Has "overweight" become the new norm in the US?

This is probably going to make some Americans mad, but you'll have to deal with it. As a European (not from UK though), I can't help but see what's defined as overweight here, is defined as normal by Americans.

I've not seen this once or twice. I've seen it, or heard it, a lot of times from Americans. Is it because so many Americans today are overweight that they think it's normal now? If you are what is considered normal where I live, Americans think you're a thin stick who'll break if you touch it.

Another example is sexual preferences. On American message boards, I often see people praising the huge asses of celebrities such as Kim Kardashian. And then they think that every ass that doesn't stick out 1 meter is "flat". I'm not saying Kim is fat, but her ass is.

Please note that I'm not saying that obese or fat are the new norms, but "overweight" is. In the US and UK, there are so many people overweiht today, maybe the society has begun to think it's normal and attractive? I mean, physical ideals change through time, that's a well known fact.

Is this just rubbish, or is there any truth to it?

I'm lead to believe that historically, being overweight was seen as attractive in the past, even in Europe (Englishman here). It was a signifier of wealth and plenty, and the ability to raise children. From an evolutionary standpoint, it seems fitting to want a suitor who can provide, and a big person must be able to do that. So if it's true that overweightness is becoming a culturally accepted norm (and I would argue that it isn't), it's not necessarily such a big shift in thought as you might think.

@SL68: I was willing to hear you out until you spoke of big booty in a derogatory manner.

Kill that noise, son.

@Oldirtybearon said:

@SL68: I was willing to hear you out until you spoke of big booty in a derogatory manner.

Kill that noise, son.

I want big booty bitches.

EDIT: oh, also it's because different viewpoints of the world.

I agree. Women with bigger arses are much better than skinny women.

@EarlessShrimp said:

@Oldirtybearon said:

@SL68: I was willing to hear you out until you spoke of big booty in a derogatory manner.

Kill that noise, son.

I want big booty bitches.

Ask and ye shall receive.

The major cause of the overweight epidemic in the US is the fact that the US government strongly subsidises corn and puts a lot of regulations on sugar which makes sweetening everything with high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar much cheaper. The corn syrup is really shitty for your health: it limits the amount of insulin your body can produce which decreases your metabolism and makes it hard to regulate appetite.

It's not like americans have 'bad genetics' for maintaining fitness or something.

@imsh_pl said:

The major cause of the overweight epidemic in the US is the fact that the US government strongly subsidises corn and puts a lot of regulations on sugar which makes sweetening everything with high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar much cheaper. The corn syrup is really shitty for your health: it limits the amount of insulin your body can produce which decreases your metabolism and makes it hard to regulate appetite.

It's not like americans have 'bad genetics' for maintaining fitness or something.

They probably have pretty bad epigenetics which might be just as bad as bad genetics.

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Nope.

A few factors. There's cheap high calorie food all over the place that is dipped in HFCS or corn sugar or whatever shitty name the corn industry puts on it. For low income families woriking multiple jobs, it might be easier to stop at a drive through than cook a meal. To top it off we love soda. HFCS in a can. Mmmm. American portions? Huge. Travelling to Europe and Asia, I will always have a clean plate after supper. Here in 'Murca, I end up with half a plate left before I feel full. Nobody fucking walks where I live. People circle the parking lots forever trying to get a spot as close to the door as they can get. We already have pretty sedentary life styles. If they do walk, its such a slow pace, there is no way their heart rate can go up.

@SL68 said:

This is probably going to make some Americans mad, but you'll have to deal with it.

What, that you're stating what we all already know?

It's evolution baby! This "obese" "epidemic" is just another evolutionary step to making humans 8 foot tall indestructible muscle machines. Of course it'll just be Americans and all the little limp wrist Europeans will have to become the lesser humans. Serving us our muscle meals they cry themselves to sleep at night while their stomachs rumble over the rice they ate for dinner earlier.

Statistically, probably.

Big booty bitches

When thin, fit people are saying "I wish I was fat", then you are there.

,I often see people praising the huge asses

@TooWalrus said:

Statistically, probably.

@Oldirtybearon said:

@SL68: I was willing to hear you out until you spoke of big booty in a derogatory manner.

Kill that noise, son.

