"Americans Exercise More....Obesity Rates Still Climbing"

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  • aliencheesecake
    aliencheesecake Posts: 570 Member
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    Silentpadna wrote: »
    ...says the CDC.

    I would link it, but it was actually just a 15 second news radio story I heard on the way into the office today.

    The CDC spokesperson cited the "fact" that 70% of the battle is in the diet, but Americans believe that exercise alone will do the trick.

    Because when I was younger diet was never a factor for me, I had to learn this the hard way. I HAVE to watch my diet because I can out-eat almost any amount of exercise. I spend about five hours a week in the gym and I could easily go over my calories every day, even with healthier food choices.

  • goatg
    goatg Posts: 1,399 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    goatg wrote: »
    I honestly have no desire to discuss OP further as if she weren't here. If you wouldn't speak these things while standing next to someone face-to-face, you shouldn't say it online. There's the "brutal truth," the "sugar coated truth," and a whole lot of room for tact in between.

    If anyone truly cares I'm beyond happy to have an open discussion privately through direct message.

    I don't think anyone is discussing OP . . .

    Right. Not OP. You know who I mean. I don't even want to say her name. This has gone on long enough.
  • JetJaguar
    JetJaguar Posts: 801 Member
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    orangegato wrote: »
    Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
    I will say the amount of people on rascal scooters during my last visit to Disneyland was insane...

    Literally an explosion of these things over the last several years...

    The majority did not appear to even need them for any particular reason

    @Mr_Healthy_Habits
    The Disney parks would bump you to the front of the line if you were in a wheelchair/scooter. This was like 15-20 years ago. Not sure if that still occurs now, but if so, people will abuse it.

    I'm from Orlando, and recall that Disney began cracking down on this abuse a few (3 or 4, IIRC) years ago. People were renting wheelchairs just for the purpose of skipping the lines, because the disability entrances take you straight to the ride. Not sure what the current policy is now, though.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    JetJaguar wrote: »
    orangegato wrote: »
    Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
    I will say the amount of people on rascal scooters during my last visit to Disneyland was insane...

    Literally an explosion of these things over the last several years...

    The majority did not appear to even need them for any particular reason

    @Mr_Healthy_Habits
    The Disney parks would bump you to the front of the line if you were in a wheelchair/scooter. This was like 15-20 years ago. Not sure if that still occurs now, but if so, people will abuse it.

    I'm from Orlando, and recall that Disney began cracking down on this abuse a few (3 or 4, IIRC) years ago. People were renting wheelchairs just for the purpose of skipping the lines, because the disability entrances take you straight to the ride. Not sure what the current policy is now, though.

    https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/disney-parks-disability-access-service-card-fact-sheet/

    It looks as if you no longer go to the head of the line, but you avoid waiting in lines by checking in and getting a time to come back and get on the ride. I think they're trying to balance the needs of guests with a need for disability access with countering the abuse that was taking place.
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
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    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    MegaMooseEsq wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    MegaMooseEsq wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    I don't know what the comparison date was, but if we are going back significant years, I don't think Americans exercise more is true. We may go to the gym more or do things we call "working out" more, but we are likely far less active in our daily lives (on average) even so.

    Re CI vs CO, it doesn't make sense to say one side is more important or 80% or whatever. The problem is that if you don't do something (it doesn't have to be counting calories) to control calories in, and if you live in an environment like ours where eating is super easy and cheap, then increasing exercise may just result in eating more. Especially since many think exercise burns more calories than it does and will see that as an excuse to eat more indulgently.

    I've lost weight just by increasing exercise, but it happened when my eating was already under control, so I didn't start eating more without realizing it. And I was truly exercising quite a lot (tri training)--many of the studies showing exercise does not help do things like taking someone out of shape and having them walk on a treadmill for an hour, which is both boring (people feel like it was more work than it was, since they hated it, and think they deserve a reward, food) and doesn't burn many calories.

    It looks like the report is comparing numbers from Jan-Sept 2017 back to 1997. Given that time frame, it actually doesn't surprise me that physical activity would be up. I'd be curious specifically how many more people work out at home given the rise of free or inexpensive (at least compared to gym membership) online services.

    Source: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/EarlyRelease201803.pdf

    ETA: The charts for "leisure-time physical activity" start on page 43 and show a distinct jump for people meeting the aerobic activity recommendation starting in 2009 with a general upward trend since then. The response for meeting aerobic plus strength recommendations is on page 46 and shows a general upward trend since 1997, although overall numbers are lower.

    I assume this is largely or entirely based on self reports. Perhaps a chunk of the exercise-increase statistical result arises from people gradually starting, around 2009, to feel better about themselves if they delude themselves into believing they routinely exercise, or simply wanting to look more respectable by lying about it?

    ;)

    I'm curious about the self-reporting aspect of this too. My unscientific gut feeling is that people are probably not more likely to over-report now than in 1997 or 2007, but I genuinely don't know. I do know that over the last ten years, internet use has become incredibly widespread and has brought a lot of free resources that didn't previously exist. Yes, there's woo, but there's helpful information too. I think the younger generations (I'm an old Millennial personally) value walk-able neighborhoods and are genuinely concerned about the environment, and that goes hand-in-hand with increased health and fitness. I'd be curious to see the age group trends. I guess I feel like with all the crazy in the world these days, I want to cling to something positive out of all this.

