4 ms·

The average american is just plain unhealthy. Terrible diet, little daily activity. It's in the stats, which people ignore. You just plain see it with your own

by trgn 4y ago

The average american is just plain unhealthy. Terrible diet, little daily activity. It's in the stats, which people ignore. You just plain see it with your own eyes as well. It's a genuine problem, not a lifestyle choice.

SoftTalker 4y ago
I agree it's a problem, but how is it not a choice? There are a few exceptions, but most people could choose to be more active and eat better.
- trgn 4y ago
  I phrased that wrong. Unhealthy habits are often permissively looked at as just a different lifestyle choice ("hey, I just like my burgers and sodas man!"), rather than really being problematic.
- watwut 4y ago
  Yeah, but the environment does not exactly makes it easier. More like, it usually makes it harder. The way places are build for example - most people have to use car, the option to go by walk. public transport or by bicycle is not there for most people. There are not even sidewalks in quite many places and if you walk somewhere, you are "odd" (I had cops stop at me just because I was walking somewhere. They thought something is wrong.). The expectation seems to be that you wont just have physical movement normally as part of your daily life, you have to use car to go to special place (gym, park further away) to do things like exercising, jogging etc. And Americans work a lot too, there stereotype of lazy American, but that lazy American works a lot more hours then people in other parts of the world. I mean, the amount of physical movement I had definitely changed with how easy and pleasant it was to have some low key movements. And the way America is build, it is fairly often neither. Even the way Americans talk about it - low key going by walk or bicycling or whatever is the first to be sacrificed to minor safety improvement or to general "if you want to do it that much, you can go to bike trail, mountains, etc". That however cuts off everyone except most determined.
  - saiya-jin 4y ago
    I wouldn't claim Americans are lazy, in contrary - you guys work way too much and rest from it too little! But if its about physical movement thats another story for many, as is painfully visible. I completely agree with your description, when I was in US in sort of work&travel program almost 20 years ago on university, I had such huge problems getting by walking to places in ie Hollywood or Maine (2 different universes btw also in obesity). Had to walk on the main road to cut time to work easily by 30 mins one way. I had (good) people sending me to homeless shelters since I looked so odd just trying to walk to places. The problem is - even if movement and exercise is super healthy, and the more you do the better you feel about yourself, that's not most of the obesity problem. You would have to run 2-3 marathons every day without exception to burn all the excess junkfood energy many people consume. You can be very healthy by eating well and not being sporty at all. You can't be healthy long term if you are sporty and eat tons of junk (exception may be folks doing sports on professional levels). You may look OK but ie your arteries, heart etc will tell different story.
    - choko 4y ago
      This is very true. I track my calorie intake for this reason. There is no possible way for me to exercise enough to burn as many calories as I would like to consume. In addition, it helps me make healthier eating choices especially when "bad" food is so inexpensive and readily available.
    - watwut 4y ago
      > You would have to run 2-3 marathons every day without exception to burn all the excess junkfood energy many people consume. But that is not how it work at all. First the moderate amount of exercise does more for your health then weight loss itself. If the consideration is health and not just aesthetic, moderate movement matters a lot. Second, it changes how your body works overall - how much energy you spend on daily activities just by existing. As you get into form, you become more active in general, simply because you feel good. It changes your apetite too. The mechanical recounting of calories does more harm then good, precisedly because it makes people conclude that exercise such as walking around does not matter- but empirically it does. > You can be very healthy by eating well and not being sporty at all. You can be healthy and fat too. And the strategy you describe is how you become thin and physically weak - in the long term that is not healthy. Not when you are at 1000 or less steps per day, effectivelly.
deleted 4y ago
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by trgn 4y ago

SoftTalker 4y ago

I agree it's a problem, but how is it not a choice? There are a few exceptions, but most people could choose to be more active and eat better.

trgn 4y ago
I phrased that wrong. Unhealthy habits are often permissively looked at as just a different lifestyle choice ("hey, I just like my burgers and sodas man!"), rather than really being problematic.
watwut 4y ago
Yeah, but the environment does not exactly makes it easier. More like, it usually makes it harder. The way places are build for example - most people have to use car, the option to go by walk. public transport or by bicycle is not there for most people. There are not even sidewalks in quite many places and if you walk somewhere, you are "odd" (I had cops stop at me just because I was walking somewhere. They thought something is wrong.). The expectation seems to be that you wont just have physical movement normally as part of your daily life, you have to use car to go to special place (gym, park further away) to do things like exercising, jogging etc. And Americans work a lot too, there stereotype of lazy American, but that lazy American works a lot more hours then people in other parts of the world. I mean, the amount of physical movement I had definitely changed with how easy and pleasant it was to have some low key movements. And the way America is build, it is fairly often neither. Even the way Americans talk about it - low key going by walk or bicycling or whatever is the first to be sacrificed to minor safety improvement or to general "if you want to do it that much, you can go to bike trail, mountains, etc". That however cuts off everyone except most determined.
- saiya-jin 4y ago
  I wouldn't claim Americans are lazy, in contrary - you guys work way too much and rest from it too little! But if its about physical movement thats another story for many, as is painfully visible. I completely agree with your description, when I was in US in sort of work&travel program almost 20 years ago on university, I had such huge problems getting by walking to places in ie Hollywood or Maine (2 different universes btw also in obesity). Had to walk on the main road to cut time to work easily by 30 mins one way. I had (good) people sending me to homeless shelters since I looked so odd just trying to walk to places. The problem is - even if movement and exercise is super healthy, and the more you do the better you feel about yourself, that's not most of the obesity problem. You would have to run 2-3 marathons every day without exception to burn all the excess junkfood energy many people consume. You can be very healthy by eating well and not being sporty at all. You can't be healthy long term if you are sporty and eat tons of junk (exception may be folks doing sports on professional levels). You may look OK but ie your arteries, heart etc will tell different story.
  - choko 4y ago
    This is very true. I track my calorie intake for this reason. There is no possible way for me to exercise enough to burn as many calories as I would like to consume. In addition, it helps me make healthier eating choices especially when "bad" food is so inexpensive and readily available.
  - watwut 4y ago
    > You would have to run 2-3 marathons every day without exception to burn all the excess junkfood energy many people consume. But that is not how it work at all. First the moderate amount of exercise does more for your health then weight loss itself. If the consideration is health and not just aesthetic, moderate movement matters a lot. Second, it changes how your body works overall - how much energy you spend on daily activities just by existing. As you get into form, you become more active in general, simply because you feel good. It changes your apetite too. The mechanical recounting of calories does more harm then good, precisedly because it makes people conclude that exercise such as walking around does not matter- but empirically it does. > You can be very healthy by eating well and not being sporty at all. You can be healthy and fat too. And the strategy you describe is how you become thin and physically weak - in the long term that is not healthy. Not when you are at 1000 or less steps per day, effectivelly.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]