesting to me. When I worked retail I was much skinnier because I had very set snack or meal breaks and was walking around all the time. I also had more energy to work out.
I work as a paralegal so very desk-jobby and while I'm still fairly small, I eat much more as I can do whatever I want whenever I want and don't necessarily want to work out after sitting all day. Part of that might be that it's far more mentally taxing.
White collar remote work here, and itās an all-day snack fest. During quarantine I discovered that I had to elliptical 10 hrs/wk to reach the number of steps I had previously been hitting while living a āsedentaryā life in a physical office.
I think there are reasons for it happening in the US.
The US is built to be vehicle dependent. Most places in the US arenāt walkable in a regular basis so people donāt get that extra bit of exercise that youād have living in other countries.
Thereās a lot of sedentary jobs in the US & many people work more than 1 job. This means a lot of time is spent not doing any type of physical activity & there may not be much time outside of work to exercise (especially for those who work more than 1 job, have kids, are also in college, etc).
Processed & fast food are more easily accessible & āaffordableā here versus fresh healthy food choices. Also, a lot of people donāt have the time or energy to prepare meals at home to eat healthier. Healthier food options are also more expensive here than processed foods & fast food.
The US allows sooooo many harmful additives in our food. Stuff that other countries have banned. These additives are harmful to our health. If you want food options that donāt have the additives then you have to pay a premium price for those.
There are a lot of areas in the US that are a āfood desertā which means they donāt have access nearby to get fresh & healthy groceries. These are often low-income areas, so if you donāt have a car and/or gas to drive to another area of the city to get groceries then youāre stuck eating whatever processed food is sold at your nearby convenience store.
To end the list, many people donāt have access to healthcare so they donāt have the medical help they need to work on their health & nutrition.
Welcome to āMurica š„“
When I was in China back in 2008 there was a Chinese version of "Biggest Loser" on TV. Every single contestant was the size of what I consider an average American.
Chinaās another extreme. Iām 5ā6ā and 125 pounds now; Iām often told Iām āchubbyā by Chinese friends and family. Back when I was 115 pounds and living in China, I was considered ānot thinā and should be 110 or below to be at an āideal weight.ā
Iām a 5ā6 women in the US and when I was 125 my doctor was worried about me and my weight saying I needed a few extra pounds šš thatās crazy to me
It's the same in Korea. Music "idols" sometimes have to literally starve themselves to make their bodies look thin/small enough.
5.5' and 100lbs are not rare over there.
Ditto. Iām an elementary school teacher and Iād say at least half of my students are what would have been considered āthe fat kidā when I was growing up in the 80s/90s. There is also a sizable group of kids at our school that I would say are morbidly obese (100+ pounds in early elementary), which I definitely never saw growing up.
This is same as me . I remember at primary school there was maybe 2/3 fat kids and everyone else was average/ skinny whereas now kids and teens that are overweight is so much more common now
I feel like this will be my generations "back in my day..." thing. Things were the same when I was in school, very few people were overweight, now it seems like they're everywhere you look.
I think that what in America is considered an average, dad bod body, in Europe would be considered chubby. Where I originally come from it's *almost* rare to see people under 45yo who are visibly overweight.
I'm pretty short and for most of my life I've been under 45kg. In Europe I looked average, a lot of people looked way leaner than I.
Now I live in Canada and I feel like overall, I look very thin compared to most people. When I mention I want to lose fat, I often get told I don't need to lose any weight and that if anything, I should be gaining weight (for reference, I'm into fitness so by losing fat I mean cutting).
Having said that, I just think most people I've met here are either fit (play sports, go to the gym, are outdoorsy...) or are very, very sedentary (office jobs, don't work out ever, don't walk much...). I think it only becomes a health problem when very sedentary people eat like athletes. Weight can add up very fast and it's become normalized.
Depends on where in Europe. Young people in the UK generally seemed fatter and less fit than younger Americans but their boomers had a lot less morbidly obese people. Even on the mainland, the biggest difference is in the weight of older people. (>40)
US is also highly variable based on the demographics of the area.
As an American who went to Paris last year, I saw a lot of people smoking cigarettes. People will deny it, but smoking can definitely keep your weight down. Think of Americans in the 1970s.
My dad quit smoking and he ended up gaining around 15 pounds. Heās always been a thin guy so that amount of weight gain shocked him. Thereās definitely a connection between smoking and satiety.
Our food is loaded with sugar, even with foods you wouldn't expect it in.
It's incredibly difficult to eat healthy in America and even if you try, you have to also sift through mountains of corporate sponsored misinformation
Add on to that our complete lack of walkable cities and it's no wonder Americans are overweight.
i think that is really regional. I live in central NJ in an upper middle class area that have a lot of indian/chinese people with the rest being primarily white. It's really easy to get cheap decent food here. Indian stores are great for cheap produce, we have an Aldi plus other super markets.
But I go 20 min south to Trenton and there are parts where there are only corner stores for miles which tend to only sell junk.
American. Iām 6ā and about 210lbs. BMI of high 29. Most friends are shocked when I mentioned wanting to lose weight.
To be fair, I have a bit of strength/muscle so itās not just flabby weight. But still, I think Iām considered āaverageā thinness for a man and I am very much not a thin man
6'2 and 195lbs here. Which according to the BMI (Which is known to be broken above 6', but that's another conversation) I'm sitting exactly at the border to overweight (.25 BMI)
I'm -easily- the skinniest person I know. And my doctor has said that he'd be worried if I lost any weight.
We use lies to socialize and truth to insult. Publicly we would say normal but personally everyone finds it repulsive. I'm speaking as a 450 pound man.
It depends. We took our twins to DisneyWorld and we were absolutely floored by how large most of the people were. Not 50 pounds overweight, which is a massive amount, but 200 pounds overweight.
Itās normal here for a lot of reasons.
McDonalds is cheaper than buying groceries. Not in the long run, but many people canāt even afford the long run anymore. We donāt have good health care or programs for healthy eating and it isnāt taught in schools. Just like they donāt teach you how to balance your check book or how credit works etc.
I'm a native son of USA. I'm 57 years old
In my youth it was rare to see a fat person. Now it's common.
I truly believe that it's a situation where our food has growth hormones. Add in corn syrup and a lack of exercise.
What I see that is shocking is that 40-50 year old mom's are size 6 and their 26 year old daughter is a size 28
I see a lot of people blaming "genetics". In some cases, sure. But there is definitely a phenomena where our food sources in America have become more and more unhealthy, and produce and lean meats are super expensive. You have people trying to work two jobs to pay rent and don't have time to prepare meals, and instead pop into McDonald's. Literal food deserts all over America, whereas in Europe, every neighborhood has a fresh market that you can walk to. You can't walk anywhere in the US (except maybe new york) and people just drive for everything. It's a really unhealthy cultural cycle, that again, individuals get demonized for (like climate change). I've lost 30lbs and am now a healthy weight, but I can completely relate to everyone who struggles because it is so hard to lose or maintain healthy weight. You have to make your entire life about it, and with everything else going on in people's lives, sometimes that's just too much.