And this is what I'm talking about. First off, a big booty is most likely the same as a plump and slightly fat booty. Note that I said "slightly fat" and not just "fat". Second, people like you seem to think that if the booty isn't big and plump, it has to be flat and boney. Do people really think women only have either big, plump behinds or small, flat ones? Just those two types? There are booties with shape without being big and without standing out like a shelf.

You're using the word "big" to hide the fact that the booty is plump and a little fat. Now don't misunderstand me. I know booties are made mostly of fat and muscle, but that's not exactly the point here. Just because a booty has some fat (like all booties do) doesn't mean it's plump and a little flabby.

Why is the booty big? It's because there's so much excess fat! That's the reason it's big! Look at Kim Kardashian and let's say she didn't inject silicone or whatever in her booty. Why do you think her butt is so big? It's mostly flab.

@SL68 said:

@Oldirtybearon said:

@SL68: I was willing to hear you out until you spoke of big booty in a derogatory manner.

Kill that noise, son.

And this is what I'm talking about. First off, a big booty is most likely the same as a plump and slightly fat booty. Note that I said "slightly fat" and not just "fat". Second, people like you seem to think that if the booty isn't big and plump, it has to be flat and boney. Do people really think women only have either big, plump behinds or small, flat ones? Just those two types? There are booties with shape without being big and without standing out like a shelf.

You're using the word "big" to hide the fact that the booty is plump and a little fat. Now don't misunderstand me. I know booties are made mostly of fat and muscle, but that's not exactly the point here. Just because a booty has some fat (like all booties do) doesn't mean it's plump and a little flabby.

Why is the booty big? It's because there's so much excess fat! That's the reason it's big! Look at Kim Kardashian and let's say she didn't inject silicone or whatever in her booty. Why do you think her butt is so big? It's mostly flab.

I get it, you're a bony assed woman jealous of all the attention that fully featured women are getting when only 20 years ago skinny was all the craze. People are different. People have different taste and always will.

GET

OVER

IT!

All Americans are fat and we build stuff out of fries and ketchup - it's both our blessing and our curse.

@Oldirtybearon said:

@SL68: I was willing to hear you out until you spoke of big booty in a derogatory manner.

Kill that noise, son.

And this is what I'm talking about. First off, a big booty is most likely the same as a plump and slightly fat booty. Note that I said "slightly fat" and not just "fat". Second, people like you seem to think that if the booty isn't big and plump, it has to be flat and boney. Do people really think women only have either big, plump behinds or small, flat ones? Just those two types? There are booties with shape without being big and without standing out like a shelf.

You're using the word "big" to hide the fact that the booty is plump and a little fat. Now don't misunderstand me. I know booties are made mostly of fat and muscle, but that's not exactly the point here. Just because a booty has some fat (like all booties do) doesn't mean it's plump and a little flabby.

Why is the booty big? It's because there's so much excess fat! That's the reason it's big! Look at Kim Kardashian and let's say she didn't inject silicone or whatever in her booty. Why do you think her butt is so big? It's mostly flab.

Nope, I honestly think most Americans think being fat is disagreeable.   Being fat will never seem normal to most people.  Oh, there are people who do like the look of fatness, just as some people get turned on by 'any other' body type.  But, the concept of beauty for humanity has been studied a great deal for the past 200 years.  Even accounting for culture, and physiological differences between distant cultures the concept of what is attractive is fixed in our human million years old human primate programming.  You can reprogram people with all sorts of positive and negative reinforcement to make them believe something consciously, but unconscionably we know what is attractive and what is not.  

I've been doing a lot of research on diet and exercise and am astonished at how easily it is to eat poorly. Even when you think you're on a good diet, chances are you aren't. I read a statistic that 67% of Americans are obese. That's obese, not just chubby or kinda fat. Everyone I know that isn't fat only appear "fit" due to their natural metabolism. People are simply too lazy to workout and too undisciplined to not eat terribly.

As a girls...kind of a lot obese (il admit im way past healthy). I kinda see a lot of the attitude towards it as being the reason for no one losing weight in the first place. It does come down sometimes to effort vs reward for some and some people just are not okay with it. You know? Some (like myself) don't being heavy but i think if the attitude towards losing weight or it being simpler for some was less of a boundary, it would lower slowly over time. I just think it is that barrier that tends to shame people away.

