Weight of average American

2

Replies

  • stephanne13
    stephanne13 Posts: 212 Member

    Totally agree. I find myself now thinking about what size of coffee to buy. Even though it has no calories--When I first starting working, summers in college, in the1980s, I would buy a coffee and the only option was an 8 oz. paper cup or in a coffee shop in a cup or mug (at most 8 oz. probably). The smallest you can get today is 12 oz. I'm tempted to get a larger but always have to ask myself "do I need that much?" (I usually drink decaf so it's almost like drinking water, but still). Nobody sells a soda that is 8-12 oz. unless you buy a can or a kid's size. When I was growing up we couldn't drink soda without permission. My mother would buy occasionally and a 12 oz. CAN was for four people. We never drank a whole can of soda. I remember being excited when finally they gave you a whole can on the airplane. Nowadays people buy 32 oz. and a 16 oz. is the "small." [/quote]

    I had to giggle a bit at this, and myself. I remember thinking we had it rough because my brother & I always had to share a can of coke. We weren't ever allowed to have a whole one to ourselves.
    BUT... do you remember that "Freshen-Up" gum that had the liquid in the center?
    My mom used to bite a piece of that in half & make us share it too. Haha

    (Also, I quit drinking all cokes in 2000. If I do have any, it's splitting one can with my mom at Christmastime. Sometimes I think I miss it, but once I have a taste..nope.)

  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    vingogly wrote: »
    You can see how rates of obesity in the USA have been steadily increasing since 1990 on this page. Adult obesity rates exceed 35% in seven states, 30% in 29 states, and 25% in 48 states.

    https://stateofobesity.org/adult-obesity/

    This in spite of the fact that "...Americans spend more money in dieting, dieting products and weight loss surgery than any other people in the world." Still think fad diets work?

    Source: https://www.livestrong.com/article/390541-facts-statistics-about-dieting/

    I mean the US population also spends more on health care with worse results and far worse access than quite a number of other high income countries (here's a link from Reuters).
  • vingogly
    vingogly Posts: 1,785 Member
    edited December 2018
    aokoye wrote: »
    vingogly wrote: »
    You can see how rates of obesity in the USA have been steadily increasing since 1990 on this page. Adult obesity rates exceed 35% in seven states, 30% in 29 states, and 25% in 48 states.

    https://stateofobesity.org/adult-obesity/

    This in spite of the fact that "...Americans spend more money in dieting, dieting products and weight loss surgery than any other people in the world." Still think fad diets work?

    Source: https://www.livestrong.com/article/390541-facts-statistics-about-dieting/

    I mean the US population also spends more on health care with worse results and far worse access than quite a number of other high income countries (here's a link from Reuters).

    That was a general question to the thread's readers in general, I wasn't trying to contradict you.
  • lucerorojo
    lucerorojo Posts: 790 Member
    The map is informative. I'm in PA, and we have 31% obesity, but ranked 24, so that means still almost half the country lives in a state that has more obesity in the population. I think cuisine does have a lot to do with it, since the only southern state that is in the lowest percentile is Florida. Several are in the top 10 and typical southern food tends to be high in calories and humungous portions. They also don't have very much public transportation in some of those rural areas so many people probably drive everywhere.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    lucerorojo wrote: »
    Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »
    msalicia07 wrote: »
    Ave height and weight for women is 5’3” and 170 lbs and on the cusp of obesity.

    So, weight is increasing and we’re getting shorter.

    This honestly hurts my heart. I can’t help but wonder if the movement of self acceptance was applied in the wrong direction. We cannot stop this unless we take responsibility.

    I think we're just eating too much. I would bet the number of fast food (high calorie) meals increased with our weight. The size of our sodas increased with our weight. We've lost sight of what a reasonable portion size means.

    Totally agree. I find myself now thinking about what size of coffee to buy. Even though it has no calories--When I first starting working, summers in college, in the1980s, I would buy a coffee and the only option was an 8 oz. paper cup or in a coffee shop in a cup or mug (at most 8 oz. probably). The smallest you can get today is 12 oz. I'm tempted to get a larger but always have to ask myself "do I need that much?" (I usually drink decaf so it's almost like drinking water, but still). Nobody sells a soda that is 8-12 oz. unless you buy a can or a kid's size. When I was growing up we couldn't drink soda without permission. My mother would buy occasionally and a 12 oz. CAN was for four people. We never drank a whole can of soda. I remember being excited when finally they gave you a whole can on the airplane. Nowadays people buy 32 oz. and a 16 oz. is the "small."

    Plus the cup of coffee was black or maybe some cream and sugar adding maybe 100 calories, not the 500+ calorie things Starbucks and others pass off as coffee.

    I can remember, back then, that every once in a while, you'd see someone in a diner or similar, who was painstakingly ripping over 5 or more of those tiny paper sugar packets, and putting them in a cup of coffee. People with other tables were inclined to unobtrusively nudge one another and roll their eyes in that person's direction, because it seemed eccentric.

