How come white Australians are so fat?

Question

I am completely shocked at how fat people in Australia, you have this image that everyone is thin and lives on a beach, but statistically its the fattest country in the world, hightest obesity and people here are very heavy..how is this possible. dont get me wrong there are fit people but this image we all think of australia/australians turns out to be false

Answer 1

I'm not sure it's just white Australians. nevertheless here's some stats.

in 2005 in Australia

67% of men are obese or overweight
52% of women are obese or overweight

(keep in mind that the labels obese and overweight are based on BMI. a BMI of >25 = overweight, and a BMI > 30 = overweight and obese. And BMI does not take into account muscles vs fat. It's simply weight in kg / height squared (in meters)).

in 2004 in the US, 66% of all adults were considered overweight or obese....

As to why. Well. Your body is in the middle of a giant energy balance. Goes like this...

Energy in - Energy out - Energy spent = Energy stored

If Energy stored is (+), guess what. You add mass. You can make it negative by eating less, and moving around more.

One huge driving force in making a persons Energy stored (+) is fast food. We all do it right?. Drive through a restaurant drive through window, and eat a couple of thousand calories while moving nothing more than our arms and mouth. instant fat.


*******update********
Jon

Thanks for the comments... fyi , there are only 302 million people in the US, not 450 million see here
http://www.census.gov/

And I agree that the label "fat" is pretty ambigious. That was one of my points. Your arguing that the percentage of obese people is less than my quote. fine. won't argue there. My logic was overweight + obese = "fat". Again, that's a very very poor definition. Sorry if I wasn't clear. And also BMI > 25 = fat + obese. Another poor definition. If you like, I could rewrite this as obesity = fat instead. In which case it's 32% in the USA have a BMI>30 = obese = fat. again poor definition. In australia, obesity = 22% as near as I can tell by that definition.

http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/trend/maps/index.htm

http://www.nationmaster.com/country/as-australia/hea-health

Point is it doesn't really matter. About 1 out of every 5 people in Australia vs 1 out of every 3 in the US is obese. And that's bad. According to every consensus, that percentage is rising. And that's bad too. And if you don't buy that number then I challenge you to this. Walk into a mall, a restaurant, six flags, whatever anywhere in the USA and look around. Look that the number of "fat" people around you. I live in Chicago. I look around everyday. Usually, I see more fat people that thin people. Usually I see a few that can't walk or have extreme difficulty walking due to their weight. I have a BMI of 28 and I'm fit. Muscles not fat. The people around me are my driving force for exercise. It wasn't like this 10 years ago when I moved here. This is an epidemic.

As to my energy balance. Again I think we're saying the same thing. you broke down energy stored a bit more and energy passed out etc. Nicely done.

Another point is this. The question asks how it's possible that people in Australia have gotten fat. Well, globally, we're eating more calories and burning less. One of the reasons is the advent of drive through windows. Make's it's easier to eat more and burn less very very quickly. And that's bad. For that matter, if you're a believer in the carbohydrate theories (eating foods rich in carbs makes your brain say EAT), then the french fries are not only fattening but they make you want more. So, you supersize at the window.

I suppose I should also mention that although Australia is an island, it's approximately 3 million square miles. The United states is 3.7 million square miles in comparison. My point is, it isn't even an all beach country. So to have a perception of skinny people living on beaches is just not reality.

Answer 2

Australia is the second most obese nation, right behind the USA. We are a fairly wealthy nation (major $ from ore and food production) and being producers, we eat a lot of meat and drink a lot of alcohol. Also, the junk food revolution is really gaining momentum, with cheap, greasy, sugary foods available in every shopping and entertainment complex.. Nothing sinister, just ppl eating whats for sale. Oh yer, I think you will find that a lot of middle aged men are also obese...

Answer 3

I would have argued your statistics until I checked them myself. In fact, as an Australian I'm low-normal weight range for height, but often criticised for being underweight. I'll be interested to read your responses here.

Answer 4

What? This isn't aimed at Americans? I must be seeing things!!!!! *rubs eyes*

Passes out from shock.....

Hey, fat people are everywhere! Time to find a new subject to obsess over. This is getting really boring for me.

Answer 5

I've mentioned before that the problem is becoming global. Many countries are faced with it. Even well - to - do city dwellers in "developing" countries are developing in that direction.

Answer 6

Nice try M W, but biochemistry doesn't allow you to make it so simple:

"It is true that the First Law of Thermodynamics must apply to the human body. And, given the simplistic approach which many dull normals take, lots of people are confused about what 'consumed' and 'burn off' mean.

