So what is making people from the USA so fat?

[CD-R]

i can say its not the candy.
i recieved a small box of american wine gum and they taste like soap.
and i heard people like to import sweets from europe because they are sweeter here.


so it is the awesome burgers and hot dogs.

I beg to differ.

Spoiler

 

[Dansen]

The same thing that's making the rest of the first world fat: Eating too much, not moving enough.

So much this. It's the one and only valid answer.

And the tragic thing is that dropping weight is so laughably easy, all that's needed is discipline. As of today I've been on a diet for exactly 3 months and lost around 35 kilos (and counting), and all I had to do to achieve it was staying away from soda, sweets and alcohol, exercising a little bit (some weights and maybe 100 push-ups a day) and reducing my daily calorie intake to about 600-800 in all. Believe me, it can be done without keeling over and dying - just make sure your body gets the raw essentials to keep functioning (vitamins, carbs, proteins, non-saturated fats).
Getting and/or staying healthy only requires a bit of discipline and, quite frankly, doing the math on what and how much you shovel down your gullet. Also, eat at regular mealtimes to regulate your body's insulin production (to prevent hunger attacks) and chew your food slowly.

Dude, 800 calories a day is NOT healthy, you should go see a doctor.
Unless I have been woefully misinformed by my biology teacher.

Discipline is definitely necessary, but time constraints and jobs can be a serious burden that makes it difficult to go out and work. American culture should do more to encourage exercise. If the person has discipline, is motivated and makes the commitment it can certainly be easy, but taking the first few steps is difficult and some people need a little push to get started.

 

[Sonicron]

The same thing that's making the rest of the first world fat: Eating too much, not moving enough.

So much this. It's the one and only valid answer.

And the tragic thing is that dropping weight is so laughably easy, all that's needed is discipline. As of today I've been on a diet for exactly 3 months and lost around 35 kilos (and counting), and all I had to do to achieve it was staying away from soda, sweets and alcohol, exercising a little bit (some weights and maybe 100 push-ups a day) and reducing my daily calorie intake to about 600-800 in all. Believe me, it can be done without keeling over and dying - just make sure your body gets the raw essentials to keep functioning (vitamins, carbs, proteins, non-saturated fats).
Getting and/or staying healthy only requires a bit of discipline and, quite frankly, doing the math on what and how much you shovel down your gullet. Also, eat at regular mealtimes to regulate your body's insulin production (to prevent hunger attacks) and chew your food slowly.

Dude, 800 calories a day is NOT healthy, you should go see a doctor.
Unless I have been woefully misinformed by my biology teacher.

Discipline is definitely necessary, but time constraints and jobs can be a serious burden that makes it difficult to go out and work. American culture should do more to encourage exercise. If the person has discipline, is motivated and makes the commitment it can certainly be easy, but taking the first few steps is difficult and some people need a little push to get started.

I actually have consulted a doctor prior to starting this diet (and my father, a professor of biology and microbiology), but thanks anyway for the tip. As long as you provide the body with essentials - certain fats, vitamins, carbs, proteins etc - and keep your diet fresh and balanced it really is alright; the unhealthiest bit about it is that a lot of nasty fat-soluble junk stored in your blubber over time gets released into your bloodstream as you lose weight, but that'll happen to you over the course of any kind of diet. Believe me, the way I live now and considering how my eating habits (and the food I eat) have changed I live a lot healthier now than I did before.
Besides, it's been 3 months now - if this diet were dangerous I would have keeled over long ago.

By the way, you are so damn right about the difficulty in taking the first step. I'm lucky the decision was kind of taken out of my hands in the end; I have a mandatory geographical excursion to Canada this September, for which I'll need to be in shape because we'll be hiking through large parts of the Rockies, so the motivation changed from "I should" to "I must".
Once I actually got started, though, keeping my discipline was surprisingly easy.

 

[ronald1840]

What makes us Americans fat? I know what makes us wide.

A number of things are involved in how wide someones going to grow. But, wait -- what?!
You want to change this? As in, get even smaller? ...This guy.

You want to lose weight? Pfft. Ya' crazy! Looka' what we got for YOU!

IN STOCK: Haagen-Dais, milkshakes, birthday cakes, grease, salt, desserts, and colored candies. Wendys, free samples at the mall, Checkers, Ben's Chili Bowl, mayonnaise, hot dogs --there all...just so good for you. See that sticky yellow substance at the bottom of that large popcorn you found on the floor in the theater? Butter, I'm telling you -- is Gold.

OUT OF STOCK: Self-control.

Ben & Jerry's could use your help.

Our bellies are going to grow. Full of that, delicious, clogging, saturated, high-fructose yum; Joy.

Don't. Stop. Eating. Little children will stop kicking you.

F'k those bikes! Get a high metabolism! If you don't have one; steal it.

 

[Yan007]

Oddly enough, though people blame the "deep fried" whatnots and large amounts of sugar, if the USA went entirely vegetarian, residents would probably be just as overweight since there would be even more food around.

