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I agree Cuckoorex. Folks, there is a difference between morbide obesity and just being overweight. Not everyone who is overweight is obese. However there is a high rate of obesity and being overweight in this nation. In large part I don’t think it has a damn thing to do with traumatic experiences. I think we simply have bad eating habits combined with less and less exercise. Think about how many calories we consume when we go out to eat for lunch.
Marc
Indeed MGibson, indeed!
But you know, it’s not just a high rate, it’s now a potentially economically crippling rate if truth be known - and yes, I’m aware such a comment is open to all sorts of debate.
But what CAN’T be argued, and it’s been cited in a number of posts in this thread, is that the USA has 18% of her adult population at over 50% body fat or more - which apparently is the currently accepted threshold to be defined as “morbidly obese”. My understanding is that if you fall between 35-50%, you’re defined as “chronically overweight”, which it would seem represent another 30% of the US adult population.
What really concerns me, as a non American, is the incessant trotting out of excuses to justify such a dreadful situation. I said what I said earlier, so I won’t repeat myself, but nonetheless, no good can come out of excuse making. Not on a national scale. I hear so many variations on the theme nowadays… I have a glandular problem; I have a metabolism problem; I was abused as a child; I’m depressed due to a marriage breakup etc etc etc…
But rarely do I hear honesty… “I’m just a lazy shit who’d rather drive than walk… get outta my way… Survivor is on TV…”
So how does the USA compare to other countries? Man, it is so way, way, WAY beyond any other country on earth in terms of obesity. I looked up my Time Magazine which I kept from January which quoted the stats, and it seems Germany has the 2nd highest rate of obesity on the planet at just 6% of the adult population. Most of the other major Western World countries (including Australia and Canada) hovered around the 4-6% mark.
But not the USA… BAM! You’re number one alright… 18% of your adult population. 2nd place is a long, long, distant second.
This is why the rest of world is so innately cynical about the excuses for obesity.
I keep hearing the same kinds of stereotypes associated with obese people; they drive rather than walk, they eat nothing but chips and soda, they all use some kind of excuse to make no attempts to do something about their weight problems, they would rather watch (insert any TV show here) than work out, etc. Maybe instead of ‘fat jokes’ the real question has to do with the acceptabilty of maintaining stereotypes…? Exactly how many ‘normal sized’ people do you see driving cars instead of walking? How many do you see eating chips and soda? How about watching TV? Do you honestly think that normal sized people don’t watch TV or eat chips or drive cars when they probably could walk?
If someone is clinically depressed and practices self-mutilation, what is the real problem here? The self-mutilation, or the depression? Obviously both are problems, but one stems from the other. Likewise, it may be that a number of contributing factors lead to overeating. It might be simple ignorance of proper nutritional choices. In those cases, education might be enough to help people make the right kinds of changes. However, I don’t think that there is any one ‘right’ way to combat obesity’s underlying causes.
When I was 320 pounds, I was out playing basketball, often fullcourt games (not just ‘shooting around’) every day as long as it wasn’t raining and there was no snow on the ground. I would ride my bike the three mile distance from my apartment to the courts, too. I ate meals mostly at restaraunts because I was (and still am) a lousy cook, but I almost never ordered dessert; I was a meat-and-potatoes guy mostly, and the Italian side of me liked pasta as well. However, restaraunts routinely serve 2 or sometimes 3 or more standard portions of food with each meal. This is something I only really realized as I was attending counseling sessions; portion control in the hands of restaraunts plus constantly eating out equals an excess of calories, even if you eat only three meals a day. When I moved to Rochester, MN and couldn’t find any nearby courts, my exercise level dropped and my weight went up.
I can (and did) lose as much as 45 pounds with an extended period of strict dieting and exercise, but here’s the real kicker for me and for many people that have a LOT of weight to lose; it’s not hard to exert willpower for a month or two or even three, but in order to lose enough weight to be ‘normal-sized’, many people would need to maintain that strict level of diet and exercise for over a year. I don’t know if any of you have tried to restrict your eating for a full year, but it’s pretty damned hard to maintain motivation for over a year while you watch everyone around you pretty much enjoying their food with no ill effects, and sometimes weeks go by with no weight loss or even a slight gain despite your best efforts. Keep in mind also that you can’t just ‘quit eating’ cold turkey like some people can quit drinking or quit smoking; you still need to eat no matter what your goals are. All sorts of bad food choices are readily available, and even the better food choices are often supplied in excess.
All in all, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that most people who think that weight loss for obese people should be as simple as ‘put down the chips and take a hike’ are ignorant of the complexity of the obesity problem. I may be wrong, but I suspect that the majority of people with that attitude have never been significantly overweight themselves, have never had to struggle with the complex social and psychological impact that being overweight brings.
I’m a fiction writer and belong to various writers groups. A letter was posted in the newsletter of one of them–I believe it was Sisters in Crime–saying that, as a fat person, she resented seeing euphemisms like “heavy” and “large.” That writer said that mystery writers ought just to go ahead and describe fat people as “fat.” That word by itself is no more insulting than anything else. Of course it depends on how it’s used. Sometimes, it’s how you say it. And of course people other than the letter writer could have a whole different take on it.