And now im going to go be depressed about subject. XD

@Jams said:

@SL68 said:

@Oldirtybearon said:

@SL68: I was willing to hear you out until you spoke of big booty in a derogatory manner.

Kill that noise, son.

And this is what I'm talking about. First off, a big booty is most likely the same as a plump and slightly fat booty. Note that I said "slightly fat" and not just "fat". Second, people like you seem to think that if the booty isn't big and plump, it has to be flat and boney. Do people really think women only have either big, plump behinds or small, flat ones? Just those two types? There are booties with shape without being big and without standing out like a shelf.

You're using the word "big" to hide the fact that the booty is plump and a little fat. Now don't misunderstand me. I know booties are made mostly of fat and muscle, but that's not exactly the point here. Just because a booty has some fat (like all booties do) doesn't mean it's plump and a little flabby.

Why is the booty big? It's because there's so much excess fat! That's the reason it's big! Look at Kim Kardashian and let's say she didn't inject silicone or whatever in her booty. Why do you think her butt is so big? It's mostly flab.

I get it, you're a bony assed woman jealous of all the attention that fully featured women are getting when only 20 years ago skinny was all the craze. People are different. People have different taste and always will.

GET

OVER

IT!

Of course people are different and have different tastes, ut that's not really what this is about. This is about how the definition of "fat" has changed in the US because so many people are slightly overweight, it has become the new "normal and healthy". And what was obese before is now just fat.

Let me ask, does this bum look flat and bony to you:

http://www.dailyrevelry.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/female-athletes-butt-2.jpg

@SL68 said:

@Jams said:

@SL68 said:

@Oldirtybearon said:

@SL68: I was willing to hear you out until you spoke of big booty in a derogatory manner.

Kill that noise, son.

And this is what I'm talking about. First off, a big booty is most likely the same as a plump and slightly fat booty. Note that I said "slightly fat" and not just "fat". Second, people like you seem to think that if the booty isn't big and plump, it has to be flat and boney. Do people really think women only have either big, plump behinds or small, flat ones? Just those two types? There are booties with shape without being big and without standing out like a shelf.

You're using the word "big" to hide the fact that the booty is plump and a little fat. Now don't misunderstand me. I know booties are made mostly of fat and muscle, but that's not exactly the point here. Just because a booty has some fat (like all booties do) doesn't mean it's plump and a little flabby.

Why is the booty big? It's because there's so much excess fat! That's the reason it's big! Look at Kim Kardashian and let's say she didn't inject silicone or whatever in her booty. Why do you think her butt is so big? It's mostly flab.

I get it, you're a bony assed woman jealous of all the attention that fully featured women are getting when only 20 years ago skinny was all the craze. People are different. People have different taste and always will.

GET

OVER

IT!

Of course people are different and have different tastes, ut that's not really what this is about. This is about how the definition of "fat" has changed in the US because so many people are slightly overweight, it has become the new "normal and healthy". And what was obese before is now just fat.

Let me ask, does this bum look flat and bony to you:

http://www.dailyrevelry.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/female-athletes-butt-2.jpg

It looks average to me then again there's no side view. Also, her man hips aren't doing her any favors.

Ain't nothin wrong with a little junk in the trunk.

@EpicSteve said:

I've been doing a lot of research on diet and exercise and am astonished at how easily it is to eat poorly. Even when you think you're on a good diet, chances are you aren't. I read a statistic that 67% of Americans are obese. That's obese, not just chubby or kinda fat. Everyone I know that isn't fat only appear "fit" due to their natural metabolism. People are simply too lazy to workout and too undisciplined to not eat terribly.

67% is the percent of Americans who are overweight and obese. The obesity statistic is actually in the mid-thirties. That being said, eating poorly and lack of exercise are a problem for many Americans.

In regards to the topic at hand, I don't think being overweight is the new norm. It certainly isn't desirable in America, despite it being commonplace. The whole "big booty" thing has less to do with being overweight and more to do with proportions on a woman.

@believer258 said:

@SL68

@Oldirtybearon said:

@SL68: I was willing to hear you out until you spoke of big booty in a derogatory manner.

Kill that noise, son.