People would be even more overweight exactly because carbs ARE sugar! Eating meat and animal fat does NOT make you fat and, in fact, will reduce your chances of having a hearth attack!

 

[Yan007]

The cost difference in healthy foo compared to crap food. Soda is cheaper than juice and all natural means more expensive. It's just not cost effective to eat healthy.

Juice is as bad as soda though. You get the sugar without the fiber, meaning your insulin levels spike and you store the calories as fat.

 

[Skratt]

It isn't any one thing:

-Most cheap food contains cheap ingredients that are not healthy for you.

-Many people don't know or don't care about this.

-Healthy food does not cost any more to make, but stores charge more because they can.

-Typical shoppers will buy the cheaper item if they don't understand or don't care about long term health affects - or in cases they simply can't afford to buy overpriced health food.

-Many people do not exercise at all. Walking your dog and mowing your lawn don't count.

That's the basics at least. And there are plenty of fat people overseas, but their media or culture (or both) don't seem to care.

 

[M920CAIN]

If I had my say in it, it would be: MONEY. People in the West make way more over there than people do where I live. Also this, food prices are lower most likely and people maybe eat out of other motives than to sustain themselves. For example people can eat if they're bored or if they are unhappy or other such things. Also it's a thing of methabolism for each individual and it could very well be in their gene pool. Ow, and I heard that some medicine pills mess with your glands and stuff. This could be an issue as well.

 

[Yan007]

I would also add that the vast majority of people have no idea what healthy food means or can't qualify healthy food properly.

 

[neonsword13-ops]

We're lazy + We like fast food = lol, obesity.

That pretty much sums it up.

And we like to deep fry everything.

 

[Yan007]

Seriously, you guys actually believe "fast food" is any worse than food at any other restaurant? Food is food, lower your carbs, see the miracle. Plain and simple.

 

[Callate]

I give a certain credence to the "we produce wayyyyy too much corn" hypothesis. It also doesn't help that as many of us live in urban centers with limited amounts of space, we increasingly seem to view athletics as something we watch on tv.

 

[The_Critic]

The numbers in the study have to do with BMI which is fautlty at best. Also Carbohydrates are processed by the body as suger, therefore eating large amounts of wheat "health" food like whole grain bread and whole grain cereal and such causes you to overload on suger.

Combine all this with the fact that we will spend 20 minutes looking for a parking spot at the front of the mall rather then parking in the back and WALKING (OMG) and you got yourselves a recipe for larger people.

You want to lose weight it's easy limit your carbs, increase protein, stay far away fron trans fats, and excercise.

When it says massively obese don't believe the lie. You can watch all those shows and documentary and they will say 68% of people are massively obese and so on and so forth, then they show you pictures of people with chicken thigh legs, and bellies hanging down to the ground, but if you actually go outside and look, those people are few and far between. On average Americans are slightly more then 10 pounds overweight. Not Massively Obese.

If we started walking places, started having our kids walk to school, started not drinking 20 gallons of soda a week and so forth, we will be fine.

 

[Yan007]

Personally, I blame this guy and his crew for the problems we are facing right now.

Fun facts:

Did you know that the CSPI made McDonalds switch from beef tallow to trans fat when fast food was starting to get popular, saying that trans fat was much safer?

Did you know that the head of the CSPI, in response to claims that trans fat may be dangerous, made headlines stating things such as "Trans fats, not guilty as charged".

Did you know that it never stopped the CSPI and their friends from protesting McDonalds and KFC for using trans fats, a problem they themselves created by protesting tallow!

 

[chadachada123]

Buying fast food is far cheaper than buying healthy food. That's the primary problem.

Here I am, chilling outside of class and looking to kill some time, and say, "hey, I want some good food." The cheapest healthy meal that I could find would have ran me over $5, while a burger at Wendy's would cost me $1.40.

So...there's a big chunk of the problem right there.

 

[Furioso]

i can say its not the candy.
i recieved a small box of american wine gum and they taste like soap.
and i heard people like to import sweets from europe because they are sweeter here.


so it is the awesome burgers and hot dogs.

You might want to question whoever sent you that "wine gum." America isn't known for that at all, I had to look it up to even find out what it is and the only kind I recognized is the Swedish Fish

 

[wintercoat]

Seriously, you guys actually believe "fast food" is any worse than food at any other restaurant? Food is food, lower your carbs, see the miracle. Plain and simple.

But...but...fast food is teh evul! The telebox tells me so!

 

[Metalix Knightmare]

A fair bit of it could come down to the sheer amount of corn we eat. You'd be surprised how much corn is in most of our food.

 

[Metalix Knightmare]

Seriously, you guys actually believe "fast food" is any worse than food at any other restaurant? Food is food, lower your carbs, see the miracle. Plain and simple.

But...but...fast food is teh evul! The telebox tells me so!

So, I could eat fast food every day, but as long as I avoid the french fries and buns I'm good? AWESOME!

Freaking A, you people and your hatred of carbs. It's like a cult with you lot.

THE GUN IS GOOD! THE CARB IS EVIL! SO SAYS ZARDOZ!