8 ms·

I'm surprised it's only 25% given that 42.4% of US adults are obese (not just overweight, obese!) Source: https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html https://w

by atestu 5y ago

I'm surprised it's only 25% given that 42.4% of US adults are obese (not just overweight, obese!) Source: https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html

danbruc 5y ago
The bar for what counts as physical activity seems to be pretty low. I haven't done anything that I would consider a physical activity in the last month but if walking 10 minutes to the grocery store once a month counts, then I am living an active life.
- SketchySeaBeast 5y ago
  > The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd editionexternal icon, recommends that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each week. This can be broken into smaller amounts such as 22 minutes every day or 30 minutes/five times a week. Individuals and families are encouraged to build physical activity into their day by going for a brisk walk or a hike, walking the dog, choosing the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator, parking further away in the parking lot and walking the rest of the way, walking or cycling to run errands, and getting off the bus one stop early and walking the rest of the way. The key is to move more and sit less. 10 minutes to the grocery store once a month does not count.
  - rr808 5y ago
    The study must use a different measure because there is no way that 75% of Americans do 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity/week.
    - SketchySeaBeast 5y ago
      You're right - clicking in I found this question[1]: “During the past month, other than your regular job, did you participate in any physical activities or exercises such as running, calisthenics, golf, gardening, or walking for exercise?” [1] https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/data/inactivity-prevalence-maps/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/data/inactivity-prevale...
      - caeril 5y ago
        Golf? CDC should include billiards, bowling, and darts if their standard for "exercise" is that low.
        cecilpl2 5y ago
        I guess it really matters whether you are in a cart or not.
      - pwthornton 5y ago
        GOLF! That counts as physical activity?! Most people doing weekend golf are getting golf carts. Others almost always have a caddy. I suppose walking the course while someone does the heavy listing is some degree of exercise, but they really need to clarify that in order for golf to be exercise you need to walk the course.
        SamReidHughes 5y ago
        Simply swinging a golf club during the round is a full-body exercise. You can't do a large bucket of balls at the range if you're out of shape -- you'll wear out first. Walking a course as a spectator, and playing with a caddy (to keep the comparison fair because you don't carry a bag either way), is a different physical experience. Also, most walkers in the golf world don't have a caddy. They're not available at most courses. Even quite a few private clubs with biiig membership fees don't have caddies. I just looked it up and a random link says 32% of private clubs have caddies. Of public courses, a few destination courses have them (Pebble Beach, Bandon, etc.).
  - jcranmer 5y ago
    Suppose you work in a suburban office park with a decent-sized office park building. It might take you 5 minutes to walk from your car to your cubicle, and another 5 minutes from your cubicle to the cafeteria. That puts you at 20 minutes a workday of physical activity... add another daily trip to the cafeteria for coffee, and that would be the minimum threshold for physical activity.
    - danbruc 5y ago
      Before COVID and home office I used to walk to the office which must have taken somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes for 2.5 kilometres twice a day. But if someone had asked me for physical activity I would still have answered none.
aidenn0 5y ago
I'm definitely in both "obese" and "active" categories.
- mfer 5y ago
  I'm overweight (used to be obese) and active. Working my way toward not being overweight but it's not easy once you're there.
bognition 5y ago
Keep in mind that the medical classification of overweight and obese don't line up with what most people think of when they hear those terms. Anyone who is taller than average and has even a little bit of muscle mass will come in as overweight or obese. Personally it used to cause me a ton of mental anguish until I realized that BMI (the metric used to classify someone as overweight or obese) is flat out wrong. At my peak fitness level my BMI was 30. I was lifting weights 3 days a week and running 3 days a week. Lifting sessions were 90 minutes and I was capable of running half marathons in less than 2 hours. My resting heart rate was between 52 and 57 BPM. I wasn't an athlete but my fitness level was pretty good.
- slindsey 5y ago
  What you say is absolutely true. But I will also say that most people have warped ideas of proper weight. Using myself as an example, I was 195 and felt like I was overweight but not obese. If only I could get down to 165 again I'd be skinny. Charts said my "normal" range was 120-140 and I felt like that was ridiculous. When I reached 160 I was surprised at how much fat was still on my body. Again at 145. When I reached 130 I could finally see that those numbers made sense. I was fit, not a lifter but not sedentary either. The range was perfect.
  - sugarpile 5y ago
    Agreed with everything except the first sentence. People's subjective judgements of normal have been warped because most people are fat. Hell, 42% are obese. Everyone is the captain of their own life but at people should at least be objective and honest with themselves and not try to dismiss reality as a coping mechanism, even if it is an unconscious one.