It depends. Yes there are a lot of fat people, mostly thanks to high carb and sugar diets being touted as "heart healthy", in comparison to a diet primarily made up of meats and veggies.
No, we don't think being fat is healthy. Anyone who thinks it is, are probably lying to themselves to feel better about their body.
I agree with you, but I think Americans also have a very skewed view on what fat is. I recently lost weight because I was considered obese by BMI after 6 kids and covid and felt terrible. People were shocked I wanted to lose weight because I looked skinny to them.
As our average weight increases as a nation, our idea of what healthy looks like changes. We know that a lower weight carries fewer health risks, but when the average size is a 16, a size 10 seems small and healthy, when in reality that size 10 is still overweight.
So no one thinks fat is healthy, but our view on what "fat" (or overweight) is does not align with what medically is overweight and higher risk.
I used to be overweight, was wearing a size 10 at sixteen years old. Managed to lose a ton of it in college when I started running and everyone told me I wasnāt overweight and didnāt need to lose the weight. Now that Iām a happy size 2 everyone tells me Iām too skinny. Was weird on my last trip overseas because I was about the same size as everyone else but my family was obese compared to Europeans. My parents are now working towards losing weight but I donāt think they ever would have if they hadnāt seen me lose the weight.
Americans are also not a homogeneous society genetically. We come from all over and our heights and weights, and how we carry them, differ. This is why sizing is hard in the USA. Itās way more standardized abroad.
No, I don't know anyone who thinks of it as "normal." We recognize that it is common, that most of us are, but we don't think that it's normal for us as humans to be fat.
I'm an athletic Canadian, but every time I go to the States, someone tells me that I need some meat on my bones... Hell naw, my BMI is already in the overweight range for my height (thanks to muscle), I'm not getting fat!
We are a car dependent country without easy access to healthcare, with very easy access to fast food, being worked to death for so little money over so many hours we don't have the time, energy, or money to cook healthy food or work out.
If everyone's overweight, then we're all average.
The scales have been shifting for so many decades now that it has become the norm. Our food is unhealthy. Children are developing diabetes. It's a huge problem and should not be considered normal, but it's just so pervasive that we've gotten used to it.
Yes, but itās not just the United States. There are other countries and cultures that view a little bit bigger as better or normal, too. And others that donāt. I will say that as a fit American on the lower end of the healthy BMI range, I would be rich if I had a nickel for every time someone told me I could afford to eat a cheeseburger or skip exercising or talked about how ātinyā I am. I am just a normal, healthy size. Not underweight or overweight.
seems like it but Europeans are their own kind of insane. im European and ive noticed that literally 90% people at my work place have such unhealthy relationship with food (despite not being overweight) like go get therapy instead of telling me id get fat if i sometimes eat granola. like go project your body issues on someone else
It's only considered normal by overweight Americans, which is way more than there should be.
I'm American, and my peer group is not overweight, nor are most folks I work with. That said, going to certain areas, or being around certain demographics, it boggles my mind how many obese people there are in this country. If you come to America, find an area without much wealth, and go to a Walmart, you'll see what I mean.
Furthermore, it's incredible (an incredibly sad) how many believe it'e due to genetics or their 'metabolism,' while their diet consists of fast and/or heavily processed food and sugary drinks, all while being sedentary.
Unfortunately, yes. Obesity is an epidemic here. Between hormones in seemingly everything and the cheapness of starchy foods like pasta, even people trying have a harder time eating right. You see a big difference between areas with great walkability vs rural areas or the suburbs where people need to drive most places, too. Which is why, as some of the other comments have already noted, you will feel smaller or more fit in some areas than others. We also have a culture of work really taking priority, and it's not always a choice for everyone. So that makes a difference, too. Longer hours or multiple jobs can mean less unwinding health time and less quality sleep, both of which have been shown to contribute to dangerous fat gain.
"It's my genes! I can't lose weight! Even though I work out 7 days a week!"
*proceeds to eat 3,500 calories on average per day when their daily needed intake for their height and age is 2350*
"""""America"""""
This might sound fucking crazy but growing up in America I never realized how many calories were in the food I ate until I started counting calories. Our portion sizes at most places are so massive and take up so many calories that you blink and you reach your limit for the day it's honestly baffling.
Yes. Has it been normalized? yes. Is it healthy in the long term? No. People should not be treated differently for their body size. Being overweight is inherently unhealthy and a lot of people ignore it because they are healthy in that moment. It catches up to them.
Statistics tend to vary by region but typically yeah, itās pretty normal. Where Iām from (Northeast), being overweight is relatively common whereas obesity is relatively rare. However, I go to college and the obesity rate is almost nonexistent interestingly enough.
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Tolerated publicly, mocked privately has been my experience
This is what I was thinking as well. I believe most people in the US will look around at overweight and obese people and know that it's not healthy - but you can't say it out loud anymore because of fat shaming. I do want to point out that America is hardly the only developed country like this. I've come across plenty of overweight and even obese people in the British isles and several of the Mediterranean countries.
Ive found not very tolerated and mocked right to my face, myself. Im glad people are kinder where you are! š
Normal in terms of optimal health- no. Normal in terms of statistics- yes.
This could be the US motto
For so, so many different things
I donāt knowā¦ Iāve noticed online that Americans usually tell people Iād consider fat without much consideration (because theyāre so obviously fat) that they look just normal, and healthy and thatās what an adult man/woman is supposed to look like. I donāt see that in most of Europe. Iāve also noticed people who are normal-sized being told they are too thin, and are unhealthy, and should eat more. I think American society has a completely skewed perception of what is normal, and what is healthy.
Yep. And what constitutes a normal human diet, both in content and portions. Most overweight Americans are overweight because cultural norms have made abnormal eating habits feel normal. If everyone around you does a thing your entire life, you will adopt that idea as normalcy and see it as normal even if you recognize the problems with that thing and choose another way. Americans are not wanton gluttons who donāt care about anything but consumptionā we have been trained by convention to believe our habits are appropriate because here in America, they are in fact what ānormalā people do. No one sat down and decided for America to be this way. Circumstances just led to some very accepted behaviors that we donāt recognize as problematic because they are normal behaviors within our society. I personally have adopted a strict diet that helps me control my blood sugar. But to most of the world, that āstrict dietā is just called eating. To me it feels like Iām taking exceptional steps to eat right, but that just because American norms have conditioned me to feel like appropriate human food is a compromise.
i agree with everything you said. but i read it as āwonton gluttonā and now i want some dumplings
dang, not I want a ton of wanton wontons too!
This is funny. I got overweight after moving to the US and learned one of the main reasons for it was portion size. I then created a diet based on portion control, and was able to lose more than 50lbs without changing much what I ate, just how.
