[HN Gopher] Nearly half of America's overweight people don't rea...
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Nearly half of America's overweight people don't realize they're
overweight
Author : fortran77
Score : 18 points
Date : 2022-09-17 21:04 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.washingtonpost.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.washingtonpost.com)
| KellogsMrRectus wrote:
| ccc
| fingerlocks wrote:
| I was surprised to learn that I'm technically "overweight"
| according to BMI charts. I'm 5'8" and 165 lbs, but I have a
| slightly muscular build and fairly lean at 12% body fat. I have
| visible abdominal muscles, yet I don't lift weights or do any
| body building either.
|
| If I'm overweight by those standards, it makes me skeptical of
| articles like this, and sometimes I even question the validity of
| the entire obesity epidemic.
| thedailymail wrote:
| Is there any similar data for the opposite end of the spectrum -
| looking into changes over time in the difference between actual
| and ideal weights for underweight men and women would be
| interesting. My guess is that skinny men increasingly wish they
| were much heavier, while skinny women are either satisfied with
| current weight or wish they were even skinnier.
| throwaway675309 wrote:
| Welcome to the physiological equivalent of the ebbinghaus
| illusion. Take an average overweight American and transplant them
| to Japan and they'll notice real quick.
| hollywood_court wrote:
| My mother's side of the family often attempts to shame me for not
| being overweight like them. On the rare occasions I see them, I
| always hear "just try to live a little" and "you gotta enjoy
| life." But I do live and I enjoy life. I just do it in a
| healthier manner than they do.
|
| They are all "Christians" yet they will quickly become offended
| if you remind them that gluttony is a deadly sin according to
| their bible.
|
| A little bit of self respect goes a long way.
| otikik wrote:
| So is greed. Yet "greed is good" is a common mantra in the US.
| hollywood_court wrote:
| I think that is really only a "common mantra" for many
| business owners/executives and the Fox News crowd. I like to
| think that most of us that contribute to society don't feel
| that way.
| pvaldes wrote:
| Extreme obesity is a chronic disease. Is not "just a life
| choice" and definitely is not a sin.
|
| The bible authors didn't knew a single thing about human
| metabolism, leptine role in fat cells, or gut corrective
| surgery. Searching for medical advice in the bible would end
| with proposing trepanation to cure a migraine.
| hollywood_court wrote:
| Many obese people need proper help and treatment just like
| any other addict. We've somehow managed to make obesity a
| protected class in our society which in turns makes it worse.
| It's absolutely crazy to hear an obese person pass judgement
| on a meth head or an alcoholic or a heroin addict. They all
| need treatment. One is no better than the other. They need
| medical attention.
| sfvegandude wrote:
| Many think the deadly seven are recorded in the Bible. Even
| though each of the seven is a sin, this list is not contained
| in Scripture. The history of this sin categorization began in
| the year 400.
|
| Evagrius Ponticus, a fourth-century monk, described eight evils
| to resist. Two centuries later, Pope Gregory 1 refined the
| inventory to seven. [0]
|
| [0]https://www.christianity.com/wiki/sin/what-are-the-seven-
| dea...
| fortran77 wrote:
| https://www.openbible.info/topics/obesity
| hollywood_court wrote:
| I stand corrected. However, in the US, gluttony is certainly
| the most deadly sin.
| orionion wrote:
| Plastic Might Be Making You Obese https://www.bloomberg.com/o
| pinion/articles/2022-09-11/plasti...
| nine_zeros wrote:
| I was in denial about how much I bloated during the pandemic. It
| took a physical report and a few deaths in my family to finally
| start shedding the excess sugar and carbs. Now I am at BMI range
| and very happy.
| FireSparrowWeld wrote:
| I didn't realize when you include "overweight", you get 70% of
| Americans.
|
| Wow. That is so sad.
| bombcar wrote:
| Most people think overweight means "obese or morbidly obese".
|
| Overweight is a very easy target to hit.
| pharmakom wrote:
| Yes I get overweight after just a few weeks of pausing my
| exercise regime. Back again after a few back on though.
| renewiltord wrote:
| BMI risk factors for some races are much earlier too. As an East
| Asian, triggers at 24. As South Asian, at 23.
| mise_en_place wrote:
| My doctor is south Asian and is much more strict in
| interpreting my labs, particularly with blood sugar and
| cholesterol. The diagnostic standard for normal blood sugar and
| A1C can be pre-diabetic for a South Indian male
| mindvirus wrote:
| I believe it but I wonder how accurate these stats are. I'm
| overweight (barely) by BMI, at 6'2" and 200lbs. But I wear size
| 32 pants and have 110/70 blood pressure. So I think I'm
| reasonably healthy. Curious if I'm counted in the 70%.
| teaearlgraycold wrote:
| Plenty of very muscular people would have your BMI as well. I
| don't think you should ever use BMI as an individual. But I'm
| told that for a population is provides a reasonably useful
| signal.
|
| Still - I wish we could use body fat percentage more often for
| individuals and populations. I don't see it being a perfect
| metric, but I'd rather see it used than BMI.
| c7b wrote:
| Somewhat related, I am puzzled that we still use BMI with a
| quadratic exponent for height. We are not flat creatures, but we
| also don't grow linearly either. The actual exponent is closer to
| 2.5 - this was even known to the creator of the BMI in the 19th
| century, but I guess that calculation was considered too tedious
| back then.
|
| What it means is that people taller than the average are in fact
| less overweight than the BMI suggests, and shorter people more
| so. This mathematician suggests using
| 1.3*weight[kg]/height[m]^2.5 to align the corrected score with
| the established BMI scale:
|
| https://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/trefethen/bmi.html
| notart666 wrote:
| Actually there have been arguments that the standards are
| actually too low. And to prevent heart disease the score should
| be adjusted down by 3-5. In the categories.
| c7b wrote:
| Interesting, do you have references? I am only aware of these
| discussions: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-
| source/ethni...
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