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Stop eating.

Also, the rise? I'm pretty sure you've been up there for a while now.

 Soladrin wrote:
Stop eating.

Also, the rise? I'm pretty sure you've been up there for a while now.

Yes. Sadly, it's getting even worse.

Moderation solves quite a bit. Not too much, not too little.

 juraigamer wrote:
Moderation solves quite a bit. Not too much, not too little.

I agree, but how do we convince people to change?

Quit subsidizing their healthcare and insurance. Allow insurance companies to charge them for the risk pool they are putting themselves into, or drop their coverage completely.

In effect, make them pay for their lifestyle. You want to be obese and endure the associated health issues? No problem. As long as you can afford it.

I think part of the problem is lack of accountability. It's become socially unacceptable to point out someone's flaws. While berating someone is wrong, I think it is necessary to challenge people to change their habits.

 CptJake wrote:
Quit subsidizing their healthcare and insurance. Allow insurance companies to charge them for the risk pool they are putting themselves into, or drop their coverage completely.

In effect, make them pay for their lifestyle. You want to be obese and endure the associated health issues? No problem. As long as you can afford it.

Agreed

To me it's actually one of the scariest things about removing risk tables from insurance.

Interestingly, a lot of insurance companies in the US are now providing free gym memberships to those it insures, as it's much cheaper to pay Planet Fitness once a month than treats someone's adult onset diabetes. I know ours does, and will also cover two meetings a year with a nutritionist.

Personally, I don't think all of the "real woman" nonsense is helping either. I think it's important to be proud of who you are, etc, but I dont really buy the new notion of "real women have curves". I realize not all body types are made to be an athletic size 32 or 4, but I'm also not convinced that many people wearing a size 14 or 50 are that healthy. We need to find some kind of happy medium.

Not just in this arena, but in others as well, we are removing or lessening consequences.

I had a great NCO tell me, we all have freedom of choice but we should never have freedom from consequences.

I'm one of those fat guys who isn't really a fat guy. I'm overweight, but carry it pretty well. People have been surprised when I told them what I weigh. Desk jobs and beer do terrible things to a person.

My problem with this particular doom and gloom is that I was "obese" by some metrics when I was literally wearing size 26 pants half hanging off my ass baggy and working out regularly. At the same time, I'm a long way from that now (a fact that bothers me) and working on it.

I suppose usually people think of the giant fatty that rides the rascal at walmart when they think of the obesity issue. There's a lot of those, but how many are there really? I guess I'm not saying it's not an issue. I just wonder if it's not overblown.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 CptJake wrote:

I had a great NCO tell me, we all have freedom of choice but we should never have freedom from consequences.

By that same rationalization, Russia has always had freedom of speech.

I have seen and tried american cheese in a can. I am not surprised at the rate of obesity. It looks like you guys eat plastic grease

I didnt realize it was at 70% though. Is this accurate at all? Because boy it must be hard to make all those music videos with skinny people, or heck even the army etc. Surely 70% is an over estimate?

As someone who was hot and fit during college, then gained weight at my desk job and is now loosing weight after 2 years (not obese, just unfit), its really as easy as 30 minutes exertion a day and eating real food and less of it. But I will admit, once you are gaining weight its hard to turn it around.

Takes effort. If people dont like effort. People will gain weight.

But, America is a different and weird place. I wouldnt have a clue how to go about fixing it.

 Swastakowey wrote:
I have seen and tried american cheese in a can. I am not surprised at the rate of obesity. It looks like you guys eat plastic grease

I didnt realize it was at 70% though. Is this accurate at all? Because boy it must be hard to make all those music videos with skinny people, or heck even the army etc. Surely 70% is an over estimate?

As someone who was hot and fit during college, then gained weight at my desk job and is now loosing weight after 2 years (not obese, just unfit), its really as easy as 30 minutes exertion a day and eating real food and less of it. But I will admit, once you are gaining weight its hard to turn it around.

Takes effort. If people dont like effort. People will gain weight.