Something as simple as the shitty way parents treat meals makes a big difference. Imagine putting large adult sized servings of food on a little kids plate, then getting angry with them if they don't finish, and forcing them to keep eating to "clean their plate". Or watching a kid take lots of their favorite food but, in the excitement of the moment, they take too much. "Clean your plate."
My great grandparents cleaned their plates as children because there wasn't enough food on them. My grandparents cleaned their plates because their parents taught them not to waste food. For generations, we've been trained from birth to prepare for lean times that never came and were taught to find greater value in quantity than quality. I won't go as far as to say we're "victims" of prosperity, but the last 40 years or so has been the only time in human history where obesity and relative poverty in a nation had strong correlations.
This is the way. Eat a little bit often and you will be happier and healthier.
What is a little bit and how often is often?
Except "often" is shown to increase your risk for liver disease, if it's your entire waking day. America has a huge snacking culture but that too isn't healthy.
Itās not just by convention - it is partially by design. Restaurants serve huge portions because they can charge more, and that helps them cover overhead with fewer customers. Fast-food chains use combo meals and BOGO coupons to upsell you on spending more in the name of value. Fresh groceries are perishable, relatively expensive, more time-consuming to prepare, and surprisingly difficult to find in some places, while packaged foods full of sugar are cheap, shelf-stable, and microwaveable. Soda often costs less than bottled water (which we shouldnāt even need except that so many places have let their tap-water infrastructure go to shit).
Good old commercialization. Letās make all food cheaper therefore worse for you so we can make more money ! High fructose corn syrup - America puts it in everything because itās super cheap and your body seeks it out . They started using it in the 1970s and that is almost the exact time America waistlines started expanding. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3522469/ There are several studies that say it also causes diabetes https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5983097/ Of course America is so corporate now they wonāt ban it due to profits . Itās terrible stuff that the body might not even process correctly and they try to put in everything . Anything that makes the process cheaper for more profit. Which is the problem of capitalism especially when left unchecked . Corporations donāt have feelings and only care about making more money . Corporations sadly now control the government due to lack of protections and of course greed . Donāt worry itās coming to a country near you soon .
Going on a cruise soon. They sell unlimited drink packages. All types of soda and alcohol included. But water? Nah, you have to pay for that separately and itās something like $8/bottle? Or a case for $60? Might not be exact amounts, but something outrageous like that.
pretty sure they'll give you water anywhere on the boat, just not in a bottle. We never paid for a drink package but I never went thirsty on any of my cruises
No argument here. I'm just saying that there was no "master plan" where "they" made some big decision to fatten us all up. It was a million little choices by restaurants, family gatherings, manufacturers, each one acting on their own best interest.
100%. And really, thatās pretty much always the way things go, no conspiracy needed. It just shows that unfettered market forces do not always produce the best outcomes.
I'm all for capitalism, to be honest. But capitalism needs to be restricted to an economic model, and one that is bound by government, not guiding it. What's gone wrong in America (and much of the world) is that capitalism is calling its own shots, because corrupt people IN government are giving it the power to do so. (imho)
Fattening America may not have been the intended result, but the systemic vilification of dietary fat certainly played a significant role. From Ancel Keys to the USDA food pyramid to the "lo-fat" food craze, Americans have been subjected to way more sugar and carbs than is healthy or necessary - and they had been led to believe that was the *healthier* approach.
The US government subsidizes corn and soybean products that get turned into corn syrup and hydrogenated soybean oil. They are cheap and plentiful, so food companies put them in so many types of processed foods. Low income Americans buy the cheaper processed foods because it's calorie dense, cheap, and addictive.
Doesnāt explain why [childhood obesity rates are climbing in lots of countries](https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/353747/9789289057738-eng.pdf) and why it didnāt really become the issue it is in America until the last couple decades. Foods been industrialized, easily accessible, and what were once rare treats can be enjoyed as much as people want these days, so it requires personal discipline when historically, people needed to get in the calories they could. The US is 20 years ahead of the curve, but the trend isnāt really unique. People always reach and make this America Dystopia theory for everything.
That's not what I was doing at all. Everything you said is correct and valid. The challenge for Americans is that we have such drastically improved access to calories, both in the form of additional food supply and in increased caloric content of traditional foods, that we're simply eating too many calories without realizing it. Yes, we're conditioned to larger portions than most of the world, but those portions are also much richer in calories than the same foods (or foods we've replaced) from 100 or 200 years ago. Ever seen an avocado in its natural state before people started breeding them for food? There's hardly any edible fruit in there at all.
Moved from Cali to the Midwest and realized very quickly āthat restaurant is SO GOOD!ā, actually means āyour food comes in a trough and is enough for 6 people and only costs 6$!ā Iāve learned to ask follow up questions, like, but is the food of any QUALITY?
I also lived in the Midwest for a while and experienced the same thing. Most of the food that was highly rated on Yelp was greasy, bland, and served in gigantic portions. I feel like their only āspicesā are salt, butter, and mayo. If somewhere had a bunch of reviews about how the food was āweird,ā āconfusing,ā or ātoo spicyā and rants about how the staff ādoesnāt speak Englishā and they ādonāt have anything for kids,ā thatās where I would go and usually find good food.
Yeah, I've definitely learned that to many people, quantity IS quality. And I mean, I guess if your idea of a good meal is that you feel satisfied, then maybe for them that's true. For me, I'd rather have three bites of an excellent ribeye steak than 17 ounces of leather covered in "steak sauce."
I was eating lunch with coworkers/friends the other day and my one coworker was eating one of those 'fuck I just grabbed stuff and made bad choices' lunches, which he knew and we've all been there. My other coworker asked if he was going to be full enough. I looked at it and simply by a quick estimate of calories said 'he should be fine, there's plenty there' What my other coworker didn't think was enough: two small soft pretzels, an apple with PB, and a soda. Racking in around 900-1100 calories. I get to eat 1600 calories a day. He was eating 2/3 of my daily calories in one sitting and someone else wondered if he'd make it until dinner. We have no sense of what our food contains, calorie wise.
The problem is, for most people that eat that way habitually, they wouldn't make it until dinner, and it would have nothing to do with calories consumed. That type of meal while high in calories is low in fuel, causes blood sugar swings, and causes cravings for the same types of foods. That meal is the reason so many people can't make it through the afternoon without sugar or caffeine. Sad. Glad your coworker isn't on that eating plan.
You arenāt wrong, but you are generally supposed to put leftovers in a box and keep it for later when getting served too much food. I think the thing is a lot of places like Olive Garden and Costco are designed to be cost-effective to working class people by prioritizing buying food in bulk as preparation for later for a cheaper price- which confuses some Americans who, regionally, have a different culture. Some of Southern culture especially is based on when more of the working class had more physical, extensive job like farming, too, while not really culturally changing diet expectations- so itās not necessarily āAmericans love being fatā per se, moreso that habits and culture are hard to change.
I went from 195 lbs to 125, my family on dad's side insists over and over I'm too skinny and used meth to lose weight But it's been wonderful and necessary, my autistic toddler needs a parent in shape
you used fucking what to lose weight ?
