Why are we bigger than ever?
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I might be weird, but I think the USDA's "2000/2500 calorie general guideline" for calculating food label percentages might also skew people into believing their CO is much more than what it is. I'm a 5'6 young female who is at a healthy BMI, and I need to walk over 13,000 steps in order to have a CO of 2000 calories. If I was less active (my BMR is around 1350) or older, my CO would be significantly less, and I would be in a calorie surplus if I followed the USDA's 2000 calorie general guideline.
I, too, feel like this is part of the issue. I'm pretty large at 5'7'' and on a good active day my CO is barely 1950.0 -
MommyL2015 wrote: »Poison in the food supply. Fluoride, gmo, high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, antibiotics, gluten, dyes, chemicals, drugs, and removal of iodine from salt. Doctors in bed with the drug companies. Plastics and bha destroying your thyroid. Monsanto roundup on your food. Government dietary guides that will make you fat sick and stupid. Vaccinations with murcury. Eat up, the government loves you!
Sorry for the rant. Research and consume real food and avoid all the junk above. Don't trust your doctor or the government and make your own conclusions. Good luck.
I spent some time on a conspiracy website. I had to quit because I felt my brain imploding. I suggest you get out before it's too late.
^ This. Just don't do it to yourself. I spent a whole year being paranoid and irrationally critical of everyone's motives because I kept obsessing over conspiracy theories. I don't think they're all bullcrap or anything like that, but the less I dwell on such things, the more my sanity remains intact.0 -
More disposable income
More mental health problems
Busier than our forefathers away from family0 -
Food has definitely gotten larger over the years. Yes, there are times when there is a slight reduction in size or quantity, but you have to compare with 5 or 10 years ago, not just last year.
As for other restaurants, the amount of food consumed is huge. Look at something like the Cheesecake Factory...how many people go an have a drink while waiting, then an appetizer, then a main (which is huge) and then a dessert. The amount of calories is staggering.
Anyway overall:
Portion Size is almost nonsensical in many instances.
Lack of Exercise
Too much time driving - 1-2 hour commutes (just silly)...the obsession with living in suburbia and driving into the city is just crazy...it always surprises me how many US cities and downtowns are ghost towns at the end of the business day.
Driving everywhere (a product of Suburban life)
I do find that we are not quite as bad here in Canada...but not far off from the US.
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I remember as a kid with 5 rambuncious brothers jumping around in the house and my mother yelling "go outside and play"! We played outside rain or shine or snow--always because we were too wild in the house. Now kids quietly play with video games--problem solved. People also eat out alot more than 30 years ago. Some peple rarely eat at home. With the portion sizes of today--you got it.0
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When I travelled in the US I was astonished at the portion sizes. I could never finish anything. Believe me I love my food but just the sheer size of burgers or steaks was just phenomenal, then the vast amount of fries you get, these buckets of cola which you can refill for free if you want a few litres more...
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Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »Poison in the food supply. Fluoride, gmo, high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, antibiotics, gluten, dyes, chemicals, drugs, and removal of iodine from salt. Doctors in bed with the drug companies. Plastics and bha destroying your thyroid. Monsanto roundup on your food. Government dietary guides that will make you fat sick and stupid. Vaccinations with murcury. Eat up, the government loves you!
Sorry for the rant. Research and consume real food and avoid all the junk above. Don't trust your doctor or the government and make your own conclusions. Good luck.
None of the above.
Eating too much and not moving enough. That's the reason right there.
Quoting this because out of all the posts here, this is the one that is the most accurate. The problem is excess everything.
Sure, we can say that things like internet, television, video games, etc. are the reasons but they really aren't. To me, that goes along the same lines as blaming video games and heavy metal music for school shootings. Technology may have an influence on the behaviors of an individual, but it all comes down to self-control. I play video games all the time, it's one of my favorite hobbies. I'm not overweight though; I'm 113 pounds. I'm not overweight because I have proper time-management skills and I make sure I balance leisure and physical activity. If people balance all aspects of their lives, things become easier. I used to be that person lying in bed the second I got home from work until the morning. I used to be that person suffering from depression, unable to focus or do much of anything aside from sleeping and eating. I changed because I became tired of being that person. When I changed my outlook and did better for myself, I felt better. You'd be amazed what structure in your life can do for you. The person I was and the person I am now are completely different people.
