Obesity in America

<p>Another problem is the need-to-eat-my-money's-worth mentality people have when they go to all-you-can-eat buffets. Plus everything in the US is supersized.</p>

<p>Obesity in a sense can not really go away. Lets say you take the top 10% fattest people in the country and say you need to go away, and get out of my country. So you exile them, and they never return. But if you think about it you would still have fat people. It's just that the bottom 10% of what's left would be considered fat. I would say being fat in a sense can be an opinion and not just a fact. </p>

<p>But if you want to stay in shape do this:
Eat a bunch of tiny meals, don't have 3 major meals.
And Exercise</p>

<p>If you do those you'll be fine. Works for me and my friends. I'm 12% body fat :)</p>

<p>I thought obesity is measured by a body mass index. It has nothing to do with any percentages of an overall population.</p>

<p>I think society plays a huge part in obeisity.Bullying at schools encourages some people to comfort eat and binge eat.Also its kinda were people live.I should think people who live in a big city where looks get you places and its all about ones self then I think there would be less obeise people than in the likes of the countryside where theres no-one to answer to and no expectations to maintain.</p>

<p>pokemaster, you bring up an excellent point. it should be measured by body fat percentage because muscular people can have very high body mass indexes since muscle weighs more than fat.</p>

<p>pokemaster, i heared from one of my friends that food in U.S are super super super sized. She went into this takeaway place and her drink cup was double the size of our 'large' cup..</p>

<p>My mum says that when she goes grocery shopping, <em>most</em> of the obese mothers have a big trolley filled with moutains of food and that the skinny mothers carry around a shopping basket filled with stuff. i find that pretty interesting..</p>

<p>I agree with the body fat percentage thing. According to the BMI chart, I would be over the top in terms of mass. But, due to the fact that I have MASSIVE leg muscles from playing football, a lot of that weight is muscle.</p>

<p>I have been overweight for a LONG time. I finally decided to get my act together a few months ago when I noticed in <em>almost</em> any given situation I would be the fattest person. </p>

<p>I took up an interest in Vegetarianism and started hitting the gym. I would use a portable DVD player and watch 2 movies back to back while on the cross-trainer/elliptical. 5 hour workouts became the norm for a while. I lost about 20 pounds that first month. Then, I went traveling through europe and I thought that with all of the pasta and alcohol that I was having, I would gain back all the weight I lost. Wrong!, because of all the walking I did, I actually lost 15 pounds.</p>

<p>Its so great that I am now able to fit into smaller size clothes. In addition, I feel like I have MUCH more energy.</p>

<p>I'm continuing to lose about a pound a day.
I usually walk in the morning for an hour, hit the airconditioned gym in the afternoon( depending on the length of the DVD's I do Cardio for 4-5 hours) and then I do a little strength/core training and finally I go for a swim for .5 hour before sleep.</p>

<p>Im well on the way to my "goal" and I am 75% of weight I once was. I want to be 66% of my all time high</p>

<p>
[quote]
I am embarassingly overweight. I used to be skin and bones. Literally. I was anorexic. I could survive on five raisins and a bowl of chicken broth per day for weeks at a time. I was so mentally messed up it wasn't funny. Then I snapped and have been binge eating for the past three months, gained 50 pounds back and am now struggling to keep myself from running to the cupboard to stuff myself until it hurts so badly I have to throw up.</p>

<p>Too graphic? Well, this thread invites it. About 30% of obese people have Binge Eating Disorder or are Compulsive Overeaters. Please be careful before you judge.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>You've gotta be kidding me. Poor you and all of the other victims of this new, incurable epidemic. I wonder, why didn't this disorder exist 50 years ago? Hmm, may I hypothesise that it's not a disorder at all, it's simply another name for gluttony and denial.</p>

<p>How about you try this, why don't you quit pawning your problems off on self-diagnosed fairytale disorders and face them head on?</p>

