Are we all 'skinny challenged' compared to the world?

[TipsyTraveler]

And by medical standards.

We as Americans are more inclined to think someone who is a healthy weight probably has cancer because they look so much thinner than everyone else.

Definitely. The billboard just struck me as funny because you would expect a weight loss product, especially, would want to advertise a drastic weight loss, so they would generally use someone who is significantly overweight for their “before” picture. Yet, these “before” pictures would probably be considered fairly slim by American standards.

Are they thinner or is the picture just smaller?

They’re thinner.

 

[Living42Day]

I feel kind of bad for your friends. Imagine going to a different country, to DISNEY WORLD, and all that can be taken away from that is that people are fat? When I go to Disney, I am rarely noticing other people's bodies...barely a blip on the radar. It's unfortunate to not see what a blessing it is to be part of the magic and to see others enjoying their day, no matter what they look like. Life is far too difficult to nitpick how others look.

I visited the UK and Paris and I really did not notice whether people were skinny, fat, black, white, had poor dental hygiene, lacked fashionable clothing, etc. Just not the purpose of my trip, I was far too busy taking in Cotswolds or staring in awe at the rolling green hills of the Parisian countryside.

 

[TeamRiley]

Corporations make food that is addicting & makes you stay hungry so you eat more (buy more), and in turn makes us sick, but not dead otherwise the healthcare system would lose out on profits/patients.

It's a big scam here & we all don't know any better. The only "real" food at the grocery store is around the outer walls, everything in the aisles is garbage, only the produce, & meat dept./deli has real food in it.

And the sunglass manufacturers invented the sun so they could sell more product.

 

[starlite_]

My neighbor used to talk about how he was healthy fat, like that is a real thing. It is certainly something that many Americans believe.

The he got diagnosed with diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and high cholesterol.

His BMI was a useful measurement he ignored. A measurement that indicated he should see a physician who would use other tools to determine his health.

BMI is a very useful tool to know if more in depth testing should be done.

This article talks about the many shortcomings of the BMI
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/how-useful-is-the-body-mass-index-bmi-201603309339

and ends with:

This is the part that I find most important, because yes, it is an ok measure for a starting point, but it's not accurate or should be used to determine if someone is overweight.

And there's another problem: current BMI definitions of overweight or obesity were based largely on white populations. Yet body composition, including percent body fat or amount of muscle mass, can vary by race and ethnic group. So, BMI may help predict health status among people who are white, but may be less accurate for people in other racial and ethnic groups.

For example, defining obesity by standard measures of BMI tends to overestimate risk in Black individuals and underestimate it for those of Asian descent. This may lead to suboptimal counselling and treatment, and may ultimately increase healthcare disparities. The World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health recommend different BMI cutoffs for overweight and obesity in people of Asian descent. Changes are being recommended for BMI cutoffs for other ethnic groups as well.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Y'all BMI is not even a real thing. By that I mean it was created by a guy who never meant for it to be used for medical purposes in the 1800s. For whatever reason it got attached to become the golden standard but it's made up stuff, no science went into it as far as studying is this actually a thing. More of this should be talked about but hey even NPR talked about it from 2009

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439

 

[dvcgirl67]

Yes, without question. Americans are larger than Europeans and also larger than those we've encountered in Mexico, Canada and Central America. And I don't think it's a secret that theme parks, Disney in particular, draws a crowd that is heavier than other tourist destinations. I've noticed heavier people in other nations, but honestly have never seen someone who I'd consider obese.

 

[dvcgirl67]

Paris just got its first Krispy Kreme and according to DGD her cousins were trying hard to be there the first day. Apparently eating habits are changing there as well. Once in the not so distant past French farmers destroyed newly opening Mickey Ds.

I saw that too. But I've been to Paris three times over the last 20 years and along with Milan, it's the most stylish city with a thin population. In France, it wasn't until we got out to areas like Normandy that we actually saw someone who needed to lose some weight. In places like Paris and Milan, overweight Americans really stick out like sore thumbs.

My husband is a fit guy and he's Italian American, and we've been in several cities in Italy where we've had Americans come up to us to ask us if we speak English....to help them with directions to somewhere. They assume he's Italian. That's when we speak back in our American English accents....to tell them we're at lost as they are .

 

[Chili327]

I feel kind of bad for your friends. Imagine going to a different country, to DISNEY WORLD, and all that can be taken away from that is that people are fat? When I go to Disney, I am rarely noticing other people's bodies...barely a blip on the radar. It's unfortunate to not see what a blessing it is to be part of the magic and to see others enjoying their day, no matter what they look like. Life is far too difficult to nitpick how others look.

I visited the UK and Paris and I really did not notice whether people were skinny, fat, black, white, had poor dental hygiene, lacked fashionable clothing, etc. Just not the purpose of my trip, I was far too busy taking in Cotswolds or staring in awe at the rolling green hills of the Parisian countryside.

Are you thinking they spent all day/everyday thinking about it.?? lol

And the sunglass manufacturers invented the sun so they could sell more product.

And the earth is flat. (definitely kidding, in case someone might think otherwise. lol)

 

[Living42Day]

Are you thinking they spent all day/everyday thinking about it.?? lol



And the earth is flat. (definitely kidding, in case someone might think otherwise. lol)

No, but it obviously bothered them enough to question their friends on why everyone was fat. Per OP, they noticed their friends acting strange and finally asked them what was wrong. At least some mental energy was taken up thinking about stranger's girth, which is more mental energy than I (and hopefully the majority of others) spend thinking about others being fat...

