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

Countryslove

It is absolutely normal around where I live!!!
I can see why though when you watch people drive around a parking lot for 20 minutes just to get one parking spot closer to the door.
It is really sad.

jacque1129

i'd say 45% are average (possibly "overweight" according to bmi scale but still look "healthy/normal"), 55% obese<. from the people i know that would be about the correct statistic and then what i see when people come into my work. i guess you can't expect the slimmest people when our slogan is "a drinking city with a football problem".

MM_1982

South Florida is a mixed bag. If you are near the beach or in a ritzy area, most people are in great shape. If you're a suburban ghetto , you're surrounded by obesity.

bellynbeard

Living in South Carolina where macaroni & cheese is a vegetable, sweet tea is served at breakfast, and WalMart is a religion.
So yes rampant obesity is the "norm"..

TravelDog14

Seattle, Wash.
Obesity Rate: 22.8%
Exercise Rate: 81.9%

chefmomster2

I live in Mississippi which has been named Fattest State for the past 6 years straight! About 35% of people here obese. Contrast that with the Healthiest State of Colorado which has 20.7%.

I found these facts here:

http://www.travelerstoday.com/articles/2724/20120816/fattest-state-in-america-2012-how-obese-is-your-state-fattest-statelist-skinniest-state-list-obesity-health-nutrition-statistics-f-as-in-fat-jeff-levi-united-states-mississippi-colorado.htm

Take the time to read it, but be prepared! America, particularly the American South is in trouble.

"The report revealed how much the rate of obesity has grown over the past two decades. Twenty years ago, not one state had an obesity rate over 15 percent. Now more than two out of three states, 38 altogether, have an obesity percentage above 25."

IMHO, the prevalence of obesity desensitizes us. It makes "fat" more acceptable. (Except in those quiet moments when we realize this is just another lie we tell ourselves.) In an uncomfortable way, perhaps our obese friends, neighbors and family make it easier to delude ourselves that we're just a little pudgy/plump/heavy/etc and to delay the truth longer, accumulating even more pounds before we look honestly at our situation.

Is obesity "normal"? NOT ANY MORE! At least not for me. Where I live is inside this far too bulky body it's a new day and change is a-comin' to this neighborhood!

Amazon_Who

I live in Mississippi which has been named Fattest State for the past 6 years straight! About 35% of people here obese. Contrast that with the Healthiest State of Colorado which has 20.7%.

Louisiana is right behind you at 33.4%. I live in SE Louisiana and I bet the percentage is higher than the state average. In Baton Rouge we supposedly have the most restaurants per capita in the US.

julieanddavid

I'm living in a country where obesity is abnormal, but so is health. Women, in particular, are thin here, but it's thanks to smoking and not eating. Eating healthy and/or exercising just aren't part of the culture at all.

dogetta

Obese: everybody just sits and eats! I am one of 2-3 who bring lunch or cook our food most eat out every day for all meals. When I go to the gym most are there to sit down and text the whole time they are in the gym! They say I am obsessed with fitness and I say they are lazy!

Pepper2185

Absolutely not normal here in Vancouver, Canada. Active Outdoor living is a way of life!

Yep! Even when it's pissing rain

AmandaReimer1

I'm sure I live in the fattest city in Canada (which I did some looking). St. John's Newfoundland. While we are coastal, the weather doesn't really favor a lot of outdoor activity. Even our normal diet foods (salt beef) easily attribute. I'm currently living outside the city, and fresh produce is sometimes hard to get, and there are no healthy restaurants here. But, the lineup at the chicken place is nuts come dinner time. And most of the province itself is low income.

CarmenSRT

Quite normal around here (Tennessee). For example, of the 7 occupied homes on my little cul-de-sac, 1 has no obese people living in there.

Snipsa

Here in South Africa I'd estimate it's 40% healthy weight, 40% overweight/obese and 20% severely underweight/malnourished - the last is probably the saddest to witness - people ravished by TB/AIDS with bodyfat percentage at between 1-5% and almost no muscle anywhere...

JosefinTonks

I live in Stockholm in Sweden and it's more common to see an extremely skinny person than it is to see someone overweight. So I would say that it's abnormal.

ahviendha

it is very normal where i live, small town in the south.

i'm weird because i order salads, only eat 1 doughnut, and don't drink soda.