But, America is a different and weird place. I wouldnt have a clue how to go about fixing it.

Sorry I made a mistake in the original post. 70% of Americans are over weight which is in between normal weight and obesity.

Ok thats good. I was incredibly shocked for a while.

 Random Dude wrote:

Sorry I made a mistake in the original post. 70% of Americans are over weight which is in between normal weight and obesity.

Yeah, that makes more sense then.

There's also the problem of healthy food being too expensive. It's much cheaper for a family to go order a pizza than to go to a grocery and buy fresh fruits and vegetables. It puts people in a bad situation if they're already struggling to make ends meet.

 Random Dude wrote:
There's also the problem of healthy food being too expensive. It's much cheaper for a family to go order a pizza than to go to a grocery and buy fresh fruits and vegetables. It puts people in a bad situation if they're already struggling to make ends meet.

But if we pull their insurance, maybe it'll help make those cheaper!

A bottle of water is $1.75, a massive cup of soda from McDonalds is less than a dollar. A rockstar energy drink is $1.50 and an even less healthy energy drink with even more chemicals is also a dollar. A microwaveable burrito is 17 cents, an apple is 75 cents. Most walking the average American does is from the front door to the car to sit longer and MAYBE walk half a block across the parking lot. So many jobs involve mostly sitting in a cubicle or not making enough money so you can only afford the cheapest processed foods, one or the other.

Actually, junk food being cheaper is a 2 edged sword.

I noticed, when i first moved out, that Junk food is only cheaper if you eat less food. But its hard to eat junk food as your main source of food and it be cheap. As you eat more junk food say 2/3 meals a day. You will start eating more junk food. Dont ask why, I have no idea why. But I noticed it in anybody that eats a lot of junk food. They just eat more of it than they did starting out.

Junk food initially or on paper is cheaper. But it gets expensive real quickly when its your main meal. Here in NZ that is the case.

 Random Dude wrote:

Sorry I made a mistake in the original post. 70% of Americans are over weight which is in between normal weight and obesity.

There's also the issue of those "standardized weight charts" (or whatever you want to call them) were created in the 50s and 60s, Over the last 40-50 years, the American diet has greatly changed. I'm not referring to the rise of crappy fast foods (which does play a role) but rather the proportions of WHAT is eaten... The "standard" diet today shows someone eating nearly double the meat products that someone in that period would have eaten, and probably close to a third, or half of the fruits/vegetables that someone from the 50s-60s would have. The result is that people today naturally carry more lean muscle, which is more dense than fat tissues... which results in a higher overall weight.



Also, I'd really love to see your sources, because everything I've personally seen out there is ~30% of the Overall American population is significantly overweight or obese. (States like Mississippi run closer to half, and cities like Memphis, as of last study were closer to 60-70%)

Really? I hear that 'cheaper' thing thrown around a lot, is fruit and veg really that dear over there? I mean, say you wanted maccas/hj's/something over here for a family of 4, and you had that each night, you'd be forking out $40+ a night in cost, so $280 a week. A supermarket trip for a family of 4 is between 200 and 400 a fortnight (depending on family, supermarket of choice, age of kids, etc). That's with veggies, regular meat that you can cook without deepfrying, etc.

Is the US really that different in terms of supermarkets?

 motyak wrote:
Really? I hear that 'cheaper' thing thrown around a lot, is fruit and veg really that dear over there? I mean, say you wanted maccas/hj's/something over here for a family of 4, and you had that each night, you'd be forking out $40+ a night in cost, so $280 a week. A supermarket trip for a family of 4 is between 200 and 400 a fortnight (depending on family, supermarket of choice, age of kids, etc). That's with veggies, regular meat that you can cook without deepfrying, etc.

Is the US really that different in terms of supermarkets?

Depending on the area where you live (cost of living), how many you're feeding, and WHAT you're feeding with will affect how much you spend on groceries each month.... I know my wife and I shop weekly (or thereabouts) and we spend between 150-200 a week for us and 2 kids... Of course, we are counting beer and diapers in that cost, so once kid #2 learns how to gak in a toilet like normal people do that particular cost will go away.