And this is what I'm talking about. First off, a big booty is most likely the same as a plump and slightly fat booty. Note that I said "slightly fat" and not just "fat". Second, people like you seem to think that if the booty isn't big and plump, it has to be flat and boney. Do people really think women only have either big, plump behinds or small, flat ones? Just those two types? There are booties with shape without being big and without standing out like a shelf.

You're using the word "big" to hide the fact that the booty is plump and a little fat. Now don't misunderstand me. I know booties are made mostly of fat and muscle, but that's not exactly the point here. Just because a booty has some fat (like all booties do) doesn't mean it's plump and a little flabby.

Why is the booty big? It's because there's so much excess fat! That's the reason it's big! Look at Kim Kardashian and let's say she didn't inject silicone or whatever in her booty. Why do you think her butt is so big? It's mostly flab.

Kim Kardashian doesn't have a ton of excess fat. On the subject of fat being normal in America - it is but not because of preference. It's because of all the High Fructose Corn Syrup in a lot of cheap food. Having a diet completely absent of that shit is both difficult and somewhat expensive.

Not her body as a whole, no. But her ass.

You sound like you want to get through some kind of political message here... do you really think this is because of cheap food?

I workout 7 days a week, run a mile a day at least 4 days a week(taken a break during the holidays) and I am one of the one third of Americans considered overweight.

I'm not going to excuse my brethren eating cheezy poofs but I think the BMI scale is archaic and fucked.

@MonkeyKing1969 said:

Nope, I honestly think most Americans think being fat is disagreeable. Being fat will never seem normal to most people. Oh, there are people who do like the look of fatness, just as some people get turned on by 'any other' body type. But, the concept of beauty for humanity has been studied a great deal for the past 200 years. Even accounting for culture, and physiological differences between distant cultures the concept of what is attractive is fixed in our human million years old human primate programming. You can reprogram people with all sorts of positive and negative reinforcement to make them believe something consciously, but unconscionably we know what is attractive and what is not.

My point is that Americans see "slightly overweight" as "normal" these days. The definitions have changed with the increasing weight problem. So no, no one likes to be fat, but the problem is that the definitions of what's fat is changing.

@thabigred said:

I workout 7 days a week, run a mile a day at least 4 days a week(taken a break during the holidays) and I am one of the one third of Americans considered overweight.

I'm not going to excuse my brethren eating cheezy poofs but I think the BMI scale is archaic and fucked.

BMI scales pretty useful for statistics. It isn't perfect but that doesn't mean it's fucked. Just because a few limitations and anomalies with muscular people doesn't mean it isn't working as intended. That's just giving excuses to people who are overweight on the scale and should belong there.

@SL68 said:

@MonkeyKing1969 said:

Nope, I honestly think most Americans think being fat is disagreeable. Being fat will never seem normal to most people. Oh, there are people who do like the look of fatness, just as some people get turned on by 'any other' body type. But, the concept of beauty for humanity has been studied a great deal for the past 200 years. Even accounting for culture, and physiological differences between distant cultures the concept of what is attractive is fixed in our human million years old human primate programming. You can reprogram people with all sorts of positive and negative reinforcement to make them believe something consciously, but unconscionably we know what is attractive and what is not.

My point is that Americans see "slightly overweight" as "normal" these days. The definitions have changed with the increasing weight problem. So no, no one likes to be fat, but the problem is that the definitions of what's fat is changing.

Maybe the problem is your perception of people? Maybe slightly overweight is actually normal and okay? Especially seeing as how there's not exact line draw in the sand when comparing weight size to actual health. For instance take two woman. One is considered "by your ideals" as just right in weight. She smokes, goes out drinking every night and over exercises (yes over exercising is possible). Then you have a woman who is what you consider overweight. She doesn't smoke and eats her daily value of fruits, veggies and meat.

The normal sized girl goes to the doctor. She has problems with acid reflex and stomach aches and constipation She can't get over her cough and her knees are always hurting. The doctor suggests her to stop smoking, laying off the alcohol and for her to eat more healthy meals.

The overweight girl goes to the doctor. Everything is fine because she eats healthy. The doctor suggests that maybe she move about during the day and keeps active, but over all she's doing fine.

Neither of the two women listen to their doctor. The normal woman gets warnings of esophageal cancer and has to have surgery on her knees because they've taken too much strain.