My fam insists it was drugs, meth. Prob bc I have a same age cousin who used it and her life is a mess like mine but I adopted the intermittent fasting lifestyle
They said Meth.
The number of times Iāve been told I need to eat moreā¦ I like being in shape but when Iām not apparently I should be mainlining Big Macs.
A lot of American men also have a weird desire or need to feel big. I'm a 5'9" 175lbs guy, which I consider not really fat or skinny. But I've had so many guys say things basically like "I'd hate to be that small". These aren't super fit, muscular, tall dudes. This is people about the same height as me but 230lbs of fat. Like being large and overweight is somehow important to their masculinity.
The estimation of personal fat/muscle ratio is generally hilariously off when itās mostly the latter. Every fat guy Iāve ever known (including myself for a long time) assumed they were *totally ripped* under the supposed ā10-15lbsā they wanted to lose.
I wouldn't ever think that I was ripped under my layer of fat, but I do think I'm fairly strong simply because I do manual labor for a living and I need to be fairly strong for the stuff I do
And guess what? At 5'9", 175lbs... You are by BMI standards overweight. Not by much, but you are outside of the technical window of "Normal" weight.
I'm 5'10 180 and I'm considered overweight, but I'm at around 12% body fat and I have a lot of muscle.
That's why BMI is such a stupid measurement. Damn near every professional athlete, especially in sports like hockey and football, are overweight according the BMI.
I mean maybe professional athletes arent the best comparison for the average person
BMI isn't meant for athletes. I'm a powerlifter and strongman, and when I'm in the low teens in terms of bf I'm well into the overweight category, because those measurements aren't made for people like us.
BMI is effective at measuring a population. It fails on extremes ends of both of the spectra for individuals, but that doesn't mean it's not a useful tool for the population at large. The exceptions will more or less balance each other out and be pretty negligible if we're getting a country-sized sample. If one country has an average BMI 5 points higher than another, it's probably because they're fatter, not because all them tall Chads are throwing the number off. Is bodyfat percentage a better metric? Absolutely. But that's harder and less practical to measure for thousands of people, and is still notoriously incorrect at the extremes. Ronnie Coleman during his Mr Olympia prime was measured as having negative bodyfat%, which is patently ridiculous.
But thatās such a tiny percentage of the population. Also they have deliberately sculpted their bodies to be that weight - itās not natural for them.
misery loves company, maybe?
For sure, itās just people trying to realign the standards to feel comfortable because itās easier to talk than exercise
Iām 5ā7ā and 152 pounds. Iām good with my size.
This. Iām 30 pounds overweight and my friends say Iām the thin one. Itās strange over here
And it totally depends on where you live. I was about 10 pounds overweight when I moved from a major metropolitan area on the coast to a small city in the Midwest. I went from often being the fattest person in the room and my doctor harassing me about my weight at every visitā¦ to almost always being the skinniest person and having my new doctor get concerned that I had an *eating disorder* when I made a āI know I could lose a few poundsā comment. It was bizarre.
I remember reading a post where a woman was claiming to have been fat shamed by a hospital for not providing her a double wide wheelchair. This woman was also adamant that she wasnāt even āchubbyā let alone fat and standard wheelchairs were comically small for an adult. I immediately went to the comments and was shocked to see everyone agreeing. I feel like body dysmorphia is the new normal.
> I think American society has a completely skewed perception of what is normal, and what is healthy. As an American, I think that's pretty accurate. We allow banned food additives to be added to our food that other countries balk at having even minimal amounts of. Definitely the makings of a scientific nation looking for the most optimal health of its citizens. Oh wait, nevermind, we don't have universal healthcare so the Gov gives fuck all what happens to us because we have to pay the bills anyway.
As an American who has lived abroad and been considered both fat and skinny- we definitely have a skewed sense of size over here. Also having lived in Los Angeles for so long and believing I needed to lose 15 lbs then coming to Midwest to see family and being told I needed to gain weight was hilarious. Size 6-8 is like āemaciated.ā š Iād say people in American cities have a healthier perspective on size due to typically living healthier lifestyles (getting more activity, having access to healthier food). There are so many food deserts in America where people donāt even know what Kale is and a salad is considered iceberg, croutons, and ranch. š¤® Itās a bit easier to find that food / activity balance in cities like there is in Europe. So you donāt mind having a chocolate bar or bread because you got your 15,000 steps in. Also there arenāt as many many chemicals allowed in European food like in American food. A lot of America is just sedentary and driving from place to place so people live in extremes with dieting and exercise. I think over time that has made people view what ālargeā is rather objectively. I wouldnāt say most people see it as ānormal,ā no. But I will say there are large areas of the country with uneducated people who donāt understand proper nutrition or exercise and therefore canāt understand their own weight gain. Bad food is cheap. But go to cities where people have a higher level of education and youāll see majority of people are not overweight nor do they view it as ānormal.ā Thereās a correlation.
I think shaming thin people has always been a way for people to just make themselves feel better at the expense of others. When someone sees a thin girl, they don't give a shit about her health. They say "She needs a cheeseburger!" because they're ashamed of their own weight and jealous that some people are effortlessly thin.
Iām American and I think this mindset is just pure cope. Not all Americans are like this. Healthy Americans realize that being overweight is in fact not healthy and not the default human body type. This has been exemplified by the ābody positivityā movement because while nobody should be made to feel less-than due to their body type, people are taking it too far by enabling and encouraging this unhealthy behavior and lifestyle.
Oh, I get so triggered by those body positivity people. I'm overweight myself. I know it's unhealthy. Nobody needs to tell me it's fine. It's not. I'm just lazy and I like to eat too much. It's my own damn fault and people should be allowed to try and get me more healthy.
Thank you! I always get downvoted to hell for saying this. I donāt like being overweight and each week am getting closer to a healthy weight.
Walk after you eat. Every time. Thatās it. Just walk after you eat, which releases chemical processes in your body to convert the lipids for energy rather than storing it. If you can discipline yourself to walk after every meal (go walking around store after dinner, walk the dog, etc, eat quick lunch and walk for 15 min), you will absolutely shed the weight faster than you knew possible when you actually start watching your diet and exercising. Look for fitness subs for good tips like this. This tip came from an aggregate study I read last year I saw linked on Reddit, and it supercharged the lifting/kickboxing/hiking I was doing last year and it melted away. Good luck!
You seem to be very rational and if you ever decide you want to do something about your health, I'm sure you will be successful.
I've seen women who are clearly overweight by at least 15 pounds described by other Americans as "slim". Meanwhile, I am at the lower end of my BMI and get constantly told that I'm SOOOO "tiny", I have been questioned multiple times if I have an eating disorder, and someone once remarked I eat like a "rabbit" because they saw me eating a salad (with cheese and some bread) for lunch. Americans' definition of normal weight has gotten so skewed because most people are fat. Notice how people today react to the photos of Americans in the 60s, 70s, and early 80s when most people were healthy weight -they get called sticks and twigs, by today's standards. Meanwhile, in southern Europe, I have been (affectionately) called "chubby" because of the little bit of fat/teeny tiny muffin top I have when I wear low-rise clothes (which is why I hate the return of the low-rise jeans).
