Why people in this country are fat?

Question

Obesity involves having an abnormally high proportion of body fat. Doctors define obesity as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher and overweight as having a BMI of 25 or higher.

Weight is largely determined by how you balance your intake of calories from food with the energy you use in everyday activities. If you consume more calories than you use, you gain weight. Your body stores calories that you don't need for energy as fat.

Fat is important for storing energy and insulating your body, among other functions. The human body can handle carrying some extra fat, but beyond a certain point, body fat can begin to interfere with your health.

Eating too many calories and not getting enough physical activity are the main causes of obesity, especially in combination. But many factors can contribute to obesity.

Answer 1

Eating too much, eating the wrong things, video games, technoligy, laziness. America is getting GROSS.

BesT WisheS!

Answer 2

Okay, but BMI is seriously flawed. Obesity statistics are based on the BMI....this should tell you something.

Now, I'm not saying the US doesn't have an issue with obesity. What I am saying is that a lot of people are being misclassified by a flawed system.....a system that was never intended to be used to determine obesity, but somehow this became standard practice in the last 30 years.

The only way to measure obesity is by measuring body fat percentage. A body fat percentage of over 35% for women and over 25% for men is considered obese.

Answer 3

Ok. Yet another one. Not everyone that is fat is fat from eating too much. Family history and genes add to that. Also to that medications you might be on and state of your health. I am overwieght. Not because I eat all the time as you state. I got the weight from 3 pregnancies that were pre-elcamptic. Then when unsuccessfully trying to lose the weight I learned I have a dying thyroid which makes weight loss next to impossible. Then I learned I have rheumatoid athuritis. Which is a diesease that eats away at my joints. Dieting is one of the triggers for a flare of the disease. I then learned I have diabetes type 2. Which really makes it hard because I have to eat even when I don't want to eat to keep my sugars even and level. Physical activity is a no go due to the Rheumatoid arthuritis. It flares it big time. So before you get on your soap box-look at things from all sides. Some of us would love to be thin and as I am working at it-find it next to impossible to accomplish. Go ahead and think all fat people are glutons. You are wrong. In a day I only eat what I have to keep my sugars even. I don't eat chocolate, and alot of the foods I love I can't have because of the diabetes. I am so tired of self righteous nuts thinking fat is fat due to intake of too much food. For the most part you are right. I would venture to say and I could be wrong-about 90 percent of fat people are fat due to lack of activity and too much food. the other 10 percent I fall into where weight is here for other reasons.

Answer 4

Not sure I see a question other than in the heading. All of this information is meaningful - and pretty well known. The problem is in my opinion

1) People are trained from birth to eat too much. I was always told I was a "good boy" for cleaning my plate and praised for having a good appetite when taking seconds.

2) One of the biggest problems people in this country face is trying to figure out how to eat less. In much of the rest of the world the biggest problem is trying to find a way to get enough food to keep from starving.

Not fair - but true.

Answer 5

It is so easy to label Americans lazy or stupid, but the fact of the matter is that the U.S. produces:

HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP!!!!!!

High fructose corn syrup is one the main reasons for obesity in this country, it is in so many products that it is becoming harder and harder for me to find foods that DON'T include it. The U.S. has been looking the other way because Iowa has such a huge interest in the HFCS industry. Go check it out. Look at the statistics in obesity before HFCS was invented and after. You may be very surprised, and it is ALL POLITICAL!

Answer 6

We are a nation of technology that requires less physical movement than we did 30 years ago. I don't know if the whole country is overweight since I have a BMI of 23 and most of my family is about the same or less

Answer 7

We as Americans have and energy malfunction. We basically consume more calories at one time then is need to sustain our body's. Because the more calories in a food item the better it tastes.

Answer 8

that is true about the physiological causes, but you need to delve into the psychological factors that cause people to overeat. i admit is i am obese, and i overeat regularly. but the real question is why can't i stop over eating? well, i don't have tools to deal with stress and depression. in my experience people who are significantly overweight are more sensitive than others to criticism. i believe that if people weren't so cruel to each other we might have a lower occurrence of obesity.

Answer 9

Seems to me you answered your own question.

Eating too many calories and not getting enough physical activity are the main causes of obesity, especially in combination.

Answer 10

some people don't care about themselves=some can't get it off due to health related problems=some people take medications that make them obese=and others love food so much, they keep eating ,even when they know they shouldn't