- gbasin 5y ago
  Ok but 95% of people with high BMI are not because of too much muscle... they have muffin tops
  - sugarpile 5y ago
efficax 5y ago
I'm obese (bmi 31, i'm a big guy) but active: i walk several miles most days, lift weights, rock climb, and use the rowing machine, adding exercise on to my walks about 4 days a week. Still, it's easy to gain weight and hard to lose it. There is some reason to think that environmental pollutants are impact hormones in humans causing an overall rise in obesity. Genetic factors definitely play a role. My father never exercised, ate what he wanted, and was always skinny. I was not so lucky.
- skeptical1 5y ago
  Luck has nothing to do with it. It's your diet, full stop. You are eating junk, and/or simply eating TOO MUCH, guaranteed.
  - cecilpl2 5y ago
    The luck is in how strong your appetite is, which is the real driver of how much food one eats.
    - urban_strike 5y ago
      I think appetite itself has a lot to do with the nutritional density of what you're eating. I can eat 1000kcal of gummy worms and just be getting started, but 1000kcal of ground beef and I can't look at food for a few hours. Or in other words, it seems like your body will keep giving you hunger-signals regardless of volume, until it gets what it needs (e.g. protein, minerals, vitamins).
      - cecilpl2 5y ago
        Oh that's fascinating. I can eat 1000kcal of ground beef and go looking for more, but 200kcal of gummy worms and I'm hoping I never see them again.
        bhelkey 5y ago
        For anyone else who is curious, 1000kcal of ground beef is ~1lb or ~ 500g or ~4 burger patties [1]. 200kcal of gummy worms is 7 gummy worms [2]. [1] https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods/beef https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods/beef [2] https://www.nutritionix.com/food/gummy-worms https://www.nutritionix.com/food/gummy-worms
chaosbutters314 5y ago
I'm "obese" my medical standards but wear a size men's medium with a 34 waist simply because I workout a lot. BMI is a terrible estimator for anyone that lifts heavy weights. I can still run a mile in under 8 minutes too. I'm always shocked the medical community still uses BMI in 2022.
- thakoppno 5y ago
  According to CDC’s definition Joe Biden is overweight with a BMI of 25.
  - grandmczeb 5y ago
    If you see him without a suit he definitely has a belly, so classifying him as very slightly overweight seems correct?
- cecilpl2 5y ago
  BMI is not useful as an individual metric, but as a population-wide average. I don't think anyone would argue that you should lose weight because your BMI is high, nor does anyone believe that the obesity epidemic in America is due to vast swaths of the population suddenly becoming powerlifters.
999900000999 5y ago
When traveling though Europe you can really notice what a healthy society looks like. America's obesity rate has exploded in the last 20 years. I was lucky enough to have a chiropractor tell me if I didn't lose weight my life would suck. It's a social taboo for doctors to just outright say you're going to have a large array of medical issues unless you get to a healthy weight. You have the Huffington Post which runs a new "You can be morbidly obese and just fine" article once a month. As someone who used to be morbidly obese, it was a living hell. I was diabetic had no luck finding a partner and was in constant pain. Did the keto diet, lost about 70 lb, got rid of my diabetes, and finally met somebody nice in real life . Diabetes doesn't care about your feelings. I lean left , but theirs an insane amount of victimization on the left. You can buy a salad at any fast food restaurant, meaning you have access to healthy food even in a "food desert". It just takes an insane amount of self control. It's much easier to call everyone else a fat shammer. Doesn't help with your chronic pain or health issues though
- 535188B17C93743 5y ago
  >You can buy a salad at any fast food restaurant, meaning you have access to healthy food even in a "food desert". Sometimes the salads are less healthy than the alternative at fast food restaurants because of the dressing and portion sizes they give.
  - asow92 5y ago
    > Sometimes the salads are less healthy than the alternative at fast food restaurants because of the dressing and portion sizes they give. The dressing can be given on the side. This is also a personal choice.
    - jfengel 5y ago
      Even without the dressings, they tend to be loaded with items like meat, cheese, bacon, and croutons. The lettuce is a nutritional non-entity -- at best, a way of getting some extra water into you. Salads can be pretty good, if they're loaded with vegetables. You can get those at places that specialize in salad, and maybe even Subway. But the "side salads" that you get at fast food restaurants, while better than a burger and fries, aren't very good. As you say, personal choice. But a decent diet consists of avoiding fast food restaurants most of the time. If you have to, make the the best choice you can, but be aware that lettuce isn't magic health food.
hffftz 5y ago

by atestu 5y ago

I'm surprised it's only 25% given that 42.4% of US adults are obese (not just overweight, obese!) Source: https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html

danbruc 5y ago

The bar for what counts as physical activity seems to be pretty low. I haven't done anything that I would consider a physical activity in the last month but if walking 10 minutes to the grocery store once a month counts, then I am living an active life.

