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[TimHortons]

As a Canuck that frequently travel's to the US it's your portions of everyfuckingthing is insanity. I'm a little overweight imo but I look pretty svelte in the US. Not to mention your food is so much cheaper. I'd be 350 easy within a year.

 

[ecosse_011172]

I’m from Scotland but live in Switzerland and I have lived in or visit countries such as France, Italy, Spain and Germany quite often.
There is nothing surprising in these results for me, considering what you see in each country.

For me, the biggest factors are
Exercise
The UK has adopted the American way of driving everywhere, even a few hundred metres and barely walking, this is made even worse as, due to the nationwide kiddy-snatcher paranoia of the last 20 years, kids aren’t even walking to school anymore, they’re driven or get taxis whereas when I was a kid, you’d walk the mile to school each day.
In Switzerland, everyone has a bicycle, even old people, people don’t drive short distances, they cycle and walk much more.
They also do more sport, you see people heading off to hike in the mountains or jogging much more.
Food
It’s not about fat, it’s about sugar and processed food.
In the US and UK people eat a lot more processed food in terms of ready meals and stuff like that, frozen dinners etc., they’re eating stuff that’s loaded with salt, sugar, flavour enhancers and other crap.
Eating freshly cooked, real food would make a large difference.
In the US, the portion sizes in restaurants are obscene, often double or more than what you’d find in Europe, there’s no need for it whatsoever.

Drink
In the UK they drink more alcohol, especially beer than in countries such as Italy and Switzerland, it doesn’t help.
The soft drink consumption in the states is basically sick, those massive buckets you can get are totally unnecessary.

 

[Moose Biscuits]

So England is around 24% but is dragged down (or up) by Scotlands 29%. Interesting!

It's all those battered Mars bars.

 

[keuja]

No but America will probably have THAT soon at this rate !

I just recall the places I saw - even "fast food" like Pizza, or even nicer fast food like Nordsee, sold bottles of coke vs. the fountain.

Remember, here in the US a medium soda is 950ml on average.

That's insane.
Last time I was in the US, I ordered pancakes for breakfast. I got a huge pile, maybe 30cm (12 inches) high that would have been enough to feed 4 persons. And it was cheap.

 

[Darkstorne]

I’m from Scotland but live in Switzerland and I have lived in or visit countries such as France, Italy, Spain and Germany quite often.
There is nothing surprising in these results for me, considering what you see in each country.

For me, the biggest factors are
Exercise
The UK has adopted the American way of driving everywhere, even a few hundred metres and barely walking, this is made even worse as, due to the nationwide kiddy-snatcher paranoia of the last 20 years, kids aren’t even walking to school anymore, they’re driven or get taxis whereas when I was a kid, you’d walk the mile to school each day.
In Switzerland, everyone has a bicycle, even old people, people don’t drive short distances, they cycle and walk much more.
They also do more sport, you see people heading off to hike in the mountains or jogging much more.
Food
It’s not about fat, it’s about sugar and processed food.
In the US and UK people eat a lot more processed food in terms of ready meals and stuff like that, frozen dinners etc., they’re eating stuff that’s loaded with salt, sugar, flavour enhancers and other crap.
Eating freshly cooked, real food would make a large difference.
In the US, the portion sizes in restaurants are obscene, often double or more than what you’d find in Europe, there’s no need for it whatsoever.

Drink
In the UK they drink more alcohol, especially beer than in countries such as Italy and Switzerland, it doesn’t help.
The soft drink consumption in the states is basically sick, those massive buckets you can get are totally unnecessary.

It's especially worrying seeing how many kids are obese these days, and how many parents fail to address it. My girlfriend is a primary school teacher in the UK and is worried about this more than anything else. It's a trend that is clearly on the rise.

As someone who loves cooking, hardly ever drinks soft drinks (I really don't understand why people regularly pour that much sugar down their throats), as well as being someone who prefers walking to shops rather than driving, I find it ridiculously easy to stay slim. I'm 30 years old and I can still happily devour an entire tub of Ben and Jerries in a single sitting - I just make that a treat rather than a daily routine. And when you cook your own meals getting your 5 a day is incredibly easy. I love one pot meals that lead to very little washing up, and always have a side salad. Mushroom risotto with a salad is at LEAST 5 a day in one meal. And it's not like being busy is an excuse to avoid this and eat junk food, because i work 6-7 days a week over summer months, sometimes 18 hours a day. I don't go to a gym, and I don't do any jogging or strenuous exercise. Sometimes I do sit-ups or press ups for a few minutes but that's about it.