When I wake up in the morning, I play a video game while I drink a glass of water, then two cups of coffee. Then I exercise and get ready for work. I'm at work all day moving around and then I'll either walk the five miles home from work or take the train home depending on the day. When I get home, I'll straighten up, eat dinner, do whatever else needs to get done, then I'll play games again or maybe watch something for an hour or two, then sleep. I don't eliminate anything from my diet. I eat a BBQ chicken pizza once a week. Earlier this week, I had half a pizza and two donuts and it did no damage whatsoever. It's not sugar, it's not GMOs, it's not gluten; it's people eating way too much and not moving around enough to compensate. Period.
ETA: I also agree with @lemurcat12 about the US portion sizing. I'm not sure about where these people are eating, but buckets of soda are not everywhere in the US. You're thinking about 7-Eleven and chain restaurants. That would be like me taking a trip to France, finding the nearest McDonald's and saying the food in France isn't as good as I thought. I'm not a fan of most fast food in general, but if I do go out to eat and I get something that is a big portion size, I eat until I'm satisfied and take the rest home. That's what you do when you have a healthy appetite.0 -
Why are we bigger? Simple answer? An obesogenic environment.
Longer answer?
http://www.bodyforwife.com/what-is-the-solution-to-obesity/
"Long work hours spent in a chair, high stress levels, overuse of screen-based entertainment, lack of cooking skills, lack of desire to cook after a long day, the ability to hit a drive-through or dial for delivery at any time of day, emotional trauma, misinformation promoted by the weight loss industry, gigantic portions, government subsidies to fattening foods, food marketing run amok (much of which specifically targets children), ever tastier concoctions created by brain scientists working for food corporations that makes their treat foods ever more compelling, a society that places emphasis on eating for pleasure instead of fuelling your body … all these things just scratch the surface."
What do we do about it?- Subsidizing the right foods, and taxing the wrong ones
- Placing tighter restrictions on food labeling
- Restricting food advertising to children
- Stop corporate-government partnerships and rein in lobbying
- Revamp home economics in school, and make it mandatory
- Place tighter controls on the weight loss industry
- Stop promoting physical activity as the solution for weight loss
- Create better access to evidence-based weight management programs
- Create national advertising campaigns that promote healthier eating
- Make prejudice against people with obesity against the law
- Create greater access to bariatric surgery
- Continue research into weight loss pharmaceuticals
What do we do right now?
"A good first step is to realize that food corporations and most weight loss programs are lying to you. Any time something sounds too good to be true, it is. When it comes to weight loss, calories are all that matter"
Sorry, big fail on the "what do we do now". All of the "solutions" blame/put the responsibility on others. How about the individual eats less and moves more at the top of the list in red, bolded?0 -
@kimny72 that's a good point; I was born in 1976 and ate a ton of processed food growing up. My mom would go on random health kicks but we ate a LOT of frozen convenience foods. DH didn't eat those as much but his family was bigger on cooking from scratch.
@Packerjohn great point.
Also a great point about the US RDA being based on 2000+ calories. I'm 5'7" which is something like 75th percentile for a woman in the US, and in my 30's (for a couple more months at least
), and my TDEE is probably around 1700-1800. 0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »endlessfall16 wrote: »I disagree that portions are getting bigger. I've been eating fast foods for decades and the portions served in many places have actually shrunk.
Portions, including fast food portions, have objectively gotten larger.
(I don't know why this article was written way in the future.)
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/story?id=4798717&page=1
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2013/04/15/are-portion-sizes-shrinking
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/homestyle/04/19/shrinking.your.food/
The "common folks'" feedbacks
http://www.yelp.com/topic/chicago-whats-with-all-the-shrinking-food-portions
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snowflake954 wrote: »Portion sizes are huge in the States. Free refills on soft drinks, and "all you can eat" buffets are changes that I notice when I go back to the USA to visit.
