
More Americans Say They Weigh 200 Lbs. Or More This Decade - JumpCrisscross
https://news.gallup.com/poll/268847/americans-say-weigh-200-lbs-decade.aspx
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franksvalli
All indications are that Americans are fatter than ever, but I wish this poll
included height as well, for more context. Even though BMI (height + weight)
is imperfect, I think it's still more descriptive than just weight alone.
Also, the average height of populations changes over time, so naturally their
weight will also increase, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's an unhealthy
increase.

According to this Time article, American heights increased in previous decades
but pretty much stalled out: [https://time.com/4423803/how-tall-100-years-
height/](https://time.com/4423803/how-tall-100-years-height/) So I guess the
results are pretty much the same even without the height info.

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geebee
I believe the BMI was created for exactly the purpose you described, to track
changes across populations. It was not intended to be a diagnostic tool at the
individual level.

That said, I suppose if a population generally becomes fitter and increases
muscle weight, the overall BMI could become unreliable for the same reason
it's not a great tool at the individual level.

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alvatech
Thank you sugar and fast food industries.

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bigred100
I think it must be something like stress and deteriorating mental health more
than those frankly. They existed 30 years ago (and as I understand were more
popular then) without as much negative effects.

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javagram
[https://www.statista.com/statistics/203358/food-and-
drinks-s...](https://www.statista.com/statistics/203358/food-and-drinks-sales-
of-us-restaurants-since-1970/)

I’d say fast food isn’t the only culprit, normal restaurant portions are
enormous too with the exception of a few health-focused salad chains.

Consumption of restaurant food has continued to increase over the last 30
years as the country gets more and more wealthy.

There are probably a lot of factors involved here of course.

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inkubus
200 lbs = 90.7 kg