<p>Look, I smoke too much, I drink too much, and I eat too much. I'm a big, fat, lazy coronary in waiting. I'm "embarassingly overweight" as you put it. I own what I do though, that's the difference between you and me, I don't pawn it off on fantasy ailments. I may die young and if I do it's all my fault. Is it so hard to just admit you have no self control?</p>

<p>And here's a little fun fact for you, 90% of obese people eat at least 2 fast food meals per week, 70% eat 3 or more.</p>

<p>BennyHinn, have you ever eaten less than 800 calories a day for six months straight? Run six miles every day because you think you're overweight when your body fat percentage is 8% as a female? Collapsed during Aerobics class because you skipped breakfast, and dinner the day before, lost a pound a day, and all the while you think "you have no self control?"</p>

<p>Have you ever eaten so much that you have to throw up afterwards because your stomach can't handle the junk you put in it? But you hated yourself the entire time you were shoveling that chocolate, peanut butter, and powerbars into your mouth, because you knew you were going to get fat and "you have no self control?" Hated yourself so much that you were on the verge of jumping in front of a car before your mother pulled you back because you'd never "have self control," this is just going to go on forever and forever and you'll never be happy again? Stood out in the middle of a thunderstorm trying to catch pneumonia, took improper doses of laxatives to clear your system, cut your arms because you look ugly and fat and "have no self control?"</p>

<p>I do not eat fast food. I envy the people who are obese for natural causes like bad choices. I've read every nutrition book I've seen. I can calculate the caloric value of any food you put in my hand. I can run 10 miles with a torn muscle if I put my mind to it and have before to cancel out a binge. If you want to hear it, fine, "I don't have self control." I really want to be miserable and hurting all the time. I want people to cast nasty remarks at me because "I have no self control."</p>

<p>You are not mentally unstable, so it's natural that you can't relate. My mother still sobs that I can just stop when I want to, so why am I doing this to her? Trust me, if I could escape from food, I would be out in a nanosecond. It's not that easy.</p>

<p>And you spelled "hypothesize" incorrectly.</p>

<p>And if you were a troll, you crossed a line you shouldn't have.</p>

<p>
[quote]
have you... are you... do you... have you... and almost died! and have you... and will you... and can you... and I can't help it!

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Look, I'm not a doctor, shrink, or anything near it, I just call em like I see em. If what I said doesn't pertain to you then i'm sorry. However, it DOES pertain to damn near every fatass in this country.</p>

<p>Besides, it sounds like you have bigger fish to fry than skipping the super-size at McDonalds, you said it best:

[quote]
You are not mentally unstable, so it's natural that you can't relate.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>
[quote]
And you spelled "hypothesize" incorrectly.

[/quote]

<a href="http://www.wordreference.com/definition/hypothesise%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.wordreference.com/definition/hypothesise&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.wordreference.com/definition/hypothesize%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.wordreference.com/definition/hypothesize&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[quote]
And if you were a troll, you crossed a line you shouldn't have.

[/quote]

Oh please, you know what they say about threats on the internet...</p>

<p>Look tkm256, i'm not a troll, i'm not posting this just to be a prick. According to your testimony you've put great effort into beating whatever this thing is you've got, and I honestly hope you do it. You may also want to keep the details of your medical ailments, trials and tribulations private, it just sounds like you're either bragging or on a sympathy binge.</p>

<p>tkm256, obviously what is happening to you is out of your control. However, I hope that you're getting help for it and not just dismissing it as a disorder. The rapid weight gain that you described after being so thin is <em>very</em> bad for your heart, and you should go to a doctor to make sure that your body is handling all this okay. You probably have, but I just wanted to say this just in case.</p>