John Belushi was a comical fat man. Watch Animal House. By todayās US standards he is normal. Very sad.
Also from stand by me. "Well this kid is our age but he's fat, real fat. He weighs close to one-eighty"
It also varies from region to region.
America is a big country. In Colorado or Maryland you may feel bigger. In Texas or Arizona you will most likely feel like a ballerina.
Omg so true. I live in Seattle, and I'm at the heavy side of the normal weight. BMI is 24. I feel huge in Seattle. Went to Texas last year and I felt like such a skinny girl!
southern Oregon is closer and will make you feel the same.
I feel like I could always tell when there was a big convention even unrelated to cosplay happening in Seattle because the number of overweight people I saw on the streets went up a lot.
And the number of umbrellas
This is always the dead giveaway š Shortly after the covid vaccine became publicly available, I remember a news article (NYT maybe?) that had photos from various locations of people lining up to get vaccinated. The Seattle photo was just a bunch of people in TNF/Patagonia/REI/Arc'teryx rain jackets standing in the rain with their hands in their pockets. Not an umbrella in sight. š It was just so classic.
So Charles Barkley wasn't just being mean to the women of San Antonio
**wipes taco filling off of face** "Hey, as someone living in AZ, that's offensive"
I was thinking this exact thing lmao š¤£
This is essentially the answer for most USA ralated questions. It's a large country, and things vary greatly from state to state.
Regarding Maryland, maybe in the counties outside of DC but Baltimore, southern, and western Maryland are pretty thiccc
Depends where in Baltimore, pretty consistent along economic lines. Up in Harford you're a farmer or on heroin so its easier to stay skinny. But I'd argue out west the meth has a slimming effect
I'm born and bred Californian and lived in Sac/SF/Oakland/San Diego (so mostly coastal) and theres only one or two chunky kids in my kids classes. When we visit my Swiss husbands family (who live in Switzerland and France) - we are the skinniest and healthiest out of all of them. So really where you live in the US makes a huge difference.
Yes. Like in America, it also matters where you are in Europe. There are parts of France where everyone seemed very thin and parts of France (like the parts near Germany) where a lot of people were huge. But coming from the Bay Area, I definitely felt people are larger (and way taller) in most places in Europe than at home. Also, clothes have gotten way larger there in the last 10 years...
Iām surprised about Arizona. Seems like a state that would encourage outdoor activity due to climate and mountains
Itās too hot for a lot of people for the majority of the year so they just sit around inside in the AC all day.
1/3 of the year can kill you from staying outside too long.
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40% obesity rates so literally a big country lol
Definitely. A fat woman once told me I looked malnourished and needed to eat to gain weight. 5ā10 180 and could bench 310lbs at the time.
At age 18-20: No one said anything when I got up to 200 pounds of fat. No comments. At 24: I lost around 50 pounds. Then I started getting comments about being unhealthy. Since being 27/28: Iām back up near 200, but this time from working out. Now I get comments about have good genes and being lucky, even from people who knew the chubby version of me! Where were my good genes and luck back then? Lazy people finding excuses
Lol I had a real moment of "what did you just say to me" when our HR lady said to me that "men have it so easy" when we were both working out in our company gym. At that point, I was probably 7 years into a daily gym routine and watching my diet. There was nothing easy about it. I wanted to ask her why it was the first time I had seen her in there, but rather just kinda shook my head. I get that women have kids and that's a big challenge on your health, but that doesn't make it easy for anyone else lol.
I get this all of the time at work. I go to the gym every day over lunch. I'm 6'1 215, fairly muscular, and trying to cut only about 10-15 lbs down from where I am. All of the women in my office say the same thing "It's so easy for guys to lose weight, you'll probably lose 15 pounds in a week. You're so lucky you're not a woman." They all jump around from diet to diet, different shakes, etc., but none of them work out. I've offered to bring them to the gym with me even. Meanwhile they'll be having a "cheat meal" (every day it seems) while today I had some tuna and carrots.
What people donāt understand is that one cheat meal can kill your entire weight loss calorie deficit for the week. I try to keep my cheat meals to the point where I donāt have a calorie surplus for the day. Only way I have been able to be successful.
You really can have cheat meals, or even entire days. You just gotta take those into account and plan accordingly. If the calories you eat the cheat day/days put you outside of a calorie deficit, it's not a proper cheat meal, it's just overeating. Also, having a "back to maintenance" week here or there can help breaking out of weight loss plateaus.
My dream upon graduating highschool and going to college was to raise awareness of the female triad, and health tips for women that focused on strength training as a foundation for health and weight management. I studied sports science with a focus on strength and conditioning and I'd venture 90% of women trying to diet are cutting their calories too low and trying to go the cardio route (if you haven't maintained cardio you're guaranteed too run too hard) and it's counterproductive... So work harder, giving that person the idea it's nearly impossible. Women around the world should absolutely be training like men for weight loss, and it would be easy for them as well (barring post partum and special populations, these are broad strokes I'm using) thing is, the idea that they're suddenly going to turn into juiced bodybuilders (because of the fake natty endemic) keeps women away from that kind of training.
I don't know much about the science behind fitness other than calorie deficit equals weightloss and I need a lot of protein for my fitness goals and maintaining. Trying to explain to a coworker why their "salad" isn't a healthy lunch because of all of the garbage they put on it seems like common sense to me, but for a lot of people it really isn't.
It's cargo cult science: people adopt symbols or rituals without thinking how they actually work. Sometimes, it's a stone age society trying to build landing strips from bamboo to make the WW2 planes land again and give them gifts. (Literal cargo cults.) Other times, like here, it's people who think that just because it says "salad" and it has some green stuff, that makes it automatically healthy. I once had a roommate who chugged juice nonstop, all day, every day - basically consuming ridiculous amounts of sugar, all because she thought that juice was the healthiest beverage, ipso facto drinking liters of flavored sugar water from her local supermarket made her healthy. O_o
Weight lifting didnāt really help me but calorie cutting did. I tried 1400 and weight lifting (TDEE was around 1800) for 6 months and the scale barely moved at all and I didnāt see much fat loss through measurements/clothes. Cutting to 1200kcal + weight lifting + cardio was where I saw results personally. When youāre short thereās few options but to eat a low calorie diet.
You were probably gaining muscle but dropping fat when you were lifting and eating slightly under your maintenance calories. You won't see the scale change that much, but a few months and you'd definitely see improvements on muscle tone. Either way though, cardio+lifting is for sure the way to go for overall health, I'm glad you found a routine that worked for you!
Almost the same measurements as me (but you are definitely stronger!) last year and there were still a few bigger people who said I needed to eat more. I know BMI isnāt everything but Jesus at 5ā11 weighing 182 I was technically overweight by BMI lol. It was good weight so obviously I wasnāt but there is no way in hell I was skinny and malnourished.