    If someone put many more packets in a cup (say, 8+), folks were likely to tell other people about it later, and laugh.

    Kinda thinking even a small mocha is gonna have that much sugar in it, these days, but no one bats an eye.

    EXACTLY!
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member


    @pierinifitness thanks for the research article.
  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    vingogly wrote: »
    aokoye wrote: »
    vingogly wrote: »
    You can see how rates of obesity in the USA have been steadily increasing since 1990 on this page. Adult obesity rates exceed 35% in seven states, 30% in 29 states, and 25% in 48 states.

    https://stateofobesity.org/adult-obesity/

    This in spite of the fact that "...Americans spend more money in dieting, dieting products and weight loss surgery than any other people in the world." Still think fad diets work?

    Source: https://www.livestrong.com/article/390541-facts-statistics-about-dieting/

    I mean the US population also spends more on health care with worse results and far worse access than quite a number of other high income countries (here's a link from Reuters).

    That was a general question to the thread's readers in general, I wasn't trying to contradict you.

    Oh I didn't think you were, I was just pointing out that the money spent on things related to health is far from limited to dieting. I'll admit that it didn't address the "still think fad diets work?" which I think was well said :)

    Sorry if I came off as defensive!
  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    Does anyone have any reputable information from later than 2008 on how many calories, on average, people from the US consume per year compared to countries with a similar GDP?
  • pierinifitness
    pierinifitness Posts: 2,226 Member
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2722815/Daily-calorie-intake-countries-world-revealed-surprise-U-S-tops-list-3-770.html
  • RunsWithBees
    RunsWithBees Posts: 1,508 Member
    “Black men, Mexican-American women and Asian men and women were the only groups in the report that did not show a significant increase in weight over that period.”

    What are these groups doing or not doing that they are not following the current weight/height trend of the average American?

    As a 5’11” Latina woman I will never be average anywhere, but it surprises me that the average American is getting shorter (but yea I could have guessed about the getting heavier part) I thought the trend was for populations with access to more food to get taller over time (?)
  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    I wouldn't call the Daily Mail a reputable source of information and I can't find the data that was used from the source they provided (that also looked like pop science).

    It looks like the WHO has data (that I can't figure out how to easily visualize) and I'm assuming the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has it somewhere but I can't find it. According to them, however, Austria consumed the most calories per person during 2000-2002 and 2006-2008 (there were no intermediary years of data between those time spans). The US didn't make its way up to the second spot until 2006-2008.

    Here's the spreadsheet for anyone who's interested.
  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    monkeefan1974 wrote: »
    “Black men, Mexican-American women and Asian men and women were the only groups in the report that did not show a significant increase in weight over that period.”

    What are these groups doing or not doing that they are not following the current weight/height trend of the average American?

    As a 5’11” Latina woman I will never be average anywhere, but it surprises me that the average American is getting shorter (but yea I could have guessed about the getting heavier part) I thought the trend was for populations with access to more food to get taller over time (?)

    Given those demographics, I highly doubt there's much if any research that's been done to try to figure that out. That said, all three groups deal with, among other things, health disparities, though so do various other racial groups.
  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    lucerorojo wrote: »
    One can look at the diet of Asian-American people and see that they do not eat as much as other Americans. Even those that are born here tend to continue to eat Asian food. I have met very few fat Asian Americans in my lifetime. Actually I could count them on one hand, about 3. And they didn't all stay that way and they weren't obese either, just overweight. I live in a city that has a large Asian-American population, with a variety of different Asian cuisines too. They cater to American palates and the servings are probably bigger than they would eat at home, but they don't eat that much or the restaurant like food every day. My cousin is married to a Chinese woman and she cooks Chinese food at home and they are all a healthy weight.

    I think with Black men it is very complicated--the statistics are just a generalization, and some men are in situations (like incarceration, 15% of black men) that are not going to lead to overeating. I'm a female and mixed race, and I have a lot of male black relatives that were/are obese. On the other hand, I have known a lot of black men who are concerned about their health/weight/physical condition. Most of the men not in my family, but my peers, tend to work out regularly or continue to play sports.

    I have no idea about Mexican-American women.

    Yeah the increased incarceration makes complete and utter sense, at least in terms of an educated guess, with regards to black men assuming that they're including people who are incarcerated in their data. Where I was struggling was with the differences between sex in the other groups mentioned (I'm assuming they're using sex, not gender).
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    pierinifitness wrote: »
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2722815/Daily-calorie-intake-countries-world-revealed-surprise-U-S-tops-list-3-770.html

    I pull this quote :"Running up and down the stairs for just 2.5 minutes, for instance, will make you sweat enough to burn 200 calories. But it would take an hour of bowling to do the same."
    and comment upon it.