The overweight girl has to live with people ridiculing her about her size. She has to live with the occasion of someone commenting on her size. But her body is running fine even if her mind is strained from all the peer pressure.

Which do you think is the better option? I took those two examples from real world women I know.

Why are y'all teeth messed up? Why does yo' food suck? Why do you call a truck a "lorry"? Shit ain't right!

@imsh_pl said:

The major cause of the overweight epidemic in the US is the fact that the US government strongly subsidises corn and puts a lot of regulations on sugar which makes sweetening everything with high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar much cheaper. The corn syrup is really shitty for your health: it limits the amount of insulin your body can produce which decreases your metabolism and makes it hard to regulate appetite.

It's not like americans have 'bad genetics' for maintaining fitness or something.

I'm pretty sure HFCS is as bad as sugar, that is to say that it's no worse than sugar, just as bad. Regardless I think that we are taking in too much sugar and carbohydrate. In my opinion, it is the reason for the US and UK's weight gain over the past thirty years. As soon as we decided a standard american diet would include 300g of Carbohydrates, we fucked ourselves over.

This also transfers to the video game world. Developers always try to flatter the American audience becaue US is the biggest market in the world (generates most money at least). Games have American locales, characters have American names etc. But booty and fashion also transfers.

Just look at the milennium shift, at the bare midriff trend. That transferred pretty soon to videogames. For example, Claire Redfield wore midriff varing clothes in Code Veronica, which no other RE character had done until then. And today it's very common fashion is both real world and in games.

Likewise, more and more female characters have been given the booty treatment. Chloe in Uncharted 2 (I think it's 2 at least) has a big butt. I don't say it's fat, but it's definitely on the plump side. You know, slightly fat. And in contrast, her body is slim and toned. But not everyone is following this trend. Girls from Japanese games seems to have a more modest behind that doesn't look like two balloons. I think Vanessa Z. Schneider from P.N.03 is pretty famous for her butt, no? But instead of inflating her butt size to balloon standards like the case of Chloe, Capcom gave her a modest sized butt which people probably would call flat and boring - just because it isn't plump.

On the other hand, Bayonetta was also made in Japan and her butt is ridicolously big. But I believe they did that to appeal to the US market where people go crazy over big, plump butts.

My point with the above text is that developers follow what's popular in their culture, or in the culture where they expect big sales. If slightly fat is becoming the new normal, then we're going to see slightly fat characters in a near future. And people are going to think that's great because they look like them themselves.

@SL68 said:

Why do you think her butt is so big? It's mostly flab.

Take this piece of info from a woman: A bigger butt doesn't equal more flab. There are women with bigger behinds and they're perfectly tight. Whether your body parts are tight or flabby doesn't depend on the size, but a) your genetics and b) how fit and sporty you are.

Women naturally posess more body fat than men, but that doesn't mean we can't be in good shape :P

Can a mod close this thread? Its just fucking stupid.

@Demoskinos: dumb topic =/= rule breaking

@thabigred said:

I workout 7 days a week, run a mile a day at least 4 days a week(taken a break during the holidays) and I am one of the one third of Americans considered overweight.

I'm not going to excuse my brethren eating cheezy poofs but I think the BMI scale is archaic and fucked.

It's totally your diet that's screwing you over. Not to mention your nervous system gets too wrecked with daily workouts. Try cutting two days out of the week. Actually run 1.5 or 2 miles, or run the mile fast. And look into some supplements like proteins and vitamins.

@EpicSteve said:

@thabigred said:

I workout 7 days a week, run a mile a day at least 4 days a week(taken a break during the holidays) and I am one of the one third of Americans considered overweight.

I'm not going to excuse my brethren eating cheezy poofs but I think the BMI scale is archaic and fucked.

It's totally your diet that's screwing you over. Not to mention your nervous system gets too wrecked with daily workouts. Try cutting two days out of the week. Actually run 1.5 or 2 miles, or run the mile fast. And look into some supplements like proteins and vitamins.

Can't tell if serious or not.

Physically fit people will be "heavy" compared to the standard BMI weight, even if their weight is mostly muscle.