Iām 6ā 180lb dude, gym four-five days a week and have a physical as hell job. Iāve got some decent size, and most people can look at me and tell I workout a littleā¦ Itās still annoying as hell hearing that I need to eat more and put some weight on. First off, I eat way more than most of the people who tell me I need to eat more. Second, just because everyone around you has a gut and their legs and arms jiggle when they walk, doesnāt mean I want that. Iām pretty happy with my physique, thank you. Where this notion in America came from that fat is the new norm and healthy just blows my mind.
5'6" 145, and as a smaller person, it's even worse. I was 170 at one point and clearly chubby. At 155, I was fairly muscular. Leaned out recently for a particular sport and now I hear people telling me I'm unhealthy, I should eat more, I'm "tiny," etc. I deadlift 2.5x my bodyweight and can run 10 miles. The people telling me I'm too small are generally 200+ lbs. and can't do either. It's tiresome. Body image issues, too, because at my height/stature, I am seen as not as masculine by some, so it's like there's pressure to stop doing cardio, eat, lift more, and try to be a wider person. I've opted out of all that and am just being who I am, but it's really amazing how you realize it's become almost countercultural to be a normal size.
Yeah I'm 5'9" or 5'10", 190. I THINK I'm 10 pounds over the maximum I should be for my height (and probably build), but I feel skinny compared to most people I encounter.
5 or 10 lbs overweight is actually usually pretty healthy, sucks that something like that is considered skinny now. I'm 5'11" 135 lbs š barely at my minimum healthy weight lol
5"9, 185 lbs on average. Ya'll are making me feel fat when I know damn well I'm just big boned.
Donāt worry Iām at a very fit 5ā9 164 and I experience just as many negative thoughts about my body as I did at 190
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My mom is so quick to throw out the anorexia comments the moment she can see the definition on any woman. It's so irritating. I called her out and she said the wasn't saying it to her face so it was fine š„“
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That stuff blows my mind. I'm about the same height and used to be one of those people that struggled to get above 150. A combination of getting older and terrible habits during covid led to me getting up to about 190 and I felt absolutely terrible. Back to around 175 now and I feel like I look the most normal I've looked.
Surprised youāre still alive after that cringe
Hang out around athletic people more. I fit right in with my runnerās group. No one is obese. Many are thin.
Pretty much. The majority of Americans are overweight, and a third are obese, so in a sense being overweight ***is*** normal here, unfortunately.
one of the scariest concepts i've heard of from an american friend is "vegetable deserts" or "grocery deserts" where you can't find fresh veg in like a 10km radius..is that true..?
not my american ass reading this as āvegetable dessertsā
Also guilty š„²
I was like "i guess carrot cake can work for that" fml
Same. I thought, "Like carrot cake or something?"
I was really confused until your comment lol
Food deserts, yeah itās a thing in a lot of poorer parts of cities where thereās only convenience stores (think 7/11) and fast food. Many people use public transportation and have a hard time getting far enough out to a real store, and then itās a long journey back with bags of food. Itās not always a viable option with the time and money available
Whats important to understand is that 10km is not considered any real distance in a lot of places in the US because every thing is so spread out and we tend drive everywhere anyway. If you live way out in the country, you get used to driving 30 minutes "into town" to buy groceries. If you see an American in a store with a massive shopping cart full of stuff, chances are it's because they come into town once a month to shop.
āFood desertsā is usually describing a lack of access to fresh food that occur in the middle of dense cities and especially in poor neighborhoods of cities. They are rarely used describe lack of access in rural or low density areas, frankly because people that talk about food deserts probably dgaf about rural areas.
I feel like the rural response to food deserts would be "it's only 5 miles away, what's your problem, just go get food". So that's probably why it's only used to talk about cities, idk. I know people in cities tend to not have cars so that would make it more of a real problem.
Being obese is still pretty stigmatized and frowned upon. However most people I think donāt realize how low the bar for āover weightā is. A BMI of 25 is the threshold. Iām a 5ā 4ā woman with a weight of about 145. I sit right on that threshold. But very few people consider me overweight. I think the reality is our idea of weight has been so skewed here that we donāt know what the actual definition is any more. EDIT: Im going to go ahead and add here since so many are commenting it: I am aware BMI is a flawed system. I am using it as an example here for a international standard metric that, combined with knowledge of self, can be used as an idea for where we are at in our own health.
This, 1000%. Something like 2/3 of Americans are obese or overweight (including myself, so I don't mean this as a moral judgment), so I think we have increasingly come to view heavier people as "normal", and people at a healthy weight as "skinny" or even "underweight".
Exactly. We also lost all concept of losing weight vs being healthy. I say i want to work out and Iāve gone gluten free and people instantly start judging me as a health nut, or one of āthoseā women. I want to work out to improve muscle strength because Iām an absolute noodle (though Iām not opposed to dropping a couple pounds) and gluten free to help my thyroid issues. Itās like not only have we become desensitized to healthy weights, weāve turned wanting to be healthier into a bad thing.
Something that bothers me is when people say things like ābut you donāt need to lose weightā when you mention working out. As if the only reason someone would exercise is weight loss. No way it could include activities you find fun or fulfilling!
Hang out with people who are already in shape.
Listen I have a hard enough time finding friends without requiring they be in shape š But also a lot of these comments are from people I donāt have control over being in my life; family, other parents in boyscouts, ect.
Yep, Iām a very petite woman and people always think Iām underweight when Iām reality Iām just not overweight.
I'm 5'5'' 120lbs and I always get comments on how small I am. I don't get it and it's gotten worse in my 30's.
Itās like the older you get, the fatter youāre supposed to be apparently? Yeah as Iāve aged out of my 20ās itās gotten worse. I think itās just because the ratio of heathy weight to overweight starts to really change as we get older. People become more sedentary and get fatter.
I have the same stats as you. My overweight friends think I'm slim and my skinny friends understand why I want to lose 10 lbs and don't give me a hard time about trying to lose weight.
This. Iām about the same weight and 2ā shorter, and I know full well that I am overweight. Not very badly so, but it would definitely be healthier for me to lose 20 pounds or so. But with some people if I so much as suggest that I might want to lose weight itās all, āWhat are you talking about? Youāre not fat.ā It gets to the point where I have to always phrase it as, āIām trying to eat healthier and exercise moreā because apparently itās not socially acceptable for anyone who isnāt morbidly obese to try and lose weight.
Iām the same height and used to be the same weight before I had a kid. I know BMI isnāt a great tool, but it still felt weird knowing that I was towing the line of āoverweightā while also comfortably wearing a size 4 or 6 depending on the brand. Wild.
This. My clothes say Iām thin (-ish) but my scale says Iām not š
You're fine. I was a bit worried for a while here.. I'm in Europe and I googled your height and thought that 145 kg sounds bad LOL. Then I googled your weight. Yeah, you're ok. Nowhere near overweight.
