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| Defining Obesity Down |
| 2012-01-18 |
| One in three American adults is obese, a national level that has stayed the same in recent years, said US data released on Tuesday. About one in six children and teenagers are also obese, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association report which showed that obesity remains a significant problem in US society despite efforts to combat it. "Obesity prevalence shows little change over the past 12 years, although the data are consistent with the possibility of slight increases," said the article. Obesity is defined as a body mass index, or a formula based on height and weight, that is 30 or higher. Examples would include a six-foot tall man weighing more than 222 pounds (1.82 meters and 100 kilograms) or a five-foot-seven-inch tall woman weighing 192 pounds (1.70 meters and 87 kilograms). According to the JAMA report, 35.7 percent of US adults are obese and so are 16.9 percent of children and teenagers age two to 19. When overweight people are added to the adult tally, the prevalence of overweight and obese people jumps to 68.8 percent of the US population. Apparently this is based on the old Metropolitan Life Insurance height/weight table. The US Army originally adopted it, and soon discovered that it is near impossible for a physically fit person to *not* be "overweight", according to that scale. On that scale, the maximum weight for a 6', "large frame" male is 188 pounds, and a 5'7", "large frame" female is 163 pounds. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #13 Yeah, yeah. Chevys and levees and Buddy on the radio. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2012-01-18 23:18 |
| #12 Back in the early 60's, my midwestern high school had 2 years of mandatory physical education. No food or snacks of any kind were available to buy on the premises. A student who wanted to eat lunch had to bring it with him in the morning. Upperclassmen were allowed off campus to eat downtown, a block away, if they wished. Most everyone brown-bagged their lunches. Our group photos showed a bunch of skinny boys and girls. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-01-18 21:07 |
| #11 But when you see someone riding some little electric scooter because they're too heavy to walk, you know something's wrong. When you see their butt sticking out for about two feet on either side of the scooter's seat, you don't need a doctor to tell you that something is wrong. Those are the 'obese' I was referring to. There are quite a few more of them than seemed to exist just 20 years ago. I was almost killed by one of them at the Dayton Hamvention about 2009. He was riding his electric seat, saw the food court up the next ramp, then turned too sharp & tipped himself and his scooter over - almost rolled over me as I walked by the ramp. That would have been an awful way to die, crushed by someone else's avoirdupois. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-01-18 21:03 |
| #10 In other news, Paula Dean says diabetes won't change the way she cooks. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2012-01-18 13:05 |
| #9 I think if you're a life and/or health insurance company you want to know how someone's weight is going to effect their health and/or longevity. Then you will want to adjust their premiums accordingly and you don't want Barack Obama telling you that you can't. Maybe it's not an exact science and I don't want Michelle Obama telling me what I can and cannot eat either. But when you see someone riding some little electric scooter because they're too heavy to walk, you know something's wrong. When you see their butt sticking out for about two feet on either side of the scooter's seat, you don't need a doctor to tell you that something is wrong. Yeah, that's a pretty wide seat on that scooter too. When you go to a concert and the person next to you is taking up all of her seat and half of yours that isn't healthy and it isn't much fun either. Here in California they dumbed down the phys ed classes by the simple act of not supplying towels for the kids to use after a shower. Who wants to get all sweaty and then go to their next class that way? Ick. Then they put vending machines on campus that sell Coke and candy bars. Uh huh. That's not healthy, folks. I don't wanna tell anybody they can't have Coke and candy bars but I don't want the school selling it to my kids either. Can we get more exercise and less Coke and candy bars? |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2012-01-18 13:01 |
| #8 According to the BMI - most, if not all, world class bodybuilders would be classed 'obese'. And the type of body does need to be taken into consideration - some people look like skin-over-skeletons at the upper-normal category while others look great and some do look 'larger'. Also take into consideration the 'average' american is typically larger (height) then they were 100 or 200 years ago. The species is growing larger. What was the average height in the middle ages? 4-foot-something? Me? I'm obese by any measure.... :( |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2012-01-18 12:51 |
| #7 AH, not only stigmatize but control. They're already trying to control fast food and portion sizes at school. The more they manage to define obesity down the easier it will be for them to control everything related to caloric intake...then exercize will come under their control and pretty soon you, in you Mao suit, will be in the park at dawn doing you state required exercizes. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2012-01-18 12:44 |
| #6 Golook at photos taken a hundred years ago. The rich sitting around the well stocked dinner tables were fat, hefty, husky. I have seen many such photos (I do genealogy & local history and this involves poring over old group photos looking for people, their friends and associates). Yes the rich tended to be larger than the poor. Even so, there were then very few really large people in any socioeconomic bracket, compared to the numbers/%-age of population that exist today. Look at 70-year-old group photos of children ages 9-15, even high school marching bands, and compare them to similar group photos today - the proportion of chubby kids and huge ones is much larger today. Or visit a Walmart between 2200 and 0200. Something is definitely happening among the population at large. That being said, the "War on Obesity" is utterly stupid and misguided -- it amounts to heaping abuse on the truly obese. The BMI is simply a medical rule of thumb. It is being used to automatically stigmatize an increasing proportion of the population (you can bet the definition will be altered in the near future). |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-01-18 12:17 |
| #5 This is typical of the tyrant's tactics. Invent rules (laws, regulations) that allow you to claim anyone is breaking them at any time. Yes I'm a little overweight, I'm 6'2.5" and weigh 228. Not great shape but I can still handle 20 pushups. Oh yeah, I've got a bad back and I'm 62. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2012-01-18 11:14 |
| #4 (Clicked too soon) He's complained that they constantly list him as "Obese". No way, he looks like Superman. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2012-01-18 10:30 |
| #3 Some of this is BS. I'm 6-1 and I have weighed between 195 and 215 most of my life, including seven years in the Army and 3 years as a LRP. When I came back from the Sinai in 72, I weighed 187 and looked gaunt and haggered. These BMI's would have said I was obese. Heck, when I played college football, I was measured at 4% body fat, weighing 205...so I was obese??? A density test is a better measure of obesity than a BMI, I have a friend that played OL in the pros, he's 6-3 and weighs 260, a solid ball of muscle and he's obese? |
| Posted by: Bill Clinton 2012-01-18 10:27 |
| #2 My son-in-law Is 6-1 and 240 theres no fat on him.(Works for the Power company, Clinbing poles) |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2012-01-18 10:25 |
| #1 Go look at photos taken a hundred years ago. The rich sitting around the well stocked dinner tables were fat, hefty, husky. The working class were thin, gaunt, skinny. The social critics of the time bemoaned the situation. Look at the photos today. The rich pay nutritionists and personal trainers to keep them thin and skinny. The working class is 'hefty'. However, the social critics are still complaining - its their purpose to exist in life. For the first time in history, humans on (literally) a large scale have an abundance of food and ready access year around. Instead of celebration we get complaints. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2012-01-18 08:22 |