SketchySeaBeast 5y ago
> The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd editionexternal icon, recommends that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each week. This can be broken into smaller amounts such as 22 minutes every day or 30 minutes/five times a week. Individuals and families are encouraged to build physical activity into their day by going for a brisk walk or a hike, walking the dog, choosing the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator, parking further away in the parking lot and walking the rest of the way, walking or cycling to run errands, and getting off the bus one stop early and walking the rest of the way. The key is to move more and sit less. 10 minutes to the grocery store once a month does not count.
- rr808 5y ago
  The study must use a different measure because there is no way that 75% of Americans do 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity/week.
  - SketchySeaBeast 5y ago
    You're right - clicking in I found this question[1]: “During the past month, other than your regular job, did you participate in any physical activities or exercises such as running, calisthenics, golf, gardening, or walking for exercise?” [1] https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/data/inactivity-prevalence-maps/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/data/inactivity-prevale...
    - caeril 5y ago
      Golf? CDC should include billiards, bowling, and darts if their standard for "exercise" is that low.
      - cecilpl2 5y ago
        I guess it really matters whether you are in a cart or not.
    - pwthornton 5y ago
      GOLF! That counts as physical activity?! Most people doing weekend golf are getting golf carts. Others almost always have a caddy. I suppose walking the course while someone does the heavy listing is some degree of exercise, but they really need to clarify that in order for golf to be exercise you need to walk the course.
      - SamReidHughes 5y ago
        Simply swinging a golf club during the round is a full-body exercise. You can't do a large bucket of balls at the range if you're out of shape -- you'll wear out first. Walking a course as a spectator, and playing with a caddy (to keep the comparison fair because you don't carry a bag either way), is a different physical experience. Also, most walkers in the golf world don't have a caddy. They're not available at most courses. Even quite a few private clubs with biiig membership fees don't have caddies. I just looked it up and a random link says 32% of private clubs have caddies. Of public courses, a few destination courses have them (Pebble Beach, Bandon, etc.).
- jcranmer 5y ago
  Suppose you work in a suburban office park with a decent-sized office park building. It might take you 5 minutes to walk from your car to your cubicle, and another 5 minutes from your cubicle to the cafeteria. That puts you at 20 minutes a workday of physical activity... add another daily trip to the cafeteria for coffee, and that would be the minimum threshold for physical activity.
  - danbruc 5y ago
    Before COVID and home office I used to walk to the office which must have taken somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes for 2.5 kilometres twice a day. But if someone had asked me for physical activity I would still have answered none.

aidenn0 5y ago

I'm definitely in both "obese" and "active" categories.

mfer 5y ago
I'm overweight (used to be obese) and active. Working my way toward not being overweight but it's not easy once you're there.

bognition 5y ago

Keep in mind that the medical classification of overweight and obese don't line up with what most people think of when they hear those terms. Anyone who is taller than average and has even a little bit of muscle mass will come in as overweight or obese. Personally it used to cause me a ton of mental anguish until I realized that BMI (the metric used to classify someone as overweight or obese) is flat out wrong. At my peak fitness level my BMI was 30. I was lifting weights 3 days a week and running 3 days a week. Lifting sessions were 90 minutes and I was capable of running half marathons in less than 2 hours. My resting heart rate was between 52 and 57 BPM. I wasn't an athlete but my fitness level was pretty good.

slindsey 5y ago
What you say is absolutely true. But I will also say that most people have warped ideas of proper weight. Using myself as an example, I was 195 and felt like I was overweight but not obese. If only I could get down to 165 again I'd be skinny. Charts said my "normal" range was 120-140 and I felt like that was ridiculous. When I reached 160 I was surprised at how much fat was still on my body. Again at 145. When I reached 130 I could finally see that those numbers made sense. I was fit, not a lifter but not sedentary either. The range was perfect.
- sugarpile 5y ago
  Agreed with everything except the first sentence. People's subjective judgements of normal have been warped because most people are fat. Hell, 42% are obese. Everyone is the captain of their own life but at people should at least be objective and honest with themselves and not try to dismiss reality as a coping mechanism, even if it is an unconscious one.
gbasin 5y ago
Ok but 95% of people with high BMI are not because of too much muscle... they have muffin tops
- sugarpile 5y ago

efficax 5y ago

I'm obese (bmi 31, i'm a big guy) but active: i walk several miles most days, lift weights, rock climb, and use the rowing machine, adding exercise on to my walks about 4 days a week. Still, it's easy to gain weight and hard to lose it. There is some reason to think that environmental pollutants are impact hormones in humans causing an overall rise in obesity. Genetic factors definitely play a role. My father never exercised, ate what he wanted, and was always skinny. I was not so lucky.