    In another discussion, I got grief for saying that my cardio machine, without particularly vigorous effort, could serve as my instrument of burning 1000 calories in one hour. With that in mind, is grief not due to dailymail for suggesting that 12.5 minutes of running up and down stairs will burn 1000 calories? I've got a staircase in my house as well and all I need to know is just how very fast I need to be ascending and descending stairs for that burn, and if it is even remotely safe to do so.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited December 2018
    monkeefan1974 wrote: »
    “Black men, Mexican-American women and Asian men and women were the only groups in the report that did not show a significant increase in weight over that period.”

    What are these groups doing or not doing that they are not following the current weight/height trend of the average American?

    As a 5’11” Latina woman I will never be average anywhere, but it surprises me that the average American is getting shorter (but yea I could have guessed about the getting heavier part) I thought the trend was for populations with access to more food to get taller over time (?)

    I'm skeptical about the height numbers. People got taller from 1960 to 2004 (while also getting fatter), and since 2004 there's a bunch of jumping around from year to year in a way that seems unlikely to really reflect a trend. I'm also wondering if the composition of the groups changed (I see they tried to separate by white, non Hispanic, Hispanic, black, etc., but there are differences between the groups and the US as a whole has more of groups that tend to be shorter now). That said, if there's truly a trend, it could be related to poor nutrition (although excess calories) for children, especially poorer kids.

    I suspect that the overall obesity numbers of black men and Mexican-American women aren't better than the average, so you'd have to look at overall numbers to see if they are doing better in reality. It could just be a difference in timing of the trends. (Asians probably are doing better by BMI.)

    Edit: "the period" in question was 2004 to the most recent, I think, so here are the numbers from the report in question--

    1999/00 vs. 2003/04 vs. 2015/16

    Non-Hispanic white
    * Man: 27.8 vs. 28.1 vs. 29.1
    * Woman: 27.6 vs. 27.6 vs. 29.1

    Non-Hispanic black
    * Man: 27.5 vs. 28.5 vs. 29.0
    * Woman: 31.6 vs. 31.7 vs. 31.9

    Non-Hispanic Asian
    * Man: nothing for 1999/00 or 2003/04 vs. 25.3
    * Woman: nothing for 1999/00 or 2003/04 vs. 24.6

    Mexican-American
    * Man: 28.2 vs. 28.2 vs. 30.2
    * Woman: 29.0 vs. 29.8 vs. 31.9

    So the claim about trends for those specific groups seems a little puzzling.
  • lucerorojo
    lucerorojo Posts: 790 Member
    HDBKLM wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    lucerorojo wrote: »
    Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »
    msalicia07 wrote: »
    Ave height and weight for women is 5’3” and 170 lbs and on the cusp of obesity.

    So, weight is increasing and we’re getting shorter.

    This honestly hurts my heart. I can’t help but wonder if the movement of self acceptance was applied in the wrong direction. We cannot stop this unless we take responsibility.

    I think we're just eating too much. I would bet the number of fast food (high calorie) meals increased with our weight. The size of our sodas increased with our weight. We've lost sight of what a reasonable portion size means.

    Totally agree. I find myself now thinking about what size of coffee to buy. Even though it has no calories--When I first starting working, summers in college, in the1980s, I would buy a coffee and the only option was an 8 oz. paper cup or in a coffee shop in a cup or mug (at most 8 oz. probably). The smallest you can get today is 12 oz. I'm tempted to get a larger but always have to ask myself "do I need that much?" (I usually drink decaf so it's almost like drinking water, but still). Nobody sells a soda that is 8-12 oz. unless you buy a can or a kid's size. When I was growing up we couldn't drink soda without permission. My mother would buy occasionally and a 12 oz. CAN was for four people. We never drank a whole can of soda. I remember being excited when finally they gave you a whole can on the airplane. Nowadays people buy 32 oz. and a 16 oz. is the "small."

    Plus the cup of coffee was black or maybe some cream and sugar adding maybe 100 calories, not the 500+ calorie things Starbucks and others pass off as coffee.

    I can remember, back then, that every once in a while, you'd see someone in a diner or similar, who was painstakingly ripping over 5 or more of those tiny paper sugar packets, and putting them in a cup of coffee. People with other tables were inclined to unobtrusively nudge one another and roll their eyes in that person's direction, because it seemed eccentric.

    If someone put many more packets in a cup (say, 8+), folks were likely to tell other people about it later, and laugh.

    Kinda thinking even a small mocha is gonna have that much sugar in it, these days, but no one bats an eye.