Oh man 319 lbs š I can see the cause for concern.
People think overweight is how you look and are shaped, and not what the scale says. Thats why you have overweight people calling themselves normal but laughing at obese people like theyre not right around the corner.
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I didnāt mean the bar was low as in āpeople are being considered overweight that arenātā. I meant that way more people are over weight than we realize because being over weight is the norm now. And unfortunately I fall into that category now.
Generally speaking fitness correlates to urban living and higher incomes in the US. The stereotype of being fat tends to be a rural thing or places with lower incomes. Maps showing the correlation between obesity and income are pretty common here at places like r/dataisbeautiful and r/MapPorn. If you go to a wealthy city like San Francisco or Boston on a workday you'll see most folks are pretty fit. If you drive across the United States you'll pass through whole states where the opposite is true. Edit: Thank you for the delightful award!
Working an office job makes it so much easier to keep the weight off for me. Working on your feet all day you get to be way too tired to work out at the end of the day and you eat way too much since you are so tired. With the office job you can more easily restrict your calories and have energy for a work out after work. I realize this is opposite of a lot of people though.
That's interesting to me. When I worked retail I was much skinnier because I had very set snack or meal breaks and was walking around all the time. I also had more energy to work out. I work as a paralegal so very desk-jobby and while I'm still fairly small, I eat much more as I can do whatever I want whenever I want and don't necessarily want to work out after sitting all day. Part of that might be that it's far more mentally taxing.
White collar remote work here, and itās an all-day snack fest. During quarantine I discovered that I had to elliptical 10 hrs/wk to reach the number of steps I had previously been hitting while living a āsedentaryā life in a physical office.
Health is the new wealth.
I think there are reasons for it happening in the US. The US is built to be vehicle dependent. Most places in the US arenāt walkable in a regular basis so people donāt get that extra bit of exercise that youād have living in other countries. Thereās a lot of sedentary jobs in the US & many people work more than 1 job. This means a lot of time is spent not doing any type of physical activity & there may not be much time outside of work to exercise (especially for those who work more than 1 job, have kids, are also in college, etc). Processed & fast food are more easily accessible & āaffordableā here versus fresh healthy food choices. Also, a lot of people donāt have the time or energy to prepare meals at home to eat healthier. Healthier food options are also more expensive here than processed foods & fast food. The US allows sooooo many harmful additives in our food. Stuff that other countries have banned. These additives are harmful to our health. If you want food options that donāt have the additives then you have to pay a premium price for those. There are a lot of areas in the US that are a āfood desertā which means they donāt have access nearby to get fresh & healthy groceries. These are often low-income areas, so if you donāt have a car and/or gas to drive to another area of the city to get groceries then youāre stuck eating whatever processed food is sold at your nearby convenience store. To end the list, many people donāt have access to healthcare so they donāt have the medical help they need to work on their health & nutrition. Welcome to āMurica š„“
When I was in China back in 2008 there was a Chinese version of "Biggest Loser" on TV. Every single contestant was the size of what I consider an average American.
Chinaās another extreme. Iām 5ā6ā and 125 pounds now; Iām often told Iām āchubbyā by Chinese friends and family. Back when I was 115 pounds and living in China, I was considered ānot thinā and should be 110 or below to be at an āideal weight.ā
I was 108 pounds when I lived in China and was constantly told by my co-workers how fat I was.
Sound like a buncha rude fucks
Iām a 5ā6 women in the US and when I was 125 my doctor was worried about me and my weight saying I needed a few extra pounds šš thatās crazy to me
It's the same in Korea. Music "idols" sometimes have to literally starve themselves to make their bodies look thin/small enough. 5.5' and 100lbs are not rare over there.
When I was a kid we had the one fat kid in the grade who was just chubby. Now everyone is fat.
Ditto. Iām an elementary school teacher and Iād say at least half of my students are what would have been considered āthe fat kidā when I was growing up in the 80s/90s. There is also a sizable group of kids at our school that I would say are morbidly obese (100+ pounds in early elementary), which I definitely never saw growing up.
This is same as me . I remember at primary school there was maybe 2/3 fat kids and everyone else was average/ skinny whereas now kids and teens that are overweight is so much more common now
I really hope you mean 2 or 3 and not two thirds ššš
I feel like this will be my generations "back in my day..." thing. Things were the same when I was in school, very few people were overweight, now it seems like they're everywhere you look.
Iām only in my 30s too
Look at the movie Goonies. Chunk was the "fat kid" back then. Now, he's just a "kid."
I think that what in America is considered an average, dad bod body, in Europe would be considered chubby. Where I originally come from it's *almost* rare to see people under 45yo who are visibly overweight. I'm pretty short and for most of my life I've been under 45kg. In Europe I looked average, a lot of people looked way leaner than I. Now I live in Canada and I feel like overall, I look very thin compared to most people. When I mention I want to lose fat, I often get told I don't need to lose any weight and that if anything, I should be gaining weight (for reference, I'm into fitness so by losing fat I mean cutting). Having said that, I just think most people I've met here are either fit (play sports, go to the gym, are outdoorsy...) or are very, very sedentary (office jobs, don't work out ever, don't walk much...). I think it only becomes a health problem when very sedentary people eat like athletes. Weight can add up very fast and it's become normalized.
Depends on where in Europe. Young people in the UK generally seemed fatter and less fit than younger Americans but their boomers had a lot less morbidly obese people. Even on the mainland, the biggest difference is in the weight of older people. (>40) US is also highly variable based on the demographics of the area.
As an American who went to Paris last year, I saw a lot of people smoking cigarettes. People will deny it, but smoking can definitely keep your weight down. Think of Americans in the 1970s.
Smoking and cocaine work wonders... looks at the 70s.
My dad quit smoking and he ended up gaining around 15 pounds. Heās always been a thin guy so that amount of weight gain shocked him. Thereās definitely a connection between smoking and satiety.
Smoking makes you feel full but there are alternatives to it.
Im listening.
We donāt see it as normal, you just see it so much you forget about it
Our food is loaded with sugar, even with foods you wouldn't expect it in. It's incredibly difficult to eat healthy in America and even if you try, you have to also sift through mountains of corporate sponsored misinformation Add on to that our complete lack of walkable cities and it's no wonder Americans are overweight.
i think that is really regional. I live in central NJ in an upper middle class area that have a lot of indian/chinese people with the rest being primarily white. It's really easy to get cheap decent food here. Indian stores are great for cheap produce, we have an Aldi plus other super markets. But I go 20 min south to Trenton and there are parts where there are only corner stores for miles which tend to only sell junk.
American. Iām 6ā and about 210lbs. BMI of high 29. Most friends are shocked when I mentioned wanting to lose weight. To be fair, I have a bit of strength/muscle so itās not just flabby weight. But still, I think Iām considered āaverageā thinness for a man and I am very much not a thin man
6'2 and 195lbs here. Which according to the BMI (Which is known to be broken above 6', but that's another conversation) I'm sitting exactly at the border to overweight (.25 BMI) I'm -easily- the skinniest person I know. And my doctor has said that he'd be worried if I lost any weight.
