

The Average American Man's Body - r0h1n
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/10/this-is-the-average-mans-body/280194/

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DanBC
The worrying thing about this is the shift in perception.

Most people are going to put Todd at "a bit over weight", but not "near
obese". Add a few kilos to Todd to tip him into obesity, and most people are
not going to see much difference.

Give people a Todd image of BMI > 35, with no physical activity, and still
most people aren't going to call that Todd obese. And if it's a woman the
discussion suddenly becomes polarised with accusations of "fat shaming" and
"healthism" and "nanny state" and "causing eating disorders". Very obese women
are called "curvy" or "voluptuous". Any attempt to discuss the health effects
of over weight are dismissed as a fascistic attempt to control other people.

There are so many _weird_ ideas around obesity - "it's not sugar, it's high
fructose corn syrup! We weren't overweight until HFCS!". Maybe HFCS is worse
than regular sugar, but we also didn't use to drink 64 fluid ounces of 10%
sugar syrup.
([http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/01/the-7-11-dou...](http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/01/the-7-11-double-
big-gulp-holds-200-more-than-the-average-adult-humans-stomach/))

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__--__
We also didn't used to have the government telling us to increase our
consumption of grains and carbs and decrease our consumption of saturated fat.
HFCS also didn't used to be in every piece of packaged food in the grocery
store. I used to be able to buy pizza sauce without having to painstakingly
search for one without soy in it.

You're right, there are many weird ideas around obesity. They start with many
weird ideas about food in general.

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k-mcgrady
The first time I visited America I was shocked at the portion sizes. I ate at
a nice Italian restaurant. We took home the leftovers from my meal and that
managed to feed another two people. I think it's the attitude that excess is
good/bigger is better that's the problem.

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Kurtz79
What I find curious is the presence of countries like Mexico, Lybia, Egypt in
the same tier as the US.

Apparently wealth and the culture of abundance are not the only factors
affecting obesity.

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yummyfajitas
Mexico is not a poor country. It's GDP/capita (PPP adjusted) is similar to
Poland or Lithuania. Not exactly the US or UK, but there isn't any shortage of
chicharrones or chimichangas.

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nextweek2
I'm the kind of person that always look at the positive in every situation.
Which often makes me seem callous, this is one of those times.

I see the average getting fatter and therefore that makes me more attractive
because I am tall and lean.

Obviously I'm not thinking long term about societies healthcare costs. But
right now I'm feeling pretty smug.

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axaxs
You shouldn't feel callous - you have a good point and honestly deserve to
feel good about yourself. Obesity, or rather weight in general, for some
reason has become a touchy subject. It seems now mentioning someone's weight
is taboo.

The truth is, people need a wake up call. Being overweight gets way too much
not only protection, but positive reinforcement. It's a tricky one to solve -
you don't want overweight people to hate themselves or suffer, but at the same
time you need the nation as a whole to recognize this as a dangerous issue and
address it.

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klepra
Americans seems pretty short nowadays compared to some countries in Europe,
where average is near 5-11 and a few over 6'. Still a few short countries here
in Europe too.

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judk
America is a nation of immigrants, and genetics determine most of height, so
comparisons that ignore country of family history are silly.

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Choronzon
This looks like a mean rather than a median distribution,so our American here
is probably heavier than than the "average" normal. Weight distributions are
starting to skew to the right due to the existence of a small percentage of
utterly massive individuals. 15 kilos under normal weight is extremely skinny
while being overweight can go into over 100 kilos at the extremes.

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JoshGlazebrook
I would rather see something on body fat percentage. BMI is not an ideal
measurement in terms of health for a lot of body types.

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Kurtz79
I don't agree. BMI accounts for height by its own definition and for
health/body types by leaving large margins for the definitions of
normal/overweight/obese.

It might not be a precise measure for some individuals (athletic, heavy
muscled males) but what percentage are those in the context of a whole country
?

As an average/indicator over a large sample is perfectly acceptable, in my
opinion.

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yummyfajitas
BMI is const x weight/height^2. Volume is proportional to height^3, unless you
believe tall people grow in only 2 directions. So BMI ~ height. That's why
most of the NBA is obese.

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DanBC
Everyone mentions athletes whenever BMI is mentioned.

Most people are not athletes. Most people do very little exercise. When using
BMI for an individual you ask them if they do any exercise, but for
populations it's fine.

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yummyfajitas
I mention the NBA due to height, not athleticism. BMI is an overestimate for
tall people and an underestimate for short people, due to the scaling law I
described.

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DanBC
Most people are not NBA tall, so luckily it's no such a problem for BMI over
mass populations.

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Michellef
So I will plan my next vacation to the Netherlands...

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anigbrowl
One of the first things you will notice is how tall people there are. The
second thing you'll notice is that food portions in restaurants and cafeterias
are much smaller. Strangely, nobody starves.

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Theriac25
"One of the first things you will notice is how short people there are. The
second thing you'll notice is that food portions in restaurants and cafeterias
are much larger. Strangely, everybody feels hungry all the time."

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anigbrowl
Sad but true :-/

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elnate
Well, time to work out.

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alextingle
Fat American Todd looks a bit like Charlie Sheen.

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adamwong246
Ewww