skeptical1 5y ago
Luck has nothing to do with it. It's your diet, full stop. You are eating junk, and/or simply eating TOO MUCH, guaranteed.
- cecilpl2 5y ago
  The luck is in how strong your appetite is, which is the real driver of how much food one eats.
  - urban_strike 5y ago
    I think appetite itself has a lot to do with the nutritional density of what you're eating. I can eat 1000kcal of gummy worms and just be getting started, but 1000kcal of ground beef and I can't look at food for a few hours. Or in other words, it seems like your body will keep giving you hunger-signals regardless of volume, until it gets what it needs (e.g. protein, minerals, vitamins).
    - cecilpl2 5y ago
      Oh that's fascinating. I can eat 1000kcal of ground beef and go looking for more, but 200kcal of gummy worms and I'm hoping I never see them again.
      - bhelkey 5y ago
        For anyone else who is curious, 1000kcal of ground beef is ~1lb or ~ 500g or ~4 burger patties [1]. 200kcal of gummy worms is 7 gummy worms [2]. [1] https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods/beef https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods/beef [2] https://www.nutritionix.com/food/gummy-worms https://www.nutritionix.com/food/gummy-worms

chaosbutters314 5y ago

I'm "obese" my medical standards but wear a size men's medium with a 34 waist simply because I workout a lot. BMI is a terrible estimator for anyone that lifts heavy weights. I can still run a mile in under 8 minutes too. I'm always shocked the medical community still uses BMI in 2022.

thakoppno 5y ago
According to CDC’s definition Joe Biden is overweight with a BMI of 25.
- grandmczeb 5y ago
  If you see him without a suit he definitely has a belly, so classifying him as very slightly overweight seems correct?
cecilpl2 5y ago
BMI is not useful as an individual metric, but as a population-wide average. I don't think anyone would argue that you should lose weight because your BMI is high, nor does anyone believe that the obesity epidemic in America is due to vast swaths of the population suddenly becoming powerlifters.

999900000999 5y ago

When traveling though Europe you can really notice what a healthy society looks like. America's obesity rate has exploded in the last 20 years. I was lucky enough to have a chiropractor tell me if I didn't lose weight my life would suck. It's a social taboo for doctors to just outright say you're going to have a large array of medical issues unless you get to a healthy weight. You have the Huffington Post which runs a new "You can be morbidly obese and just fine" article once a month. As someone who used to be morbidly obese, it was a living hell. I was diabetic had no luck finding a partner and was in constant pain. Did the keto diet, lost about 70 lb, got rid of my diabetes, and finally met somebody nice in real life . Diabetes doesn't care about your feelings. I lean left , but theirs an insane amount of victimization on the left. You can buy a salad at any fast food restaurant, meaning you have access to healthy food even in a "food desert". It just takes an insane amount of self control. It's much easier to call everyone else a fat shammer. Doesn't help with your chronic pain or health issues though

535188B17C93743 5y ago
>You can buy a salad at any fast food restaurant, meaning you have access to healthy food even in a "food desert". Sometimes the salads are less healthy than the alternative at fast food restaurants because of the dressing and portion sizes they give.
- asow92 5y ago
  > Sometimes the salads are less healthy than the alternative at fast food restaurants because of the dressing and portion sizes they give. The dressing can be given on the side. This is also a personal choice.
  - jfengel 5y ago
    Even without the dressings, they tend to be loaded with items like meat, cheese, bacon, and croutons. The lettuce is a nutritional non-entity -- at best, a way of getting some extra water into you. Salads can be pretty good, if they're loaded with vegetables. You can get those at places that specialize in salad, and maybe even Subway. But the "side salads" that you get at fast food restaurants, while better than a burger and fries, aren't very good. As you say, personal choice. But a decent diet consists of avoiding fast food restaurants most of the time. If you have to, make the the best choice you can, but be aware that lettuce isn't magic health food.

hffftz 5y ago