I'd be interested to see where the data is from. If it uses BMI at all, toss it.

I know former college athletes and work out addicts who are considered overweight because of how flawed BMI is

 daedalus wrote:
I'm one of those fat guys who isn't really a fat guy. I'm overweight, but carry it pretty well. People have been surprised when I told them what I weigh. Desk jobs and beer do terrible things to a person.

My problem with this particular doom and gloom is that I was "obese" by some metrics when I was literally wearing size 26 pants half hanging off my ass baggy and working out regularly. At the same time, I'm a long way from that now (a fact that bothers me) and working on it.

I suppose usually people think of the giant fatty that rides the rascal at walmart when they think of the obesity issue. There's a lot of those, but how many are there really? I guess I'm not saying it's not an issue. I just wonder if it's not overblown.
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Obeisity is poorly explained. Im considered obese at 309lb. But Im not overly big. Im just naturally a big guy. Obese is considered 20lb over the ideal, which is too low to begin with.

What can we do as "a country" (aka: government regulations)? As long as we have the "it's my choice to do whatever I want and nobody can ever tell me any different because it's my right to kill myself with food" movement we are not going to do very much. There are some small options we have to encourage better nutrition, but they are not popular:

1) More regulation on what SNAP can be used for and use SNAP to encourage better eating through additional programs that are not just 'here is money for food': There are basically three levels of food prices: The most expensive is really healthy food, the cheapest is food that is horrible for you, and the middle ground is food that is okay but is also non-prepared. If you are on a fixed benefit like SNAP the easiest and most common solution is to buy food with the best cost/amount ratio, aka junk food. You can feed a family a lot of food for a decent price if it is nutritional junk.

The best middle ground for everybody would be to only allow people to purchase nutritional non-prepared food that would be required to be cooked at home. It would be more expenseive than being able to buy junk food, but it would be cheaper than buying pre-packaged prepared healthy foods. But it also requires that a family actually has pots and pans to cook in, plates to eat from, utilities for the stove to run. Which may be something SNAP could help with if that is a problem. It also requires that people actually have time to cook, and there are many people who get SNAP who also still work and sometimes even work multiple jobs and still fall below the poverty line. They might not have time to cook. That's not anything the government can fix (I don't think), but it's a reality to take into consideration. Another problem is that many people might just not know how to cook anything. They grew up on fast food and prepackaged lunches and know how to fix mac & cheese, but they don't know how to actually cook a nutrition meal from scratch. That's something you can fix with classes, which might be something for SNAP to focus on as well.

2) School lunches (and just look at what a communist socialist evil person Michele Obama is for pushing that): Here is an opportunity where you can tackle lifelong obesity at a very early age. Starting a habbing of eating healthy at this age carries on for life. But it's expensive and people don't want the damn government telling their kids what to eat.

What can we do as "a country" (personal choices as people)? We can do a bunch.

1) If you have no reason to eat bad, then don't eat bad (aka: you can afford good food, you have the time to cook good food, but it's just easier to grab bad food from somewhere).

2) Be active: get a hobby, do something.

3) Be aware of the impact you have on your children: teach them good food habbits early and know that teaching them bad habbits can lead to problems that they will have a hard time fixing later.

4) Stop fat-shaming people that are actually trying to do something about it: "Look at that fatso running down the street", "Look at the fattie in the gym doing cardio, her fat is swinging everywhere!". Why would fat people want to try to get better if they are ridiculed for doing so?

Disclaimer: I'm an obese person that really doesn't have a hard time losing weight. If I even half-ass try I lose at a healthy and consistent rate. I just really like and enjoy food, so I eat. Nobody to blame but me.

 d-usa wrote:


2) School lunches (and just look at what a communist socialist evil person Michele Obama is for pushing that): Here is an opportunity where you can tackle lifelong obesity at a very early age. Starting a habbing of eating healthy at this age carries on for life. But it's expensive and people don't want the damn government telling their kids what to eat.

