Weight of average American

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  • New_Heavens_Earth
    New_Heavens_Earth Posts: 610 Member
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    aokoye wrote: »
    New_Heavens_Earth wrote: »
    Sabine_Stroehm 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."

    Exactly. I remember a post on here a few years ago. A sweet young woman was "whining" that she couldn't "eat normally" while dieting. When we inquired further we discover that her specific complaint was that she couldn't do her weekly lunch out with friends. We asked more and discovered that their regular routine was EACH of them ordering a regular sized pizza and eating it. We tried to explain that a pizza that size, with 6 or so regular sized pieces, was designed to be shared, that it was much too much food for a woman's lunch. We tried to explain that she could, indeed, participate in her regular outings just not eat a whole pizza. We've lost perspective.

    Yes we have lost perspective. Food has become entertainment and experience. Think about it: there's the must have local fare, must go to restaurant, must try recipe, and cooking shows. There are constantly changing food trends, and FOMO (fear of missing out) drives people to seek these things out. YouTube has extreme cooking and eating videos (30 lb cheeseburger anyone?). Thanks to Seamless and Grubhub you don't even need to leave home for McDonald's. If you live your life around eating experiences, you have to think about the repercussions.

    Treating food as an experience that one should enjoy does not mean that you'll somehow gain weight. It's not new and it is in no way unique to the US (if anything it's probably somewhat new to the US). It food as entertainment and as an experience doesn't have to mean large portion sizes. It means good dishes (as in food), quality ingredients, a good environment, etc.

    Maybe I should have clarified those who just eat for entertainment and experience without moderation or balance in activity. Never said it was new or unique, but one can't expect to eat every day, or even every weekend like it's Christmas without gaining weight. The problem is that somehow this has become normalized.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
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    New_Heavens_Earth wrote: »
    aokoye wrote: »
    New_Heavens_Earth wrote: »
    Sabine_Stroehm 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."

    Exactly. I remember a post on here a few years ago. A sweet young woman was "whining" that she couldn't "eat normally" while dieting. When we inquired further we discover that her specific complaint was that she couldn't do her weekly lunch out with friends. We asked more and discovered that their regular routine was EACH of them ordering a regular sized pizza and eating it. We tried to explain that a pizza that size, with 6 or so regular sized pieces, was designed to be shared, that it was much too much food for a woman's lunch. We tried to explain that she could, indeed, participate in her regular outings just not eat a whole pizza. We've lost perspective.

    Yes we have lost perspective. Food has become entertainment and experience. Think about it: there's the must have local fare, must go to restaurant, must try recipe, and cooking shows. There are constantly changing food trends, and FOMO (fear of missing out) drives people to seek these things out. YouTube has extreme cooking and eating videos (30 lb cheeseburger anyone?). Thanks to Seamless and Grubhub you don't even need to leave home for McDonald's. If you live your life around eating experiences, you have to think about the repercussions.

    Treating food as an experience that one should enjoy does not mean that you'll somehow gain weight. It's not new and it is in no way unique to the US (if anything it's probably somewhat new to the US). It food as entertainment and as an experience doesn't have to mean large portion sizes. It means good dishes (as in food), quality ingredients, a good environment, etc.

    Maybe I should have clarified those who just eat for entertainment and experience without moderation or balance in activity. Never said it was new or unique, but one can't expect to eat every day, or even every weekend like it's Christmas without gaining weight. The problem is that somehow this has become normalized.

    I'm with aokoye -- I don't think it's foodie culture that's an issue, I think it's eating mindlessly and food being always around and, as sabine said, portion distortion. Plus for many very little regular activity as part of the usual day without having to plan it in.

    I do agree with you that for some an easy and cheap indulgence is eating whenever and whatever you want. Mostly I don't think that's really about eating extremely good foods (nothing like you'd see on Top Chef) or even being that interested in food or cooking.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
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    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    aokoye wrote: »
    New_Heavens_Earth wrote: »
    Sabine_Stroehm 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."

    Exactly. I remember a post on here a few years ago. A sweet young woman was "whining" that she couldn't "eat normally" while dieting. When we inquired further we discover that her specific complaint was that she couldn't do her weekly lunch out with friends. We asked more and discovered that their regular routine was EACH of them ordering a regular sized pizza and eating it. We tried to explain that a pizza that size, with 6 or so regular sized pieces, was designed to be shared, that it was much too much food for a woman's lunch. We tried to explain that she could, indeed, participate in her regular outings just not eat a whole pizza. We've lost perspective.

