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Nearly 1 in 10 Americans report they are severely obese, says study. (www.voanews.com)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/news

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[–] recklessengagement 40 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Everyone blames food/diet/portions for this, but personally I think the car-centric culture should also bear a large portion of the blame.

When I stayed with friends in Europe, they easily ate as much as my American friends, but everywhere we went we were either walking or biking.

Meanwhile, in the VAST majority of the US, if you so much as want a safe place to walk that isn't adjacent to the pervasive pedestrian-hostile street design, you need to take a car to get there.

American car culture essentially turns the average routine into ferrying oneself from chair to desk to chair to bed, intermixed with brief walks throgh scenic parking lots.

We need to counter the sedentary lifestyle within the design of our actual cities, but its the american way to push societal problems onto the responsibility of the individual... so I do not see this changing within our lifetimes.

[–] IchNichtenLichten 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm not sure that's correct, check out how many calories you'd have to burn just to cover those in a can of soda.

[–] Brcht 18 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I think walking does way more than burning calories though.

For one it gives you a lot more awareness of your physical condition, if you go everywhere by car you may barely notice your weight has doubled.

Secondly I find any physical activity, especially running or walking, helps to combat urges for stuff like snacking.

[–] IchNichtenLichten 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sure, that may be true although I'd push back on your assertion that people somehow won't notice they've added 100lbs unless they walk everywhere.

The main issue is that processed foods are very high in calories and low in everything that is good for you and these foods are absolutely everywhere in the US. Work meetings frequently have a box of donuts on the table (700 calories each) huge sodas are common, coffees are more like a dessert than a drink, etc.

According to my watch if I do a 15 minute walk with some light jogging that's around 120 calories. I'd have to do that twice to cancel out a single can of soda.

[–] Brcht 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yes maybe 'notice' 100lbs gain is a strong word, but you don't fully realize it until you actually start wheezing doing something you used to consider normal. If your only exercise is walking from the car to your desk job and back you may just chalk it down to being a little out of shape.

The main issue is that processed foods are very high in calories and low in everything that is good for you and these foods are absolutely everywhere in the US.

Definitely, that is the main issue. I'm just saying the benefts (even just the weigh-control benefits) of walking are more than the calories spent.

Walking is a very low intensity exercise that will not burn a lot of calories, but is it's the only exercise you get it's a whole lot better than nothing.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I thought humans were notoriously efficient walkers, so we don’t burn that many calories that way?

The problem is partly the culture, but largely the design of our suburbs and sprawl.

Increased density and public transit are cool, but until there’s laws about not cutting down that “empty” patch of trees, or paving over that old farmland, developers are gonna make shitty sprawl, and cars will be necessary.

I mean it’s so bad and people are so cheap about it that they choose forced HOAs to maintain culdesacs and roads instead of properly funding public services with taxes.

[–] stoly 1 points 1 month ago

This is the case. Our muscles need very little energy to operate.

[–] BassTurd 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

How fast do you think weight is gained or how long do you think people spend in cars that gaining an excessive amount of weight is a surprise? No arguments about walking being healthier, but for most people, time in the car isn't that significant.

[–] Brcht 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

If, in your whole day, you never walk more than 100 meters at a time (likely, if you go by car everywhere) you may not notice the weight gain for years.

If you live in a place with an elevator or on the ground floor, get your food delivered or get it at a drive-in, do most of your shopping online, go to places with parking lots, where you just walk maybe 20-30 meters before you sit down, you'll not notice your health is going to shit.

[–] BassTurd 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

As someone that lives in the world you're describing and drives everywhere, you're wrong. Weight doesn't just all of the sudden exist. Walking 40ft instead of 300ft twice a day is not going to make a noticeable difference. Again walking is healthier, but nobody has ever driven, gotten really fat, and then wondered what happened.

[–] Brcht 2 points 1 month ago

Walking 40ft instead of 300ft twice a day is not going to make a noticeable difference

No but walking 1 km from/to the station or going by bike certainly is. As is walking during holidays or whatnot.

Most people who gain weight do realize it by feeling it rather than by looking at the mirror, especially since it is a very slow process. If you feel the struggle walking 300 feet and you don't have other issues, you've probably gained a lot of weight already.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

My guy, people in Europe who walk aren't walking 300ft in a day, they are walking probably 2-3km daily, those are the kinds of distance where you would start to really feel the effect of having gained 30-40 pounds that you might not realize if you walk like 300 ft in a day

[–] stoly 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

You need 1500 calories daily for brain stuff, breathing, liver, etc. You probably need only 500 it so calories to feed your muscles throughout the day. Being thin starts with eating, not with exercise.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago (6 children)

I am one of those obese people, and it seems so achingly unfair.

I am an active person. I eat similar foods and quantities as my peers, with drastically different results. I drink water, not soda or juice. I basically stopped drinking coffee, but when I did, it was always plain black. The only weight loss success I’ve had was spending a year on a keto diet, which my doctor swears was slowly killing me (salt, sulfites, etc). My doctor says I have mild hypothyroidism, but not bad enough to call for treatment.