There are severe laziness problems in the US and UK right now when it comes to diet, and some really bizarre beliefs about home cooking being time consuming and difficult. And then therre's the "fresh food is expensive" bull that drives me up the wall. Aldi regularly advertise packs of veg for 19p and I curse because I know later that day I'll be dragged shopping by my girlfriend and carrying bags full of carrots, onions, and leeks back home =P The most important way to stay slim is just to sort out a good home cooking system, but a scarily large amount of the population seems terrified of cooking anything and thinks microwave or oven meals are cheaper than buying fresh food. Madness.

 

[SeriuzBiznus]

There are severe laziness problems in the US and UK right now when it comes to diet, and some really bizarre beliefs about home cooking being time consuming and difficult. And then therre's the "fresh food is expensive" bull that drives me up the wall. Aldi regularly advertise packs of veg for 19p and I curse because I know later that day I'll be dragged shopping by my girlfriend and carrying bags full of carrots, onions, and leeks back home =P The most important way to stay slim is just to sort out a good home cooking system, but a scarily large amount of the population seems terrified of cooking anything and thinks microwave or oven meals are cheaper than buying fresh food. Madness.

My man.

The laziness and false belief surrounding the effort required for home-cooking drives me crazy too. Hell, you can even buy pre-chopped fresh and frozen vegetables these days. A little meal prep at the weekend and people could have 5 nutritious, homemade, evening meals stocked in the freezer, ready to go when they're home from work. All for a fraction of the price they'd pay for a pre-made microwave meal or take-out.

 

[PerkeyMan]

Today I saw an eight year old kid riding his hoverboard whilst eating icecream.

 

[Infinite]

Today I saw an eight year old kid riding his hoverboard whilst eating icecream.

Man this thread really transformed into stealth brags and severe judgemental nonsense like this lol

 

[Conor_Fool]

I was at the doc earlier and mentioned weight right away. Apparently I'm fat but at least a few BMI numbers away from obese. Feelsgoodman

 

[FreeMufasa]

I like my girls Bbw. Type that wanna...

I'm ripped and eat healthy. Long as I stay this way, y'all go get some more curves fa me.

 

[PerkeyMan]

Man this thread really transformed into stealth brags and severe judgemental nonsense like this lol

If sarcasm/joke: Haha! Good one, lol.

If serious: Wtf are you talking about?

 

[BladeoftheImmortal]

Well there's your problem then.

But really it's a combination of eating shit and not exercising, however what you eat has a lot more impact on your weight than exercise itself. You can exercise all you want but if you continue to eat junk / start eating more junk you will not lose weight. 90% of weightloss happens in the kitchen.

If you want to lose weight then stop eating junk food, stop drinking sugary soda, and control your portions.

easier said than done

 

[sphinx]

As a Canuck that frequently travel's to the US it's your portions of everyfuckingthing is insanity. I'm a little overweight imo but I look pretty svelte in the US. Not to mention your food is so much cheaper. I'd be 350 easy within a year.

this. so much.

you go look for chips in a super market and and every brand comes in this "SUPER MEGA SIZE" presentation (Doritos, lays and stuff like that), HUGE bags of unhealthy stuff,

whenever I see that I think "what the fuck is wrong with these people? that's insane".

 

[Generate]

I weigh 117 pounds. Im not sure how much that is in weird foreign measures. Anyone care to calculate?

 

[Messofanego]

I weigh 117 pounds. Im not sure how much that is in weird foreign measures. Anyone care to calculate?

53kg, that seems healthy, depending on your height and age. Have you calculated your BMI?

http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/Healthyweightcalculator.aspx

 

[The Hermit]

you dont have to be that fat to be considered obese

Wait what?

Btw most people are overweight and don't realize.

I was at the doc earlier and mentioned weight right away. Apparently I'm fat but at least a few BMI numbers away from obese. Feelsgoodman

 

[Zelenogorsk]

I'm really fat but sometimes I don't even feel that fat because it's not hard to look around town and see people fatter than me. Granted this is in a flyover state but there are so many fat people that it just throws off the perception of what a fat person looks like.

For the longest time it was just easier to buy bigger pants and shirts then actually do any significant lifestyle change to my diet. Now i've at least stopped drinking sugary drinks, but that's just a start.

