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

bwnorton

Unfortunately, it's pretty normal where I live. It does seem to depend on your career. I don't see too many marketing, sales or performance artists who are overweight, let alone obese. I also take photos as a hobby. Over the past 30 years, I really see the huge difference. My photos of friends from High School had one person who was overweight - not obese. The photos my son took last year of his graduation, I could see 1/3 that were either overweight or obese. And that's in an affluent section of our community.

AddyMaeMomma

I live in southwest va and it's sadly the norm. I teach, too and there are so many obese kids, both well-off and poor.

Athena53

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

Sadly. most of the time when I see obese people in Europe they're American tourists.:ohwell:

acogg

I live in a college town dominated by 18-25 year olds, so obesity is abnormal on average. The older the person, the more normal it becomes. Though there seems to be a lot more obese students than I remember. It could be that I am more aware of obesity now. A lot more skinny-fat males, too. But, like I said, it may just be my awareness level.

panano

From Collin County, Texas here -
There are still a lot of obese people everywhere, even on the wealthy side of town... we moved here from New York and we were shocked. Even the pets are overweight...

pawsnpurrs

Az is a mix of cultures and my answer is mixed we have 6 months were the temps rage 115-118 F you learn real fast to do your morning walks at 4 am when the sidewalks are not broiling and its 98 degrees...we also have a heavy Latino Culture and Native American Culture but the foods are laden in lard, fat, sour cream, grease...once a year for Indian Fried Bread is a rare treat..I have learned that cold salads and raw fruit are the only thing i caneat during the heat peaked months..Az has 123 golf courses lots of tennis courts and many mountains and trails to hit... I see a LOT of women who are very obese in our area and sadly children too
the artist and new agers who are very thin and fashion aware now hang out in Scottsdale or Sedona. Most of the locals are very overweight due to too many flour tortillas tacos fried bread.. the tourist love Fresh Mex but the locals do not..

AhlaWahda

It's definitely not considered normal in Sweden where I live. When I go to my gym I usually feel "big" and I'm 5'6" and 130 lbs..

Cinflo58

I live in the Bronx, which has the highest obesity rates in New York, We are not nearly as obese as those southern states though. LUckily Mayor Bloomberg started mandatory posting of nutritional information at restaurants and banned trans fats way back. I love NY!

AhlaWahda

Found these on google. The Japanese sizes are the same in Sweden.

CoraGregoryCPA

It depends on where you live and where you go. Birds of a feather flock together. This goes true with healthy/active people vs. overweight/obese/unhealthy people.

We got to healthier restaurants, therefore we don't see the obese people. I go to an upscale gym and a very nice grocery store, not many overweight people there.

But if I went to Wal-mart or McDoanlds or Burger King then I'm sure I'd see it.

I work in an office, where you would usually see unhealthy people, however I work for a health organization that promotes health and wellness and has a beautiful gym facility. It rubs off on the employees for sure. Plus we all try to help each other, like for birthdays we do try to do healthier or ONLY have "bad" food for a birthday. We have an office of about 30 people. And I can say we only have 2 overweight people.

deviantcupcake

Walking around the two towns closest to where I live, I'd say it's pretty normal.
It's so depressing to see.

silverainn

I live in northern Norway, and being overweight is fairly common. Obesity is less common, but not abnormal. People are bigger here than in most of Scandinavia, probably a combination of extended darkness and winter (and not the nice kind where it snows and stays pristine for months, but rather the slushy/icy kind), and bad diet.

ellie78

Another Colorado girl here! But I have to agree it depends on where you go, even though we might have the best numbers we still have a population that is 20% obese and 50% overweight. I lived in Boulder for years and very rarely saw obese people as the town attracts very active people and people who have the means to be very active and healthy. Now I live in Denver and see obese and overweight people all time even though I live in one of the nicer neighborhoods in town. I'm in the high end of the healthy weight range and I'm the smallest of my friends and most of the people I work with are overweight as well. Comparatively, though, I do find it somewhat shocking when I've travelled to the southern part of the US (used to have family in MS) and seeing how much more of a problem it is in those areas, terrible to see, especially the children.

CoachReddy

I live in the Bronx, which has the highest obesity rates in New York, We are not nearly as obese as those southern states though. LUckily Mayor Bloomberg started mandatory posting of nutritional information at restaurants and banned trans fats way back. I love NY!

right!? Love NYC!

Danilynn1975

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.

I just thought since the negatives of my state are known by all, natives to Mississippi and non natives, that a few of our positives should be mentioned.

While we are the fattest state and poorest, we also outrank every other state in the union in terms of charity and our generousity.
Mississippi's people give a lot to other people in terms of money, even if it hurts us briefly, and time to worthy causes. When Hurrican Sandy hit our Northern Neighbors, small communties that could ill afford to be without our qualified electricians and other essential personnel sent them up North and continued to pay them because these folks wanted to help. Felt duty bound to help in anyway we could.