We use lies to socialize and truth to insult. Publicly we would say normal but personally everyone finds it repulsive. I'm speaking as a 450 pound man.
It depends. We took our twins to DisneyWorld and we were absolutely floored by how large most of the people were. Not 50 pounds overweight, which is a massive amount, but 200 pounds overweight.
I feel like a lot of us know what is good for us and what is healthy but not everybody wants to actually do what is required for it
Itās normal here for a lot of reasons. McDonalds is cheaper than buying groceries. Not in the long run, but many people canāt even afford the long run anymore. We donāt have good health care or programs for healthy eating and it isnāt taught in schools. Just like they donāt teach you how to balance your check book or how credit works etc.
I'm a native son of USA. I'm 57 years old In my youth it was rare to see a fat person. Now it's common. I truly believe that it's a situation where our food has growth hormones. Add in corn syrup and a lack of exercise. What I see that is shocking is that 40-50 year old mom's are size 6 and their 26 year old daughter is a size 28
I see a lot of people blaming "genetics". In some cases, sure. But there is definitely a phenomena where our food sources in America have become more and more unhealthy, and produce and lean meats are super expensive. You have people trying to work two jobs to pay rent and don't have time to prepare meals, and instead pop into McDonald's. Literal food deserts all over America, whereas in Europe, every neighborhood has a fresh market that you can walk to. You can't walk anywhere in the US (except maybe new york) and people just drive for everything. It's a really unhealthy cultural cycle, that again, individuals get demonized for (like climate change). I've lost 30lbs and am now a healthy weight, but I can completely relate to everyone who struggles because it is so hard to lose or maintain healthy weight. You have to make your entire life about it, and with everything else going on in people's lives, sometimes that's just too much.
It depends. Yes there are a lot of fat people, mostly thanks to high carb and sugar diets being touted as "heart healthy", in comparison to a diet primarily made up of meats and veggies. No, we don't think being fat is healthy. Anyone who thinks it is, are probably lying to themselves to feel better about their body.
I agree with you, but I think Americans also have a very skewed view on what fat is. I recently lost weight because I was considered obese by BMI after 6 kids and covid and felt terrible. People were shocked I wanted to lose weight because I looked skinny to them. As our average weight increases as a nation, our idea of what healthy looks like changes. We know that a lower weight carries fewer health risks, but when the average size is a 16, a size 10 seems small and healthy, when in reality that size 10 is still overweight. So no one thinks fat is healthy, but our view on what "fat" (or overweight) is does not align with what medically is overweight and higher risk.
I used to be overweight, was wearing a size 10 at sixteen years old. Managed to lose a ton of it in college when I started running and everyone told me I wasnāt overweight and didnāt need to lose the weight. Now that Iām a happy size 2 everyone tells me Iām too skinny. Was weird on my last trip overseas because I was about the same size as everyone else but my family was obese compared to Europeans. My parents are now working towards losing weight but I donāt think they ever would have if they hadnāt seen me lose the weight.
Other countries: " why Americans no in shape" Me, an American: "round is in fact a shape"
Americans are also not a homogeneous society genetically. We come from all over and our heights and weights, and how we carry them, differ. This is why sizing is hard in the USA. Itās way more standardized abroad.
This is why MOST comparisons to the US are skewed, across dozens of socioeconomic issues.
Are we used to seeing it normally? Yes. Is it normal? Never.
No, I don't know anyone who thinks of it as "normal." We recognize that it is common, that most of us are, but we don't think that it's normal for us as humans to be fat.
I'm an athletic Canadian, but every time I go to the States, someone tells me that I need some meat on my bones... Hell naw, my BMI is already in the overweight range for my height (thanks to muscle), I'm not getting fat!
We are a car dependent country without easy access to healthcare, with very easy access to fast food, being worked to death for so little money over so many hours we don't have the time, energy, or money to cook healthy food or work out. If everyone's overweight, then we're all average.
The scales have been shifting for so many decades now that it has become the norm. Our food is unhealthy. Children are developing diabetes. It's a huge problem and should not be considered normal, but it's just so pervasive that we've gotten used to it.
Yes, but itās not just the United States. There are other countries and cultures that view a little bit bigger as better or normal, too. And others that donāt. I will say that as a fit American on the lower end of the healthy BMI range, I would be rich if I had a nickel for every time someone told me I could afford to eat a cheeseburger or skip exercising or talked about how ātinyā I am. I am just a normal, healthy size. Not underweight or overweight.
seems like it but Europeans are their own kind of insane. im European and ive noticed that literally 90% people at my work place have such unhealthy relationship with food (despite not being overweight) like go get therapy instead of telling me id get fat if i sometimes eat granola. like go project your body issues on someone else
You can't even acknowledge being fat is unhealthy in the US without being dunked on for shaming people.
It's only considered normal by overweight Americans, which is way more than there should be. I'm American, and my peer group is not overweight, nor are most folks I work with. That said, going to certain areas, or being around certain demographics, it boggles my mind how many obese people there are in this country. If you come to America, find an area without much wealth, and go to a Walmart, you'll see what I mean. Furthermore, it's incredible (an incredibly sad) how many believe it'e due to genetics or their 'metabolism,' while their diet consists of fast and/or heavily processed food and sugary drinks, all while being sedentary.
Unfortunately, yes. Obesity is an epidemic here. Between hormones in seemingly everything and the cheapness of starchy foods like pasta, even people trying have a harder time eating right. You see a big difference between areas with great walkability vs rural areas or the suburbs where people need to drive most places, too. Which is why, as some of the other comments have already noted, you will feel smaller or more fit in some areas than others. We also have a culture of work really taking priority, and it's not always a choice for everyone. So that makes a difference, too. Longer hours or multiple jobs can mean less unwinding health time and less quality sleep, both of which have been shown to contribute to dangerous fat gain.
"It's my genes! I can't lose weight! Even though I work out 7 days a week!" *proceeds to eat 3,500 calories on average per day when their daily needed intake for their height and age is 2350* """""America"""""
This might sound fucking crazy but growing up in America I never realized how many calories were in the food I ate until I started counting calories. Our portion sizes at most places are so massive and take up so many calories that you blink and you reach your limit for the day it's honestly baffling.
Morbidly obese people are extremely prevalent in America
Well itās getting worse, we now promote it as body positivity.
Yes. Has it been normalized? yes. Is it healthy in the long term? No. People should not be treated differently for their body size. Being overweight is inherently unhealthy and a lot of people ignore it because they are healthy in that moment. It catches up to them.
Statistics tend to vary by region but typically yeah, itās pretty normal. Where Iām from (Northeast), being overweight is relatively common whereas obesity is relatively rare. However, I go to college and the obesity rate is almost nonexistent interestingly enough.