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> I think America is one of the most obese countries on earth. Yes but not by a very wide margin. [1] Average BMI in the US is 28.5, Saudi Arabia is the same

> I think America is one of the most obese countries on earth. Yes but not by a very wide margin. [1] Average BMI in the US is 28.5, Saudi Arabia is the same, Mexico is 28.1, New Zealand is 27.9, UK is 27.3, Canada is 27.2. My point is that the impression that the US is unreasonably fat compared to the rest of the world is mostly just bias. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_body_mass_index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_body_mass...

martinald 6y ago
I think you are just pointing out very car reliant countries. London has good public transit, but the rest is extremely car dependant. This shows IMO in obesity rates - they are significantly lower in London than the rest of the UK.
- nicoburns 6y ago
  Not sure that the UK is that car reliant. I guess in rural areas, but that's true in most countries. In cities, not at all.
  - jacobolus 6y ago
    62% of all trips in the UK are made by car, compared to 26% by foot, 6% by bus, 3% by train, 2% by bicycle. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/787488/tsgb-2018-report-summaries.pdf https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/... It is not as entirely car dominated as the USA, but I think it's pretty fair to call it "car reliant".
  - iainmerrick 6y ago
    It very much depends on the city. London has excellent public transport (and is horrible for driving), other cities are much more mixed.
- boc 6y ago
  Same thing in many US cities where walking is the norm. The other major factor is wealth. Richer people can afford higher quality food. Poor people generally consume more calories from junk foods and sugary drinks, which are staples of drive-throughs and fast food chains.
JimTheMan 6y ago
I don't have any stats to back this up, but the impression I got from the states is that the weight gain is distributed unequally. Some people seemed very very fat. Edit found something that would support that idea. Proportion of people who are obese over the globe: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-men-defined-as-obese https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-men-defined-as-o... https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-females-defined-as-obese https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-females-defined-...
- SulfurHexaFluri 6y ago
  This matches my feelings. I'm Australian and id say the average person is overweight but not very overweight. I don't know how common this is in the US but you see those photos of people in Walmart with fat hanging over both sides of the scooter and its something I don't think I have ever seen in Australia.
  - Hnrobert42 6y ago
    At least in my rural part of the U.S., you are likely to see one such morbidly obese person at any given WalMart at any given time of the day. But that’s unique to WalMart. You may see such a person at other stores, but something about WalMart attracts the morbidly obese. Then and pickups with lift kits and guys with camo ballcaps.
  - wernercd 6y ago
    > photos of people in walmart Walmarts are everywhere, there are thousands of them and millions of people in them every day. You're going to see the best and the worst just because of sheer numbers. Not saying that the fatest American isn't fatter than the fatest Australian but "people of walmart" is a bit of a misnomer because you only need one picture of a fat person in a Walmart and there's literally millions of opportunities each day to see that one example.
Krasnol 6y ago
I'd say the average misses the point here. That's quite a lot people! All addicted to sugar and fast food. This is a huge market. Same as the market for fighting the results of this unhealthy life style.
ska 6y ago
Averages can easily be misleading in analysis like this, so I don't think you can draw that conclusion.
nradov 6y ago
The US is unreasonably fat today compared to the US 50 years ago. That seems like a more useful comparison than looking at other countries.

martinald 6y ago

I think you are just pointing out very car reliant countries. London has good public transit, but the rest is extremely car dependant. This shows IMO in obesity rates - they are significantly lower in London than the rest of the UK.

nicoburns 6y ago
Not sure that the UK is that car reliant. I guess in rural areas, but that's true in most countries. In cities, not at all.
- jacobolus 6y ago
  62% of all trips in the UK are made by car, compared to 26% by foot, 6% by bus, 3% by train, 2% by bicycle. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/787488/tsgb-2018-report-summaries.pdf https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/... It is not as entirely car dominated as the USA, but I think it's pretty fair to call it "car reliant".
- iainmerrick 6y ago
  It very much depends on the city. London has excellent public transport (and is horrible for driving), other cities are much more mixed.
boc 6y ago
Same thing in many US cities where walking is the norm. The other major factor is wealth. Richer people can afford higher quality food. Poor people generally consume more calories from junk foods and sugary drinks, which are staples of drive-throughs and fast food chains.

JimTheMan 6y ago

I don't have any stats to back this up, but the impression I got from the states is that the weight gain is distributed unequally. Some people seemed very very fat. Edit found something that would support that idea. Proportion of people who are obese over the globe: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-men-defined-as-obese https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-men-defined-as-o... https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-females-defined-as-obese https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-females-defined-...

SulfurHexaFluri 6y ago
This matches my feelings. I'm Australian and id say the average person is overweight but not very overweight. I don't know how common this is in the US but you see those photos of people in Walmart with fat hanging over both sides of the scooter and its something I don't think I have ever seen in Australia.
- Hnrobert42 6y ago
  At least in my rural part of the U.S., you are likely to see one such morbidly obese person at any given WalMart at any given time of the day. But that’s unique to WalMart. You may see such a person at other stores, but something about WalMart attracts the morbidly obese. Then and pickups with lift kits and guys with camo ballcaps.
- wernercd 6y ago
  > photos of people in walmart Walmarts are everywhere, there are thousands of them and millions of people in them every day. You're going to see the best and the worst just because of sheer numbers. Not saying that the fatest American isn't fatter than the fatest Australian but "people of walmart" is a bit of a misnomer because you only need one picture of a fat person in a Walmart and there's literally millions of opportunities each day to see that one example.

Krasnol 6y ago

I'd say the average misses the point here. That's quite a lot people! All addicted to sugar and fast food. This is a huge market. Same as the market for fighting the results of this unhealthy life style.

ska 6y ago

Averages can easily be misleading in analysis like this, so I don't think you can draw that conclusion.

nradov 6y ago

The US is unreasonably fat today compared to the US 50 years ago. That seems like a more useful comparison than looking at other countries.