Any given Sunday, Pick a church down here, doesn't matter the denomination, just pick one and you will find folks, some so poor you know they have trouble keeping their lights on, giving nearly their last dime to help a sick member of their church or some sick member in their community they may or may not know. Small communites, really rally behind their communties for the greater good.

Several months ago, a single mom driving a really beat up car had a break down on the interstate, the good Samaritan that stopped to help her paid for some car repairs to her car, when other patrons of the car repair place got wind of this act of kindness, more stepped forward and pitched in and had the mechanics going over her car with a fine tooth comb to find and fix any other issues. By the end of the day her car had 4 new tires, a full tune up, a new timing belt, water pump, and the local news there to interview the owner of the station about what caused this generosity.

We may be fat, but no one goes hungry, our food banks are always stocked, if they aren't and the local stations put out a cry for help they are always overwhelmed with the response given.

A month or so back, a grandmother and 3 of her grandchildren were killed in a car accident not far from my house. The grieving mother of the kids was a widow of a service member killed in Iraq. She did not have the money to bury her 3 children and her mom. The funeral home donated the caskets, which were top of the line, the community pitched in and paid for the cemetary plots and hospital bills that had been incurred before they passed away. The community response for this family generated enough donations that she ended up with her house being paid off. She tried to not take the money, but most folks here were just heartbroken that she had lost her whole family. We still rally for her. Lots of folks still drop by and check on her and make sure she is ok. What's money in the face of that?


It's a strange world down here. Full of contradictions.

We may be poor, we may be fat, but we have hearts the size of the grand canyon, and take the saying love thy neighbor to heart.
I wouldn't want to live anywhere but here. Mississippi is home. I've been around the world and lived a lot of different places, but Mississippi is home and her land under my feet is where my heart feels content. Other places are nice to see, but at the end of the day, I'm gonna be home here in the heart of Dixie, a state that produced Faulkner, Elvis, Oprah, and home to the Ole Miss Rebels.

angiechimpanzee

Pretty normal, and overweightness is VERY normal. I live in Texas.. so yeah. Lol.

Mustang_Susie

Found these on google. The Japanese sizes are the same in Sweden.

I worked at McDonald's while I was in college back in the 80s and they used to have the Japanese sized drinks...

samantha1242

Abnormal. A lot of outdoors people and skinny jean toque wearing hipsters here.

MeanSophieCat

Totally normal for anyone over 25. I live in between two college towns. Most of the college kids are healthy weight but the people who live here or stay after college are very, very overweight.

I think it actually lessened my motivation to lose weight because only being "overweight" I looked thin in comparison. I got out of that mindset though and want to be healthy now.

rosy003

I live in a middle sized city in the Midwest and it is very "normal" to be obese here. However, among my friends, middle-high income SAHMs it seems to be abnormal. We have a LOT of family here though, and it is very prevalent among them. When I take my kids to the playground there a plenty of obese children drinking coke and Pepsi out of the can as their "snack"- these are 5 year olds!

pineygirl

I'd say overweight is pretty normal where I live (Central/South NJ)....but not obese, although there are still a decent number of obese people here. We live in an area where the only places I can walk to are a shooting range, a gun store and a campground....so we don't do much walking around here.

atb0821

I live in rural Tennessee and obese is definitely normal in this area. There's delicious yet unhealthy food everywhere.

jenilla1

I'm honestly the slimmest person I see almost everywhere I go. The vast majority of adults are overweight, many obese. The kids are about 50-50. It surprises me since I'm in Southern California. Year-round good weather and all.

LizardQueen4PointOh

Texas here. About one hour east of Houston and definitely 'normal'. And, as has been stated a few times, even the pets.

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

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.

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.

If someone started digging through my basket at the grocery store, they might get throat punched (okay, maybe I'd just think it). I can't imagine someone telling me what kind of 'snacks' I need to keep in stock at my house (unless there were an allergy of some sort). Those kids would need to pack a snack when they visited.

Hbazzell

Closer to Portland Oregon (nearest metro) I dont see it as much but now I live on the coast (rural) and I see it a lot. (Minus other Coast Guard/Military people) I am in better shape than almost everyone I see and look at my ticker! I need to loose 20 more lbs atleast!!!! I think the closer you are to the metro the more people walk and the more people work full time/have hectic schedules. Out here there are a lot of people who are unemployed/retired or on disability and are uneducated about health/fitness so they make very poor decisions. However, I am not saying ALL overweight people are like this. I have had a full time job on my feet (until my recent desk top) since I was 15 and I have always lived in the city (until recently) and I am in better shape now than before.

addreonnaseger

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

It's hard as CRAP. But totally doable with the right motivation.

slkehl

Abnormal here in DC. People are young and active