Is obesity 'normal' where you live, or 'abnormal'?

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  • MayMaydoesntrun
    MayMaydoesntrun Posts: 805 Member
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    Normal, unfortunately. Not everybody is obese, but most are overweight. I'm fighting to go against the grain.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
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    Obesity is pretty much the norm here. Even if you're slightly overweight you still get comments from people that you're already too skinny and shouldn't lose anymore weight. Then I look at the fat tire (much smaller now) around my belly and think really...this tire around my mid section is skinny to you people? I have a co-worker that constantly tells me this...I tell her I'm 23% BF which is considered OW for my height and that I'm trying to get down to at least 19% (just on the cusp of healthy/overweight but ideally 15%-16% which is where I was when I was the happiest with myself. All I get is, "well...you're not 25 anymore you know." Lame
  • virtualjunkyard
    virtualjunkyard Posts: 17 Member
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    I recently moved from a small town in Kentucky to a small town just outside Grand Rapids, Michigan and it's like night and day! One of the first comments I made was "It would take a year to see as many people exercising (walking, biking, running..,you name it) in Kentucky as you see in one day here! Every other car has a bike carrier. I can't remember ever seeing one in Kentucky. Obesity is very normal there.
  • dym123
    dym123 Posts: 1,670 Member
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    I live in the Midwest, so yeah pretty normal, but my family reunion will be in the fattest state in the US this year, so I'll look pretty skinny down there. Looking forward to it.
  • Mysticblade13
    Mysticblade13 Posts: 1
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    I agree, I'm also also NYC and it's rare compared to other cities that you see obesity because of all the walking involved just getting to and from subways. Health is a big thing around here. Lots of food choices, healthy and not. What I found so suprising, (being that I've rarely traveled to parts outside of the northeast), is that on my visit to kentucky there were nothing but fast food chains and very bad quality fod. A lot of the people there knew little of nutrition becuase they were surrounded by bad food and its what they knew and grew up with. I'm thankful for the food selections out in NY.
  • k8blujay2
    k8blujay2 Posts: 4,941 Member
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    It's pretty "normal" around here... though I think it's really about half and half because I percieve that I see a relatively equal number of normal weight folks than obese folks... and I know this is true where I work (where I percieve the obesity rate for our work place going down because of our health initiative).
  • imtrinat
    imtrinat Posts: 153 Member
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    I spent the first 25 years of my life living in a place where the FUPA was a fashion statement and exercise was weird. I never even realized I was overweight because everyone around me so friggin huge. My husband changed my perspective. We moved several hours away and things are much different. There are bike lanes here and people actually use them. Amazing! It kinda sucked to stand out as a chubby chick when we first moved but that's slowly changing. Being surrounded by health conscious people has had a huge impact on my quality of life.
  • VanessaHeartsMasr
    VanessaHeartsMasr Posts: 727
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    Very, very normal here. I see very morbidly obese people on a daily basis.
  • cleotherio
    cleotherio Posts: 712 Member
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    I live in a pretty affluent town (upstate New York), so there aren't too many people who are extremely heavy in my immediate area, and very few overweight kids in my kids' elementary school. But if you go a half hour out into the more rural areas, there are lot more obese people. But then if you keep going farther north, it becomes a very active, outdoorsy lifestyle again.
  • courtneyshell
    courtneyshell Posts: 5 Member
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    Normal here in Wisconsin, but a little less so in the cities (Madison and Milwaukee), I'd say. It's the land of cheese and custard and beer! :drinker:

    I went to Denver two years ago and felt morbidly obese compared to them. Good job, Colorado!
  • awidener86
    awidener86 Posts: 260 Member
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    I think it's some what "normal" around here... There are more fast food restaurants than anything else it seems like and the smaller local restaurants have HUGE portion sizes it seems like.
  • TerranFla1
    TerranFla1 Posts: 8
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    I lived in Colorado for 30 years and weighed the same (165 - 170) for all those years. Since retiring and moving to Florida I have gained 25 pounds so now I have to lose weight for the first time in my life. It is not as easy as I had always imagined it would be. As you get older, it is harder to lose weight, but it is also more important since health problems are naturally more easily developed as you age. Adding weight makes this more probable and severe.
  • etoiles_argentees
    etoiles_argentees Posts: 2,827 Member
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    Also in Tampa the ladies around me are TINY!

    I thought it was just me but, yeah, I rarely see obese people here.
  • daj150
    daj150 Posts: 815 Member
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    I live near Philadelphia...nugh said. :cry:
  • Zulemak
    Zulemak Posts: 7
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    Four years ago I lived in San Antonio, Texas and fast-food restaurants were readily accesible to me. Therefore, many of my friends were overweight or obese. In my observation, the younger residents of this area are not really overweight much less obese. For that reason, I would say obesity would be considered extremely unhealthy to most people around here. In fact, I think most Americans would agree that being obese is unhealthy but for me it was hard to define myself as an obese person. My husband keeps reminding me that my goal is not prececisely shedding pounds but more so getting healthy. Obviously, getting smaller will be a positive consequence of getting healthy : }. So there you have it: health should be the norm.
  • Haiir0
    Haiir0 Posts: 21 Member
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    Normal, sadly. I grew up in Houston (still the fattest city...). Yet, despite how normal it is, still got a lot of flack as a kid. Oh well! I live in DFW now, and it's...still normal. Ugh. Texas.
  • danilynn2
    danilynn2 Posts: 47 Member
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    In my hometown (Oregon City, OR) and where I currently live it is absolutely normal for all ages to be overweight or obese. But there are definitely active parts of Oregon where it isn't quite as "normal". Portland has a lot of biking, so that helps.
  • Missellaneous02
    Missellaneous02 Posts: 70 Member
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    I live outside of Boston, MA and to me it really depends on the area. In the city people have a better variety of healthy restaurants, and food shops. Plus, A LOT of people bike and walk instead of drive. However, the towns and cities on the outskirts of Boston are filled with overweight lazy people. I don't think it helps that there is a Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds on every corner.

    To give you all a better idea of exactly how lazy people around me are: I live literally across the street from a convenience store. Walk out my front door, cross the street and I'm there. The woman in the apartment next to me DRIVES her car across the street to buy cigarettes and scratch tickets. No joke!
  • karllundy
    karllundy Posts: 1,490 Member
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    Pretty normal in Iowa. As others have said, wealth is a great predictor. People here love their comfort food and getting a good deal on a lot of unhealthy food. It is improving though.
  • Brianna716
    Brianna716 Posts: 303 Member
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    My county's obesity rate is 24%, and so is the state's rate. That's just obese though, not including overweight.

    I live in an area with very high poverty rates.

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