    Yes we have lost perspective. Food has become entertainment and experience. Think about it: there's the must have local fare, must go to restaurant, must try recipe, and cooking shows. There are constantly changing food trends, and FOMO (fear of missing out) drives people to seek these things out. YouTube has extreme cooking and eating videos (30 lb cheeseburger anyone?). Thanks to Seamless and Grubhub you don't even need to leave home for McDonald's. If you live your life around eating experiences, you have to think about the repercussions.

    Treating food as an experience that one should enjoy does not mean that you'll somehow gain weight. It's not new and it is in no way unique to the US (if anything it's probably somewhat new to the US). Food as entertainment and as an experience doesn't have to mean large portion sizes. It means good dishes (as in food), quality ingredients, a good environment, etc.

    If anything - and I know I'm speaking from personal tastes here - food has, on average gotten less good, in my lifetime. A greater diversity of foods is available, which is at least partially a good thing (more variety in fresh veggies/fruits more of the year, for example).

    "Hyper-palatable" food has probably increased, as a fraction of the average person's intake . . . but "hyper-palatable" foods (IMO) are more about pushing our evolution-installed buttons (enjoyment of relatively high calorie, higher-fat, higher-carb/sugar, salty foods), rather than about being delightfully tasty in complex and satisfying ways. (Reminder: Just My Opinion.)

    Restaurant food is more consistent than it used to be (every Applebee's tends to make the same stuff the same way, for example), but the mom'n'pop or locally-managed places that used to exist had higher highs than modern chains, as well as lower lows. The lowest lows in quality are pretty much gone, IMO, but we're kind of at a high-average mediocrity, mostly, in the chains. Genius and delight is mostly still locally-managed.

    The average person cooks way less frequently, and using more pre-processed ingredients, than was average in my youth/young adulthood. It just blows me away that when people would take a scratch cake or cupcakes to work (when I was in the workforce over a decade ago), I'd hear various people marvel that not only had someone made it themselves, they'd miraculously done it without using cake mix. Workplace potlucks had a shrinking fraction of actual homemade foods, and a higher fraction of purchased pre-mades, over my working decades . . . at least until my specific (higher ed, IT) workforce started including a larger number of recent immigrants, who upped the ante in the yummy homemade food department again.

    ETA: I left out the <curmudgeon>,</curmudgeon> tags again. ;)

    Could not agree more.

    I do love trying new restaurants and going to old favorites, but they aren't chains, they are places I think might be interesting and teach me something. The chains aren't worth excess calories (the chains I go to sometimes are places like Pret, and that's about something consistent, that fits my goals, and has the calories a meal I'd have packed myself would have).

    I used to use going to restaurants as an excuse to splurge, but I've come to terms with the fact that if it's a weekly or 2x a week event, you can't. Portions are often smaller than at the chains at the places I go (not always), but I know it's still way more cals than in something I'd prepare at home. I'll also plan for it.

    Re supposedly hyperpalatable foods, I get the concept and why it pushes our evolutionary buttons, but I absolutely do not believe we eat more because that stuff is more delicious than homemade (it's clearly less, IMO) -- it's because it's so easy, so available, and so cheap, and maybe because it's just less satisfying than something that took work and is shared with family or friends in the context of a meal.
  • pierinifitness
    pierinifitness Posts: 2,231 Member
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    Many Americans eat more than 3 meals a day. Maybe this contributes to average weight gain:

    https://nypost.com/2018/09/26/nobody-eats-three-meals-a-day-anymore/
  • lucerorojo
    lucerorojo Posts: 790 Member
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    ^ I agree. When I was a kid, MAYBE we had a snack after school before dinner, but most likely we didn't, since we usually ate early around 5:00-6:00 pm. I also did not eat snacks in high school. Occasionally we'd get cookies or ice cream in college, but for the most part it was 3 meals a day. Since I've been on the weight loss program, I do my best when I just eat three good meals a day. Adding snacks just makes me crave more and go off the plan and just not helpful for me. I think if you know what you are eating and how much you should be, snacks can be effective. But the average American does not. I know before I started tracking, and I had been a healthy eater for the most part, including a vegan and vegetarian for about 10 years of my life, I still did not know how many calories I was supposed to be eating. I was shocked when I found out (since I'd been eating about 1,000 more per day).
  • pierinifitness
    pierinifitness Posts: 2,231 Member
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    Go to bed to eat less.

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/you-say-you-eat-three-meals-a-day-this-app-proves-you-wrong_n_5602f3f3e4b00310edf9ba42
  • stephanne13
    stephanne13 Posts: 212 Member
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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.

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