I have been overweight my entire life, living in a world that fundamentally believes that this is entirely my fault. I don’t know how to convey the hopelessness that people like me have to live with, and the resolve that it requires to keep making healthy choices in spite of it, and never seeing beneficial results.

I don’t know how to get off this ride. All I ask is for other people to not believe I am a lazy shameless grotesque person for being forced to ride it.

[–] squirrelwithnut 6 points 1 month ago

I won't pretend to know what your journey has been like, but do/did you actually count what you eat or do you just guess/assume? In my experience, everyone not measuring what they eat guesses incorrectly about how much or how little they think they're eating. Measuring everything you eat is the only way to know for sure if you're eating towards weight loss. And only in extreme cases is your weight out of your control. So don't take that power away from yourself.

Weight loss is all (only) about calories in vs calories out and consistency. If you eat less than you burn and you do it consistently, you lose weight. It's literally just physics. All diets, including keto, are just complicated ways for you to limit how much you eat.

Just realize that everyone struggles with it, including fit people. So don't give up hope.

Losing weight is simple. It's just not easy. But you can do it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

You're not lazy or shameless.

Everyone has different struggles, for you one of those struggles is going to be your genetics which means you can't eat and exercise the same as your peers. You have to do better. That means cut out the ultraprocessed stuff and limit the amount you eat at restaurants. When you cook for yourself be careful of how much butter oil or sugar and salt you're adding to your food. But you know this already.

If you've done a keto diet you have the willpower to make the necessary lifestyle changes. Don't let a temporary setback be permanent. Good luck!

[–] Benjaben 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I have a good friend that sounds kind of similar. She's historically the most active among our friend group usually, generally the most fit and capable (she did the Alcatraz swim, for example). Eats completely reasonably, at times very well (due to what you're describing). But she's just always kinda large, even at her smallest. It's always struck me as extremely unfair, like you said, and she's really suffered for it.

I don't know your situation, but she's currently living her best life. Happy family with kids, loving kind partner, rewarding job in a stunningly beautiful (if fairly remote) location. And she deserves it, she's a wonderful human.

But boy did she suffer frustration and hopelessness on repeat along the way. Nearly gave up on trying for the life she wanted more than once. And I fully recognize the deck is stacked in some important ways against folks like y'all, so please don't read my "happy outcome" story as contradicting anything you said. But don't give up on what ya want.

[–] flicker 4 points 1 month ago

I need to add here (because I always do on the off-chance that it might help someone) that you can have too low of blood sugar depending on your specific genetics. I had an a1c of 3.8 when I was doing keto. I had basically had nondiabetic hypoglycemia for so long I was no longer showing symptoms. Please see a doctor if you do anything too dramatic, diet-wise.

[–] Brcht 1 points 1 month ago

Controlling weight is one of these things that are very easy for some very hard for others.

I have been underweight to obese and back to a healthy weight trough my life and I must say, losing weight was 50% the result of my efforts and 50% life changes (whom I lived with, work/life balance and other non diet related changes)

I now have the luxury of time to make my own food and exercise as much as I want, if I didn't I'd probably balloon up quite quickly. Pre made food is the spawn of Satan.

If you do cook at home I'd suggest adding more spices to replace salt/sugar as much as possible but keep stuff tasty, and go for food that has more complex texture, it tends to be more satisfying, so you naturally eat less.

That said good luck and try to ignore the bad judgements.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 month ago

My mom has lost a lot of weight cutting out sugar and eating mostly meat. Seriously, a lot of weight.
I'm not saying that's what you should do but what I'm saying is that it may be worth finding what works for you and doing that temporarily even if it's not the most healthy thing.

I wish i had the answers because there are also obese people in my life i would give them to.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Only ten percent? I'd have guessed it's higher, but perhaps the states I haven't visited have slimmer people.

[–] Kethal 21 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

It's those who are severely obese. 40% are obese and 75% are overweight.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Severe/morbid obesity is a BMI of 40+, rather than 30 for obese. I've been at the low end of that briefly and started getting out of breath doing things like going to my car, so I immediately decided to drop weight. Bar things like severe depression or significant medical issues, I don't see how people are able to maintain that kind of weight when it has such an obvious direct impact on quality of life.

Curious if the survey also included children, where the rates tend to be lower.

[–] disguy_ovahea 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Child obesity has been higher than the national average for the last 30 years.

Child Obesity

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obesity-child-17-18/obesity-child.htm

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Young children were like half the rate of adults and adolescents. Even if you averaged the 6-11 in with them, they'd still be below adults and adolescents.

[–] disguy_ovahea 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

It’s my understanding that the US considers children to be people under 18 years of age.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Wouldn't that be minors? Still, every group except young children were about the same, so minors as a whole would still be lower than non-minors.

[–] cosmicrookie 1 points 1 month ago

The way i read it is how many call themselves severally obese. Not how many actually are. My guess is that many more are severally obese but dont identify as being so

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

surprised pikachu face

[–] TheTechnician27 2 points 1 month ago

Original Associated Press link.