+1
It's astounding how much food you can get in a meal in the US. We did a 6 week tour of the US in 2012 and put on enough weight that we were motivated to join a gym when we got back to Canada, for the month we were in Canada.
Here in Australia, a large soft drink is about the size of a US medium.
If restaurants and fast food places were to drop the size of their meals and drinks by 1/3, that would probably make a difference.
No. There are gazillons of places that offer tiny meals or low calories items. They make little difference. People just order more. Do your research.
It's the economy. Commodities are getting cheaper and easier to produce.
Obesity is also happening in so called third world countries that are expanding economically.
While this may sound bad, longevity in the US is highest ever.
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Food marketing. The way food is marketed is so out of step with the amount of calories we can have in order to not be obese, it's stunning. You pretty much have to swim upstream against American food culture in order to be remotely healthy.0
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ilovefastcarstoo wrote: »I also feel like we make food the center of entertainment and many options aren't very healthy. Now that I'm actually counting calories it's insane how much I used to actually eat for one meal. I feel fine after what I eat now. It's like my stomach has shrank and I can be satiated with way less amount of food. It's nice. I was also thinking about how some say it's too expensive to eat healthier but I also see people spend a lot on just one meal because they eat so much.
Food has been at the center of entertainment and enjoyment since forever...it's nothing new. The obesity epidemic isn't a result of "entertaining"...it's not a result of someone having people over for a BBQ or holidays or birthdays or other special occasions. The obesity epidemic is a result of people stuffing their faces all of the time...like constantly.
Food is more abundant and accessible than ever...on top of that, there's a ton of low nutrient, high calorie foods out there that can be consumed in mass quantities because of their low satiety values. When I was a kid, these types of things were actually "treats"...they are seemingly a much more significant part of one's diet these days.
When I was a kid, sodas and such were a "treat"...they weren't a daily beverage...now, it seems pretty common to see people walking around with super sized sodas to wash down their triple cheese bacon burger and enormous side of fries before heading back to the office to open their "stash" drawer of junk to snack on for the rest of the afternoon.
When I was younger, dining out seemed to be more of an occasion...I know people now who eat out pretty much 2-3 meals per day and rarely cook at home...then you add to that the fact that restaurant portions of food are considerably larger than they were 20-30-50 years ago.
Then you have to consider how much less active we are as a society. We sit, and sit, and sit some more. We sit in our cars commuting to our offices where we sit some more for long hour behind a desk...and then we get in the car and sit on our commute home...and when we get home we sit on the couch and scroll through a billion satellite channels. Kids sit around watching t.v. and playing video games rather than playing outside and riding their bikes around the neighborhood. Families spend less time together doing recreational activities...it's easier to just turn on the Netflix...etc, etc, etc.
I also think people used to participate in more recreational activities than I see now...maybe it was just my parents and the people they hung out with or something, but it seemed like my parents were always off playing tennis with their friends or my dad was at the gym with his buddies for some racket ball or whatever. As a family we spent a lot of time hiking in the mountains or out riding our bikes...shooting hoops in the driveway with pops, etc. I don't see a lot of that anymore.
TL/DR - People sit around all day stuffing their pie holes and they don't move much.0 -
I tend to think that is more so related to health care access, not so much because of the food.endlessfall16 wrote: »snowflake954 wrote: »Portion sizes are huge in the States. Free refills on soft drinks, and "all you can eat" buffets are changes that I notice when I go back to the USA to visit.
+1
It's astounding how much food you can get in a meal in the US. We did a 6 week tour of the US in 2012 and put on enough weight that we were motivated to join a gym when we got back to Canada, for the month we were in Canada.
Here in Australia, a large soft drink is about the size of a US medium.
If restaurants and fast food places were to drop the size of their meals and drinks by 1/3, that would probably make a difference.
No. There are gazillons of places that offer tiny meals or low calories items. They make little difference. People just order more. Do your research.
It's the economy. Commodities are getting cheaper and easier to produce.
Obesity is also happening in so called third world countries that are expanding economically.
While this may sound bad, longevity in the US is highest ever.