@JonathanAshleyMoore: You're right, there's no difference beteween corn syrup and sugar. one is a concentration of sugar cane sugars and one is corn. Also, it's really not the carbs. That's just a a scare tactic to make a lot of people writing books and selling fatty foods more money. I eat 80% carbs and lost 35 lbs in the past 6 months.

The problem is concentration. The american diet today consists almost entirely of nutritionally deficient foods that have been super concentrated with sugars, fats and salts and our systems aren't set up to deal with that so our stomachs don't send the right signals to our brains to tell us we've had enough to eat. The only animals on the entire planet with obesity problems eat food made by human industry. Not a single animal in nature has trouble maintaining its weight in its natural habitat. I'm not saying we have to go back to nature, but we need to stop eating food with no fiber or water content which has been loaded with refined sugars, oils and salt to make it more addictive.

I'm admittedly overweight, but I at least acknowledge this fact (and I'm trying to work on it). However, the same could not be said for a lot of Americans.

So, to answer the OP's question, yes, it has become the norm.

Also, I hate Kim Kardashian (the same could be said for any other useless celebrity) and her fat ass doesn't appeal to me in the slightest.

Kim Kardashians ass is gross.

@EarlessShrimp said:

@Oldirtybearon said:

@SL68: I was willing to hear you out until you spoke of big booty in a derogatory manner.

Kill that noise, son.

I want big booty bitches.

EDIT: oh, also it's because different viewpoints of the world.

Oh, and no, overweight hasn't become the norm, but then again, it depends on what you're considering to be overweight. The U.S. is fully aware of having a problem with overweight people. Personally, I think a woman that's a little bit bigger rather than the a little bit smaller is better. Let me see in picture form what you consider to be normal. I don't know, your post just seems... Off, one way or another.

Euros don't like butts? What the fuck???

lol at this thread

@SL68 said:

This is probably going to make some Americans mad, but you'll have to deal with it. As a European (not from UK though), I can't help but see what's defined as overweight here, is defined as normal by Americans.

I've not seen this once or twice. I've seen it, or heard it, a lot of times from Americans. Is it because so many Americans today are overweight that they think it's normal now? If you are what is considered normal where I live, Americans think you're a thin stick who'll break if you touch it.

Another example is sexual preferences. On American message boards, I often see people praising the huge asses of celebrities such as Kim Kardashian. And then they think that every ass that doesn't stick out 1 meter is "flat". I'm not saying Kim is fat, but her ass is.

Please note that I'm not saying that obese or fat are the new norms, but "overweight" is. In the US and UK, there are so many people overweiht today, maybe the society has begun to think it's normal and attractive? I mean, physical ideals change through time, that's a well known fact.

Is this just rubbish, or is there any truth to it?

I'm not sure you understand what 'norm' means. There are a lot of overweight people in the US. There are also a lot of fit people in the US. There's simply just a lot of people over here. But more importantly 'norm' denotes that that is how we all view people should look and not looking that way is weird. Norm meaning 'normal' and anything else is considered abnormal. That is clearly not the case because the ideal body shape for men and women in the US is to look fit and athletic not overweight. So the norm would be look healthy not obese.

You're also coming at this from a really judgmental attitude that won't win you any favors with anyone. You sound like a dick.

As for the huge asses, I'm not sure how that fits into the overweight discussions. Some men like women with big asses. Some don't. Do men in Europe not have preferences for the women they prefer and don't prefer?

I'm not sure why I'm even giving this thread this much attention. I'm not convinced this isn't a 'say something to start a ruckus and run' thread.

@NiKva said:

@EpicSteve said:

@thabigred said:

I workout 7 days a week, run a mile a day at least 4 days a week(taken a break during the holidays) and I am one of the one third of Americans considered overweight.

I'm not going to excuse my brethren eating cheezy poofs but I think the BMI scale is archaic and fucked.

It's totally your diet that's screwing you over. Not to mention your nervous system gets too wrecked with daily workouts. Try cutting two days out of the week. Actually run 1.5 or 2 miles, or run the mile fast. And look into some supplements like proteins and vitamins.

Can't tell if serious or not.

Physically fit people will be "heavy" compared to the standard BMI weight, even if their weight is mostly muscle.

It could be both. The BMI isn't a perfect scale because it doesn't account for muscle mass very well and the guy's diet doesn't sound great.