RingSize8

I live in the Bay Area, CA, and it's a bit of a mix bag in the entire area, but in the City of Oakland where I live, most people make me look slim, and I am over 200lbs. When I started running in my neighborhood, one guy was talking to me while I was working out and he told me he had never seen someone running (for exercise) before. Like, really? So sad. When I run all I smell is fast food, specifically deep fried garbage. When I jog by the McDonald's, people look at me from inside like I'm in a spaceship. It's horrible.

Danilynn1975

I live in Mississippi. That right there should tell you everything you need to know about if it is normal or not.

I see more obese people using the scooter carts at the grocery store than truly in need handicapped people.

I'm starting to be an oddball again. I fit into normal sized clothes, I freeze everywhere, even in the summer inside.
I eat salads that still have obviously green stuff located under the dressing, and barely any of that. nor are they a cheese covered glob of a teaspoon of lettuce.

People swear my children now reside in a strange home. Some parents inquire what I plan to feed theirs, if their children are staying for dinner. Sometimes I want to tell them I am giving them diet pills and laxative cookies for dinner, but I refrain. The more normal sized I become the more it feels like society here is extremely out of sync with healthy habits.

Booths are way to large, the tables are so far spaced from the table that we have to request chairs and tables instead. Clothes are becoming harder to find as well. The plus size selection and section is huge in a lot of stores you wouldn't think it of.

Went to Academy Sports the other day looking for a size small yoga pants, got told they quit ordering them for the store inventory becuase they didn't sell well, but got told I could order them online and have them sent to the store or my house.

One of my children's friends' mom got nearly irate at me because I didn't have soda for the kids to drink, I had crystal lite, tea, and juice and milk, but not soda for afterschool. Snacks that day were cut up mixed fruit (strawberries, kiwis, grapes, grapefruit chunks, and and cantaloupe). The mother informed me that wasn't a snack and her child didn't eat that sort of stuff. That a snack is supposed to be chips, or cookies, snack cakes and a soda, because then her kid would still be able to eat dinner after having that. But what I offered was odd to her.

Another thing that I have noticed and it really saddens me is that I'm getting really dirty looks in the grocery store now. People think it is okay to just walk over and poke around in my grocery cart and turn their nose up at my selections, look me up and down like I am an alien and on more than one occasion comment to their companion about me and my groceries. I get I lost weight, I wanted to, but I was not prepared for comments about finally being into the just barely overweight range. (9 pounds more until I hit the upper ranges of recommended weight for my height)

I have to drive 35 miles out of the way to grocery shop, just to get to a grocery store with a true produce section. The grocery store here in my itty bitty town sells this in their produce section and only this: bananas, onions, potatoes, carrots, iceberg lettuce, grapes(green), red apples, tomatoes, and turnip greens. That's it, the whole produce section. The snack/junk food though has 4 whole isles devoted to it. It also only sells chocolate milk, whole milk and 2%, no skim or anything else.

Another thing I have noticed is that in my area trying to find sheets in any other size besides twin or king is next to impossible unless you drive 35 miles to the big city. Having looked and sort of informally polled some folks, a lot of the married couples here will not fit together in a queen size or full size bed.

Everything is supersized. Everything. It's really sort of scary how normal being large is here. My husband plays hell finding jeans and khakis for work. He wears a 29 waist 32 length. Trying to find that is hard, even finding a 30/32 is hell. When he does find ones that fit we usually end up buying all they have every time. Which usually isn't more than 1-4 pairs in stock at any given time, usually we look for months before we luck up and find some for him.

so yes, it is perfectly normal here.

suz155

Im in Texas, it is, unfortunately, normal.

Mjhnbgff

I think I was the fattest person in the entire county. It certainly seemed that way. Lots of very fit people where I live, as evidenced by the 6 gyms, countless yoga studios and a spin studio within a 1 mile radius of my apartment.

addreonnaseger

I live in Mississippi....everyone is in love with fried everything here. I swear, it's the hardest part of being healthy living here. Because everyone was just raised this way and then fed their children, who fed their children--etc etc. It's how it's always been. Obesity is actually what our state is known for. It's depressing. And discouraging sometimes, too.

addreonnaseger

I live in Mississippi. That right there should tell you everything you need to know about if it is normal or not.

I see more obese people using the scooter carts at the grocery store than truly in need handicapped people.

I'm starting to be an oddball again. I fit into normal sized clothes, I freeze everywhere, even in the summer inside.
I eat salads that still have obviously green stuff located under the dressing, and barely any of that. nor are they a cheese covered glob of a teaspoon of lettuce.

People swear my children now reside in a strange home. Some parents inquire what I plan to feed theirs, if their children are staying for dinner. Sometimes I want to tell them I am giving them diet pills and laxative cookies for dinner, but I refrain. The more normal sized I become the more it feels like society here is extremely out of sync with healthy habits.