    Over my adult life (I'm 62) I feel like exercise has become more a thing that people feel they should do, which I think could bias self-reporting. I'm talking more about a gradual 30-year difference, vs a 10-15 year shift.

    This is subjective: I have no data, and it would certainly vary by location and subculture.

    Personally, I come from a rural, lace-curtain blue collar background, but later worked & socialized in a white-collar context in/near a mid-sized city, all of it in the US Great Lakes region.

    Exaggerating a little, my childhood environment tended to look at exercise as something for richer people who didn't have real work: Why wouldn't they just go cut & stack a couple of cords of wood, or hoe the garden? Poor them! ;)

    My early working years (mid/late 1970s) were kind of the trailing edge of the 3-martini lunch era, but lived in more of a pitchers-of-beer social context. People might play a round of golf on the weekend or something, but it wasn't until later (late 1980s or 1990s, maybe) that it became common for co-workers to run, swim, or play basketball/volleyball at lunch. I'd say it was a bit later even for bicycle commuting to stop being a bit of an eyebrow-raiser, with early adopters mostly among the younger/lower-paid, even though the environment here (geography, roads) would've made it feasible for many through the whole time (Spring through Fall, anyway).

    Over the same period (1960s to now), it also seems like the average handsome/beautiful admired celebrity has become a bit more buff/fit, and thise parts of their lifestyles more publicized.

    So, it seems like there's more expectation around me that including some form of exercise in one's life is what good, responsible, admirable adults do. I feel like that could increase the chance that self-reporting might be biased by perceptions that "good people exercise, and I'm a good person", turning the occasional tennis game, bike ride, and Zumba class into a self-perception that "I work out".

    I'm not trying to diss anybody here, not saying people are lying, merely that we all may tend a bit to let perceived social norms inflate our best intentions into reported realities.

    On the other hand - around here, at least - the number and diversity of gyms and other workout locations/businesses have really burgeoned over the last 10-20 years. Someone is supporting them. Whether they're attending them or not is another question, though they appear busy. No way to know how much of their patronage is people who would've been active in another way, anyway (especially as so many other formerly home/personal activities and possessions are being outsourced to businesses).

    That's a good point about the increased awareness of the importance of exercise contributing to over-reporting. But it's also a good point that there are a lot more gyms/yoga studios/whatever around now, and theoretically they're paying the rent somehow! I live in one of those younger, hipper (hippie-er?), bike-crazy cities in one of the healthiest states in the US, so my perspective is definitely skewed. I don't think people are lying, either, but it's certainly easy enough to "pad your numbers" intentionally or unintentionally.
  • nndarden
    nndarden Posts: 16 Member
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    I think part of the problem is two fold. 1. Manufacturers make more money selling gym equipment than telling you to count calories. 2. Packaged food providers make more money selling you prepackaged food than telling you to go get a BMI table and figure out how many calories you can eat a day and lose 1# / week. (Thank you, myfitnesspal)
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
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    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Sorry, I am temporarily away from my desk and currently mansplaining in the TOM water retention thread :lol:

    It took me a good six months and a person rudely walking through the same doorway that I was occupying to realize how much less space I was taking up. <-- It was unthinkable to me that someone would try to walk through a doorway that I was occupying!!!!

    I can actually walk on the outside of a road-sign, without falling off the sidewalk!

    And yes, I can fit both legs in the pants I hold up, even though they still, on occasion, look to me as if only one leg would fit. This is 1.33 years after the first time I wore a pair of size 32 pants.

    I still look at family and friends who are obese and I think to myself: well, they're a little bit overweight. No, they're not. They are obese!

    They look at me with serious concern and wonder if I am done losing weight.

    A friend actually calls me skinny and another slim. Well, I have been normal weight for just over 2 years. In that time frame I've moved less than 10lbs and my bmi, after the 10lbs, is 23.7, i.e. in the upper quartile of healthy BMI. Slim and skinny? Maybe by comparison. But in terms of health risk factors? *Barely* NOT at an increased risk, and DXA scans corraborate.

    Yes, my personal experience corraborates that people often do not perceive themselves and others correctly.

    That's why I prefer to rely on outside measurements such as weight, height, waist, thigh, and hip circumference and their various ratios, including BMI.

    Waist to height ratio looks particularly promising. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0177175

    Where and how exactly does one measure their waist? https://www.dietdoctor.com/simple-waist-height-ratio-powerful-health-measurement

    If it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it has a good chance of being a duck even if you would like it to be a goose.

    The interesting thing to me about some family and friends is how they stop asking about how the diet is going once it is working. I am down at goal just barely under a BMI of 25 and thinking of dropping a few more and also encountering people who tell me it's unhealthy. I bite my tongue and don't tell them they look like subject matter experts on what's unhealthy.

    I have also been called skinny. I could maybe go with trim. Maybe.

    I am also in 32s and just for fun I tried on some 30 shorts at the store the other day and I could button them and zip them, but they were too tight to look right. But it amazes me that I could even think about whether or not to get them.

    I saw something kind of cool with the waist to height ratio. It was a WHO doctor visiting some remote village and trying to teach them about healthy habits. He cut cords for them; each person got one that was their height and they were supposed to go around the waist twice and have the ends meet.

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