There are active control systems which reduce the amount of energy used involuntarily for many of the body's autonomic functions. There are also significant energy excretion systems which are active in many bodies. A very basic enumeration is as follows; note that in real life you have to add a bunch of interactive arrows symbolizing the feedback controls (hormonal, and also enzyme regulation by product inhibition and allosteric interactions) which connect these systems.

C - N - S1- S2 - S3 - I - H - E - V = 0

C = calories eaten
N = non-absorbed calories excreted in bowels
S1 = calories stored as fat
S2 = calories stored as carbohydrate
S3 = calories stored as protein
I = calories used in involuntary movement
H = calories used for heat generation and other metabolic processes
V = calories used in voluntary movement
E = calories excreted in urine (Examples: fat converted to glucose in the liver, incompletely burned triglycerides and albumin)

Note that there is "manual" control only on C and V. Deliberate variation of C and V will immediately cause feedback to all the other systems, and you have absolutely no control over the net outcome. None of these variables are independent of the others. All adjust to restore equilibrium when any one of them changes. So you can't say that the amount of energy stored as S1 is "whatever is left over", because there is no such thing as "left over" in a feedback-controlled homeostasis.

So can increasing V and decreasing C result in less S1? Of course, provided that I, H and E don't change enough in response to prevent that outcome. "Just try harder" is useless advice. You have no control over what your personal regulatory processes do with changes in voluntary input and output."

Also: There's 80 million obese/overweight adults in the USA supposedly. If that's true, than saying that 66% of adults are that way is inaccurate (Just like a lot of the data in this topic [Because we love overstating it to insult the fat people]), because there's 450 million people in the US. That's simple math that anyone can understand, but it's just proof you can't always trust statistics. Of course, me being a skinny **** undergrad: I'm always skeptical.

-Fitness isn't a bodyweight either. It's depedent on one's reaction to the elements of fitness (Coordination, Balance, Speed, Strength, Power, Endurance, and Flexibility). If you have a flat stomach, it doesn't mean you can do an ab crunch. The ability to do the ab crunch would be a determination of fitness, so please don't confuse "Thin" with "Fit."

Now: I believe Austrailia has a very high level of economic development. I can't say off the top of my head where it stands in the scheme of the world, but I think it's way up high in at least the top 10. Maybe that has something do with it? Evolution still isn't working with everyone, and their bodies either: Of course, that's if I want to be like the intelligent 1/2 of the world, and assume that I know a person's lifestyle based on how much they weigh. Maybe they're just the same thing.


*Update*
-The statsitics used vary from organization. I guess I got shifted on the wrong one. I definitely contend that we're getting heavier, but there's no reason to generalize. That's still wouldn't be 2/3 though. :p

-There's a lot of reasons why weight is coming on: And it's not all supersizing. There's things like stress, socioeconomic status (There's a new one), sleep patterns (Here's the new big one), work schedules (Because we love graveyard shifts), Dieting (Remember that formula I showed you? Dieting is literally treading the line of messing up those regulatory systems [Not to say that dieting doesn't always work, but eating right, and excersing is usually a better alternative in itself than the literal picking of "High-carb, low carb, medium carb, low-fat, all-fat, all cookies!" :P], and many people think temporary changes will stay on forever, when if they decide to diet: Most need to realize that changing back isn't going to help), et cetera.... It's a complex issue, and most specialists contend that it is caused by a manifestation of genetics and lifestyle, or one of the other (Of course: It's more often to be a combination of both.)

The major food based truth revolves around "Snacking," and not portions necessarilly. The formula I stated is a small run down, but depending on the person (Another basic gist I hope you get from the formula: People have different strengths in those mechanisms): The body will resist for either extreme of eating: It doesn't just let you starve yourself or eat a barrel of fish. :P
Most people that gain weight do so because of subtle properties. When you snack, for example, not only could one be eating the few extra calories (That aren't resisted in most cases) needed for change (That comes with that darn formula :P), but it catches a lot of people off-balance with their physical eating schedule, and the bodies reaction to the whole thing. So it isn't just one not getting 3 squares (Whatever amount of meals), but the body continously gets surprised with calories, and it can't react well.

-There's definitely some unhealhty obese people, that do some of the things you listed, but not all of them do. Although I'm not fat (5'11", 155: I'm beanpole of month), I know enough that negative feedback isn't exactly helping us. :p

-And as for it's deadly traits? You remember what happened to the CDC, when they put out the overstated statistic, don't you? :P

Answer 7

I think you need your glasses checked. There are many many normal weight people there

Answer 8

wow I hear this about about white americans (and also black americans) but not australians..interesting.

Answer 9

Because they eat too much kangaroo...haha. Good question though.