Booths are way to large, the tables are so far spaced from the table that we have to request chairs and tables instead. Clothes are becoming harder to find as well. The plus size selection and section is huge in a lot of stores you wouldn't think it of.

Went to Academy Sports the other day looking for a size small yoga pants, got told they quit ordering them for the store inventory becuase they didn't sell well, but got told I could order them online and have them sent to the store or my house.

One of my children's friends' mom got nearly irate at me because I didn't have soda for the kids to drink, I had crystal lite, tea, and juice and milk, but not soda for afterschool. Snacks that day were cut up mixed fruit (strawberries, kiwis, grapes, grapefruit chunks, and and cantaloupe). The mother informed me that wasn't a snack and her child didn't eat that sort of stuff. That a snack is supposed to be chips, or cookies, snack cakes and a soda, because then her kid would still be able to eat dinner after having that. But what I offered was odd to her.

Another thing that I have noticed and it really saddens me is that I'm getting really dirty looks in the grocery store now. People think it is okay to just walk over and poke around in my grocery cart and turn their nose up at my selections, look me up and down like I am an alien and on more than one occasion comment to their companion about me and my groceries. I get I lost weight, I wanted to, but I was not prepared for comments about finally being into the just barely overweight range. (9 pounds more until I hit the upper ranges of recommended weight for my height)

I have to drive 35 miles out of the way to grocery shop, just to get to a grocery store with a true produce section. The grocery store here in my itty bitty town sells this in their produce section and only this: bananas, onions, potatoes, carrots, iceberg lettuce, grapes(green), red apples, tomatoes, and turnip greens. That's it, the whole produce section. The snack/junk food though has 4 whole isles devoted to it. It also only sells chocolate milk, whole milk and 2%, no skim or anything else.

Another thing I have noticed is that in my area trying to find sheets in any other size besides twin or king is next to impossible unless you drive 35 miles to the big city. Having looked and sort of informally polled some folks, a lot of the married couples here will not fit together in a queen size or full size bed.

Everything is supersized. Everything. It's really sort of scary how normal being large is here. My husband plays hell finding jeans and khakis for work. He wears a 29 waist 32 length. Trying to find that is hard, even finding a 30/32 is hell. When he does find ones that fit we usually end up buying all they have every time. Which usually isn't more than 1-4 pairs in stock at any given time, usually we look for months before we luck up and find some for him.

so yes, it is perfectly normal here.

All of this post. Man, it's hard to love and live in MS when you have goals. This state should be designated for retirement in place of Florida. hahahah.

cng31183

I live in South Central Texas and its extremely common. Truthfully I felt normal until I went back up to NY and suddenly realized that not only was I the biggest person at our reunion but possibly the biggest id seen in that town...

KatjaO

Mississippi...Wow. Made me cry! How can a mom even try to be healthy in that environment with those selections.

singingflutelady

very normal here in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. It is very obvious to me since I grew up in Ottawa where there are a lot more fit people.

khall86790

I live in France so it's pretty abnormal.
I am from the UK though and it's more normal there although you still see a lot more underweight/average sizes people than overweight.

xSilke

I live in Belgium and it's pretty abnormal here as well...
You see obese people, but most of the time, everybody is skinny-average

julesxo

Abnormal.

fightininggirl

my state is #1 on the most obese (your southern states) but what do we expect when we have southern fried chicken and mashed potatoes.

woodsygirl

Abnormal for this town.

Athena53

I live in Mississippi which has been named Fattest State for the past 6 years straight! About 35% of people here obese. Contrast that with the Healthiest State of Colorado which has 20.7%.

I once read that you know you're in Colorado when the mothers in your kid's play group are comparing their Ironman times!

I live in a prosperous suburb and the obesity level varies by where you are. The expensive shopping areas, people are relatively thin. We've got several Whole Foods stores and a thriving Farmer's Market in the warm weather. There are so many gyms I don't know how they stay in business. We use a community fitness center that's very popular and most of the people in there are serious. Wal-Mart or the buffet restaurants, it's a different picture. DS and I quit going to one of the buffets that serves decent food because the price was getting crazy and we don't eat enough to justify it. There were always lots of obese people, many on scooters or in wheelchairs. Very sad.

And that description of life in Mississippi- how depressing! DH and I have noticed a lot more obesity in areas that used to be farming or mining communities- peole eat the same way they used to when they were in the mines or the fields all day even though their lives are sedentary.