That is still problematic. First it is 1/3 meals a day. for only 5 days a week for 9 months at a time. If I kid is given donuts and Soda for breakfest and Klondikes for dinner that Ham & Cheese with Milk and an apple isnt going to do much.
And school food make you poop blood in my experiance

 motyak wrote:
Really? I hear that 'cheaper' thing thrown around a lot, is fruit and veg really that dear over there? I mean, say you wanted maccas/hj's/something over here for a family of 4, and you had that each night, you'd be forking out $40+ a night in cost, so $280 a week. A supermarket trip for a family of 4 is between 200 and 400 a fortnight (depending on family, supermarket of choice, age of kids, etc). That's with veggies, regular meat that you can cook without deepfrying, etc.

Is the US really that different in terms of supermarkets?

It also depends on what you are actually getting. When people here say "eating out" it's not just restaurants, it's also every kind of fast food.

A family of 4 could eat for $10-15 at McDonalds, get a cheap bucket meal from KFC, and all the other dollar menus at fast food places. So eating out is pretty cheap. Groceries are also pretty cheap if you buy processed and non-nutritious foods. Mac & Cheese, Hamburger Helper, Ravioli, etc are all pretty cheap options for a family.

Here in the US I pay $150-200 a week just for me and my wife if we are actually buying healthy meals to cook and healthy snacks. We could buy food for $75 if we buy crap.

I don't know if there are many grocery places that let you order online or post all their prices online in the US, but it would be interesting to buy the same stuff here and where you are just to see what (if any) the difference really would be in cost.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

 d-usa wrote:


2) School lunches (and just look at what a communist socialist evil person Michele Obama is for pushing that): Here is an opportunity where you can tackle lifelong obesity at a very early age. Starting a habbing of eating healthy at this age carries on for life. But it's expensive and people don't want the damn government telling their kids what to eat.

That is still problematic. First it is 1/3 meals a day. for only 5 days a week for 9 months at a time. If I kid is given donuts and Soda for breakfest and Klondikes for dinner that Ham & Cheese with Milk and an apple isnt going to do much.
And school food make you poop blood in my experiance

Hate to make the world dark and gray for you, but for many people that school lunch is 1/1 meals a day.

Well check the amount of what is considered obese in this country. There are many reasons. One reason is that people are still stunned by the economy

Another is that fast food is really inexpensive, and most teenagers go there after lunch.

The Food here is extremely fattening, most people usually don't cook at home.

Statistics are statistics, take them with a grain of salt.

Most people do not watch their daily intake. I don't, but I do what i've been told to do by my doctor in order to be healthy.

For those asking for the source, it comes from an NBC Tonight Show story (Americans will be familiar). I'm a trusting person, so I assumed it was accurate.

 Random Dude wrote:
There's also the problem of healthy food being too expensive. It's much cheaper for a family to go order a pizza than to go to a grocery and buy fresh fruits and vegetables. It puts people in a bad situation if they're already struggling to make ends meet.

Not really. That's a common misconception but by actually taking the time to plan out a weeks meals and what you need, it can be cheaper to eat healthily.

Buy 3 medium to large courgettes (zucchini for you americans ), 2 large onions, 3 peppers, a tin of kidney beans, two tins of tomatoes, some tomato purée or passata, 500 to 750g of mince and some chilli powder and paprika, rice. That can make you enough Chilli to be a main meal for a family of 4-5 for two days (and you can freeze leftovers if you want to keep them for next week etc.) and you'll have purée and the spices left over for when you want to make it again.

Curries are also really good at being made in bulk (though from my experience in the USA it was difficult to find some vital ingredients in regular supermarkets). A jar of curry paste, meat of your choice, pretty much any vegetable and tins of chopped tomatoes. Serve with rice or naan and voilà, easily made in big batches and can be quite healthy.

I can't claim to know about the situation in European countries, but I assume food prices are different. Recently many of the top food growing states in the U.S. experienced prolonged droughts which raised the cost of produce.