    Looks like you're just about right. According to this a 12 oz. ('tall') mocha WITHOUT whipped cream has 26 grams of sugars. At 4 grams per teaspoon that's 6.5 teaspoons. And the whipped cream only adds 2 more grams, bringing the total to 28 (7 teaspoons), which is maybe ironic since it seems to me people leave that off because it's 'too much sugar'. https://www.starbucks.com/menu/drinks/espresso/caffe-mocha#size=46&milk=67&whip=NA

    The 'venti' size, for interest's sake, has 43 grams without/45 with whipped cream (so ~11 teaspoons) of sugar, or 172–180 calories from sugar alone.

    I agree with all this. I believe that many people just do not KNOW. (Some do not care). They used to have to put calories on any chain in my city. I have seen that no longer is the case on Starbuck's menus lately. They changed the way they put up the menu and you can't even see the prices or the different sizes, let alone how many calories are in it. I don't know if that was a local thing. I appreciated being able to see how many calories was in something before I purchased it. Some may even realize that the drink has 500 calories in it, but have no idea how many they should be eating per day or what they've already eaten in terms of calories. When you look at a 32 oz. soda (not diet) that people guzzle down at the movies or at a convenience store, that's around 300 calories. That doesn't sound like that much, but on top of what you already ate, it could be significant.

    What gets me are snack foods and baked goods. There are some chocolate chip cookies that are 350-500 calories for one. Not bad for once in a while, but eating it every day...
  • hrafnkat
    hrafnkat Posts: 10 Member
    edited December 2018
    monkeefan1974 wrote: »
    As a 5’11” Latina woman I will never be average anywhere, but it surprises me that the average American is getting shorter (but yea I could have guessed about the getting heavier part) I thought the trend was for populations with access to more food to get taller over time (?)

    I read an analysis somewhere (sorry, can't find it right now to give my sourcing) that would explain the lessening heights over time.

    Apparently the 5'4" is an average height for *all* women, regardless of race. White women had an average height of about 5'7", and black and Latina women were considerably shorter on average (I don't recall the exact figures).

    The trend is still towards greater height with better nutrition, but as the American population demographics become increasingly composed of minorities, the overall-average height will become lower, because there are more people of shorter-average ethnicities.
  • gradchica27
    gradchica27 Posts: 777 Member
    I think the observations about the creeping baseline of “normal” up for portions and treats and down for physical activity is spot on. I remember my Grandma’s juice glasses—maybe 4 Oz?—as the norm for orange juice portions in her house. 10oz glasses at mine. Guess who had a bigger weight problem?

    I’m trying to remake that “normal” with my family. We have the 4oz juice glasses (which we use seasonally for eggnog, as we don’t drink juice), I let my kids eat however much they want of relatively healthy foods (they don’t have big appetites for thee most part) and we generally have one snack size piece of candy or similar as dessert a few times a week. Air popped popcorn is their favorite “treat” snack. We probably eat more sugar than is appropriate (they love pancakes and French toast), but we move more than most, so if that changes I’ll up the oatmeal/egg to pancake ratio.

    They’re up playing basketball or football or wrestling each other most of the day (we homeschool, so they’re usually standing, pacing, bouncing a ball during a good chunk of work time), family fun night is more likely game night than movie night, they’re enthusiastic about joining us rock climbing or racing. That’s “normal” to them—not constant fast food and video games and sitting around.

    It can be tough not to be “normal”—they can’t talk video games or tv shows, so sometimes they feel left out—but when “normal” is unhealthy, oh well.
  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
    maureenkhilde wrote: »
    aokoye wrote: »
    Does anyone have any reputable information from later than 2008 on how many calories, on average, people from the US consume per year compared to countries with a similar GDP?

    I think the truly critical part of this is how it is broken down. Meaning what part is protein, what is fat, and what is carbs, and type of carbs. Because that is what is making America fat to obese. Just looking at a calorie number will not really get into it. Example taking fat as a percentage. Ideally should be about 25% of ones daily calorie intake. (I saw range of 20 to 30%). But the type of fat also matters. And the sad fact is most Americans either do not know, or do not care to know this fact.

    The average American does not want to recognize and take responsibility that the number one person that has control over their weight is themselves. No magic pill really exists.

    I remember several years ago one of the fast food places made a huge deal out of the fact of the type of oil they used to fry there French fries in. Like here we can make you healthy French fries, so you do not need to worry about doing harm to your insides. I think way too many people actually believed that hook, line and sinker.

    Based on where Americans get most of their calories looks like simple added sugars, non-healthy fats com out pretty high.

    https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthy-eating/top-10-sources-of-calories-in-the-us-diet

    What Americans Eat: Top 10 sources of calories in the U.S. diet
    Grain-based desserts (cakes, cookies, donuts, pies, crisps, cobblers, and granola bars)
    Yeast breads
    Chicken and chicken-mixed dishes
    Soda, energy drinks, and sports drinks
    Pizza
    Alcoholic beverages
    Pasta and pasta dishes
    Mexican mixed dishes
    Beef and beef-mixed dishes
    Dairy desserts

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