<p>how does this happen with every cc thread?</p>

<p>how does what happen?</p>

<p>I think that the main reasons there are so many obese people in this country are:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>NO one in America walks anywhere anymore. I used to live in Europe and walked so much, never watched what I ate and I never had a problem with my weight, sometimes I was even told I should gain a few pounds. In the US, I'm always struggling to keep my weight down. When I try walking somewhere, its a nightmare. Half the roads don't have sidewalks for pedestrians, cars just try to run over you all the time, the sidewalks that do exist are covered trash that people don't bother to put in a garbage container, plus there's always annoying whistling form hispanic lawnmowers driving by.</p></li>
<li><p>Healthy food costs more than junk food. Whenever I'm eating out at a pizza place or something, a salad always costs more than most of the other, less healthier stuff on the menu. I don't eat out that much, maybe one a month, but its still pretty annoying when I have to eat pizza or fries just because they're three times cheaper than a garden salad. And then there's grocery stores, where organic food costs at least twice as much as other food.</p></li>
<li><p>Very thin celebrities that are admired because of their size. Studies have shown that looking at this people all day and being pressured to have that same body type creates an unconscious desire to binge.</p></li>
<li><p>Less time for parents to spend with their kids. A lot of parents come home late, can't make dinner so they order take-out or go to a fast food place instead. Plus, they feel guilty for not spending time with their kids, so they'll stock the cupboards with junk food that their kids love to make up for the lack of attention that they're giving.</p></li>
</ol>

<p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050810/ap_on_he_me/fit_diets_vs_subsidies;_ylt=Aoj5ucXz5v.mpLY7VdFHKXas0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3czJjNGZoBHNlYwM3NTE-%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050810/ap_on_he_me/fit_diets_vs_subsidies;_ylt=Aoj5ucXz5v.mpLY7VdFHKXas0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3czJjNGZoBHNlYwM3NTE-&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>This article articulates one of the main reasons for obesity in this country</p>

<p>What a heated little discussion....hhmmm...and all I was doing was doing my test at super markets...:D</p>

<p>I don't particularly like airing my dirty laundry. If people keep these things private, people will never know that it exists. It hurts people's pride to let others know that their entire lives revolve around food, after all, it makes them look really pathetic to the sane mind.</p>

<p>I'm not looking for a pity party, in fact I think it was a mistake to use myself as an example. I just want people to be aware of what goes on in a sick person's mind. There are a lot more people who deal with this than one would think. There are girls throwing up in my science classroom sinks or heaven's sake, fasting for days, obsessing over the size of their thighs when you can see their ribcages. I could only describe what was happening to me because that is what I know, but much worse occurs to others.</p>

<p>Yes, there is a major obesity problem in the US from pure laziness. But there are people like me, AP Scholars with Distinction who get 2250 on the SAT and hold a 4.67 GPA, who would win "Goody-Two-Shoes of the Year" if it was offered, who are labeled as having no self control when they simply struggle to get through the day. I've talked to them in support groups and on websites; they are in no way just "dismissing" their issues as a disorder. They are seeing specialists, trying to work through it, struggling vainly to keep their friends and family who don't want to deal with the problem. It would be nice if an ED was like the flu, you take medicine, rest up and you're all better.</p>

<p>But just to admit you have one is devastating, it's like admitting you're an alcoholic or addicted to drugs. Anorexics and bulemics think they've got everything under control. Actually, they're quite proud of what they can do and wonder why everyone else is so weak they have to eat 1000 calories a day. The ED is what they are, they can't imagine themselves without it. There's a lot of hatred, and feelings of inferiority and desperation that are only intensified by people telling them "you have no self control." Doctors say to ease up a bit, they warn of what it's doing to the body, but they don't get that it's a mental trap.</p>

<p>You can "call it like you see it," but your eyes can only see so much.</p>

<p>sr6622, I'm sorry I stole the thread from you, but I think it's important to get this out in the open. Does anybody else share BennyHinn's opinion? If so, I'd like to hear from them. My email's <a href="mailto:tkm256@adelphia.net">tkm256@adelphia.net</a> if anyone feels like flaming.</p>

<p>No prob tkm...</p>

<p>yeah. the heated discussion....</p>