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karmelpopcorn wrote: »Food marketing. The way food is marketed is so out of step with the amount of calories we can have in order to not be obese, it's stunning. You pretty much have to swim upstream against American food culture in order to be remotely healthy.
I respect your opinion, but don't you think this statement is a little much? There are so many comments about the American diet in here, that you'd assume the only obese people in the world are American; there are obese people everywhere.
I live in the US and I don't feel like I have to swim upstream against anything to be healthy. I use my brain to stay fit. I eat a balanced diet and I get activity by exercising daily and walking around often. I may eat grilled chicken and salad one day, but a large pizza and donuts the next day. Then again I live in NYC and I feel like a lot of people here aren't obese. Maybe I'm just in the minority here. I feel like people equate the US to obnoxious people from the midwest or south they see on reality TV shows. The US is not full of Mama Junes.0 -
karmelpopcorn wrote: »Food marketing. The way food is marketed is so out of step with the amount of calories we can have in order to not be obese, it's stunning. You pretty much have to swim upstream against American food culture in order to be remotely healthy.
Is Ronald McDonald holding a gun to people's heads? I don't think so.
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karmelpopcorn wrote: »Food marketing. The way food is marketed is so out of step with the amount of calories we can have in order to not be obese, it's stunning. You pretty much have to swim upstream against American food culture in order to be remotely healthy.
I'm pretty fit and healthy and I don't feel like I'm swimming up stream against American food culture in the least.0 -
endlessfall16 wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »endlessfall16 wrote: »I disagree that portions are getting bigger. I've been eating fast foods for decades and the portions served in many places have actually shrunk.
Portions, including fast food portions, have objectively gotten larger.
(I don't know why this article was written way in the future.)
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/story?id=4798717&page=1
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2013/04/15/are-portion-sizes-shrinking
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/homestyle/04/19/shrinking.your.food/
The "common folks'" feedbacks
http://www.yelp.com/topic/chicago-whats-with-all-the-shrinking-food-portions
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/20825325/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/t/any-other-name-its-still-supersize/
http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/serving-sizes-fast-food-changed-1427.html
Here are two of a million articles demonstrating that fast food servings have increased. The "supersize" options did not exist in the 80s. Regular then was small now.
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Packerjohn wrote: »karmelpopcorn wrote: »Food marketing. The way food is marketed is so out of step with the amount of calories we can have in order to not be obese, it's stunning. You pretty much have to swim upstream against American food culture in order to be remotely healthy.
Is Ronald McDonald holding a gun to people's heads? I don't think so.
The answer to that question is "no"; but the point is trivial.
It doesn't require a weapon to have influence. If marketing did not have an impact, companies wouldn't spend billions on it.
I am not saying that I think this is the sole or even primary cause of the problem. It is, however, part of the narrative.
In order to meet its numbers, Friti Lay (for example) has to get its customers to consume more. Their market penetration is so great that they cannot get the necessary sales growth by finding new customers. So there is a sense in which their objectives are at cross purposes with mine. There's not necessarily anything wrong with that. The consumer still has the ultimate responsibility. It just helps me to know what I'm up against, as I make my decisions.
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Packerjohn wrote: »karmelpopcorn wrote: »Food marketing. The way food is marketed is so out of step with the amount of calories we can have in order to not be obese, it's stunning. You pretty much have to swim upstream against American food culture in order to be remotely healthy.
Is Ronald McDonald holding a gun to people's heads? I don't think so.
The answer to that question is "no"; but the point is trivial.
It doesn't require a weapon to have influence. If marketing did not have an impact, companies wouldn't spend billions on it.
I am not saying that I think this is the sole or even primary cause of the problem. It is, however, part of the narrative.
In order to meet its numbers, Friti Lay (for example) has to get its customers to consume more. Their market penetration is so great that they cannot get the necessary sales growth by finding new customers. So there is a sense in which their objectives are at cross purposes with mine. There's not necessarily anything wrong with that. The consumer still has the ultimate responsibility. It just helps me to know what I'm up against, as I make my decisions.
the government once spent billions trying to teach their soldiers ESP powers. It doesn't mean it works, it just means they try to make it work.0
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