 

[Chili327]

No, but it obviously bothered them enough to question their friends on why everyone was fat. Per OP, they noticed their friends acting strange and finally asked them what was wrong. At least some mental energy was taken up thinking about stranger's girth, which is more mental energy than I (and hopefully the majority of others) spend thinking about others being fat...

Gotcha.

I think about how unhealthy people are often when I see it, be it weight, smokers, or anything else... hell, I cringe just seeing someone drink soda every single day. lol
I definitely don't "waste" my time putting a lot of energy into it, but it definitely crosses my mind on occasion, & i can see how it could come up pretty easily standing in line for an hour at the parks.

 

[Disneychick13]

No, but it obviously bothered them enough to question their friends on why everyone was fat. Per OP, they noticed their friends acting strange and finally asked them what was wrong. At least some mental energy was taken up thinking about stranger's girth, which is more mental energy than I (and hopefully the majority of others) spend thinking about others being fat...

I don’t think it’s super odd to notice something different about the make-up of the population in a given place if it’s a lot different from what you are used to or what you were expecting. When I went to San Diego, we went to legoland and SeaWorld. I wasn’t expecting so many Asian people! I shouldn’t have been surprised but I never really thought about it and it definitely stood out. Not in a negative way of course, but it stood out for sure.

 

[DCLMP]

We brought a couple of friends over from the UK for their first disney visit. We had a ball! However, on one day they were acting funny and we finally said "WHAT is it??" and they sheepishly asked why everyone was fat.



I looked around and I guess the views were vastly different than how we all looked in the 1970s. Not sure what has happened.


I don't do world travel, but am wondering...do we as americans look different than non-tourists in the EU and south ameria and australia etc?

And if so....why?

Americans are fatter that’s why.

 

[tvguy]

I'm surprised this is news to you. I've read about this many times in the last couple decades.

Portion sizes are huge in North America compared to Europe. The diet is way worse. Look at the size of large sodas in restaurants.

Free refills of soda can add a lot of calories too. My daughter went to school for a year in the U.K. and she said when she got back to the U.S. she had to get used to again getting not only a larger glass of soda, but the waitress bringing a refill when you got half way through with the one you had.

 

[dvcgirl67]

Some parts of the US have more of an obesity problem than others.

This is true in Europe as well.

 

[ronandannette]

Check this out. I doubt anybody here would have named a country in the Top 10 of obese citizens by percentage. I wouldn't have. Not that I know much about these countries, but it occurs to me that these places kind of negate the idea that North American obesity hinges on driving cars and consuming food additives. Note you need to toggle between the numbers for men or women. It changes the rankings a little.
https://data.worldobesity.org/rankings/?age=a&sex=f

 

[SirDuff]

Check this out. I doubt anybody here would have named a country in the Top 10 of obese citizens by percentage. I wouldn't have. Not that I know much about these countries, but it occurs to me that these places kind of negate the idea that North American obesity hinges on driving cars and consuming food additives. Note you need to toggle between the numbers for men or women. It changes the rankings a little.
https://data.worldobesity.org/rankings/?age=a&sex=f

Honestly, I was just coming to point out that the Western Pacific has insanely high levels of obesity - much more than the US. In some countries, amputation due to diabetes are one of the most common surgeries (when you tie obesity with high barriers to accessing care, you end up with a lot of complications from diabetes). It's having a major impact on health services planning and financing (which is what I do and I am now working in the region).

The Middle East countries are a bit more surprising to me (but I don't work in that region as much).

To your comment about "driving cars" - driving is definitely king here. To the point that people are shocked when I mention that I walked when I show up at a place within 1-2 km of home.

 

[ronandannette]

Honestly, I was just coming to point out that the Western Pacific has insanely high levels of obesity - much more than the US. In some countries, amputation due to diabetes are one of the most common surgeries (when you tie obesity with high barriers to accessing care, you end up with a lot of complications from diabetes). It's having a major impact on health services planning and financing (which is what I do and I am now working in the region).

The Middle East countries are a bit more surprising to me (but I don't work in that region as much).

To your comment about "driving cars" - driving is definitely king here. To the point that people are shocked when I mention that I walked when I show up at a place within 1-2 km of home.

That specific point was in reference to the ideas being discussed here that the lack of walking and the composition of foods can largely be blamed for the high North American obesity rates. Given that I doubt those factors are the same in places that have the insanely high obesity levels, I think it has to be boiled down more plainly. North Americans, by choice, just consume too many calories - period.

 

[kyton]

And personally it seems that being overweight is suddenly something to be embraced and celebrated. The amount of so-called “influencers” who push to make being morbidly obese a normal reality does not help to curb the rise.

Serving sizes here in the US are normally massive and as others have said the fact that wait staff refill your soda without asking has to play a part in this growth.

I’m overweight - it is all of my doing. I don’t eat badly but I am lazy. I know what to do to reduce my size and have started to take those steps. It’s no use getting all huffy as an overweight person when it is pointed out - truth is truth. Sugarcoating the facts doesn’t help anyone.

 

[sam_gordon]

In addition to everything else mentioned, is cigarette smoking a way to lose/keep off weight? Back in the 70s, there were a lot more smokers than now. And aren't there more smokers in Europe (don't know about Asia) than the US?

 

[piccolopat]

I use an ECV because I have osteoarthritis in my right knee, not because I'm fat.

We know that there are many reasons for using an ECV but to the casual observer it seems like most are overweight. Many mobility issues are due to weight. This country would have a much healthier population if we all had a good BMI.