For a long time I was in a denial so intense that even looking at myself naked in the mirror wouldn't make me realize just how fat i was. As long as I could still move around, walk the dog, hold down a job, and wipe my own ass, then how much could my weight really be affecting my life? Then recently my doctor told me I would be dead within 10 years if I didn't make a change (I'm only 24) and that finally got through to me. It actually took a "do or die" moment for me to start making changes.

Honestly if most of these obese people are like me then our country is screwed.

 

[Zoe]

Wait what?

Btw most people are overweight and don't realize.

Most people think of obese to just be those people off of My 600 Pound Life, but that's faaaaaaar from the baseline.

 

[Milly Osworth]

What % is above 25 BMI in America?

 

[jmdajr]

Fuck yeah we winning! Pass the corn syrup!

 

[whatsinaname]

What % is above 25 BMI in America?

More than 65% if I am not mistaken.

Edit: Yeah, 67.5% in adults (20+ years)

https://vizhub.healthdata.org/obesity/

 

[Milly Osworth]

More than 65% if I am not mistaken.

Edit: Yeah, 67.5% in adults (20+ years)

https://vizhub.healthdata.org/obesity/

Yikes. Because 30+ is bad, but 25+ isn't great either.

 

[The Hermit]

More than 65% if I am not mistaken.

Edit: Yeah, 67.5% in adults (20+ years)

https://vizhub.healthdata.org/obesity/

Holy shit

This is insane.

The norm is literally being overweight.

Yikes. Because 30+ is bad, but 25+ isn't great either.

30+ is not just bad, that person is sick. Obesity is a disease.

 

[Muppet of a Man]

Welcome to the new reality:

 

[Astral Dog]

im obese too 😢

 

[UristMcDwarf]

I can honestly say I was shocked at how easy it was to change my diet. I dropped from 220 to 198 without even doing that much exercise (2-3 hours walk/jog a week) within 12 weeks. Just cutting out fast food and soda has been a god send. I still grab a burger every now and then but I used to have almost daily cravings for fast food that all evapourated. I know that when I have my children that I will do my best to instill in them a respect for their body and an understanding that it does take some effort to take care of it.

 

[Phoenix RISING]

Y'all didn't think that all these thiq womenz in the post-Buns of Steel era wouldn't cost us anything, did you?

 

[PHOENIXZERO]

I believe that is wrong. What has been proven is Americans are eating as many as 600-800 calories more than their counterparts in the 70's. If 3500 calories equals one pound, every week you are eating more than 1 pound than someone in the 70's. You are also probably walking less, doing less exercise and more sedentary than someone in the 70's. Portion size probably a big factor too. Imagine a burger meal in the 70's versus a burger meal now.

Just using fast food specifically McDonald's as an example the burger has shrunk since then, a normal fry size has pretty much remained the same, the problem is the introduction of medium and large sizes along with drink sizes (or really since the 50s) having increased significantly and the move from cane or beet sugar to high-fructose corn syrup (and it seemingly being used in nearly everything) certainly hasn't helped either.

When McDonald's opened in the 50s they had one cup size and it was 7 ounces, now their small is 16 ounces and Burger King's small went from 12 ounces to 20 over the years. They basically shrunk the sandwich portion and increased the soda and optionally fry size because of the high margins on them give them a lot of room to do so and in turn greater profit. Hell usually when I go past the nearest McDonald's to me (that's like eight miles away) they have an advertisement for any size soft drink for a dollar.

 

[Beer Monkey]

the move from cane or beet sugar to high-fructose corn syrup (and it seemingly being used in nearly everything) certainly hasn't helped either.

I won't drink cane sugar soda any more than I would the HFCS stuff and a registered dietitian friend of mine agrees and says they should be treated the same; avoid.

 

[Laiza]

I think it's worth noting that your gut biome can have an outsized effect on your appetite and contribute to difficulties in controlling those portions sizes. It's not all of the story, obviously, as a lot of it is clearly cultural (that bloody soda!), but I think it's important to recognize that it's not merely a matter of willing yourself to not get hungry or some shit.

 

[ZoddGutts]

It's pretty bad, as a kid growing up in the 90's there weren't as many obese people. Recently took my niece to school, first thing I notice is how many of the kids were obese or close to it. Only remember like one or two kids that were obese in my elementary school, but even then they were bigger/taller than most kids, so that may have been more baby fat that they easily lose as they grow up like one friend of mine did in middle school. Anyways things are looking pretty grim for this new generation of children. Thankfully my sister feeds my niece with mostly healthy food, and doesn't give her too much fruit drinks.