American Obesity

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Isn’t it funny how in the United States, you can technically be “overweight” but people still think you’re thin because there are so many heavy people? I’m trying to work against that. I know I’m overweight and I need to lose a few pounds, but compared to all the obese people, I look very thin. People tell me to eat whatever I want even though I’m technically overweight because by American standards, I’m thin.

If I said I wanted to lose weight, people would probably laugh in my face. I don’t even want to talk about it because I might make heavy people uncomfortable. I’m sure if I traveled across the world, people would tell me it was great I wanted to lose a few pounds.

We don’t even know what normal is anymore because Americans are getting bigger.

Are you really overweight? Or just not looking like a fashion model and having some soft parts of your body?
That's a difference, you know.

You are right. I think we're actually moving away from understanding, what a normal weight person looks like.
At the end of the day, it's our own choice, so don't let others dictate how you eat.
For myself, when I was slightly overweight, it wasn't the way I looked that bothered me the most, I just didn't feel great. That's why I am very very skeptical when overweight people say they feel fit, it seems very unlikely to me. I don't go out of my way to tell others what to do though.

Sort of. Borderline. My BMI is 26.

Hmmm, my husband said when he was in California, people on the streets were visibly heavier than here. Oh, and I sometimes buy clothes with "EU S, USA XS" tag
I wonder what causes this. Part of this may be cuisine - a Korean man living in US pointed to me that European cuisine uses little sugar. If something is not meant to be a sweet, there is probably no sugar in it - unlike in American and Korean dishes.
Another aspect may be antibiotics: small doses of antibiotics cause weight gain and in Europe feeding animals for slaughter is much more regulated in this area.

Anyway, eating healthy is always good

I just got an LL Bean Jacket in unused condition at the thrift shop. Lots of good deals like that if you can fit into XS clothes.

My waist is 29. It was 27 during the summer when I got a lot of exercise. Interestingly enough my weight hasn't changed.

Not here

Body composition. Muscles are denser than fat.

This is fatlogic right here you described. Being being overweight has become normal, people have forgotten what being thin means or skinny or what fat looks like. So they think overweight people are thin.

When I was in the 7th grade, I weighed around 170 lbs, no one said I was fat. I even saw a photo of myself and I was pretty heavy. My face was rounder and my arms and my legs were bigger and so were my boobs. I didn't have a pudge and I wasn't round looking but I was heavy. That would be considered obese for the teens BMI but overweight for the adults BMI. I was described as being trim by my mother but I wasn't skinny. Even when I got down to 150, I was called skinny minny by my mother and by some other kids and they were thinner than me.

It's become offensive to want to lose weight and so offensive to lose weight now.

It is also gotten offensive to not want to get fat because it now means you hate fat people and suffering from fatphobia.

I think it's funny (but not ha-ha funny, obviously) that in spite of this, women are still expected to live their lives at least 20 pounds underweight and the fact that human beings come in all different superficial shapes and sizes is not accepted in society, and women (and men too, to a growing but still much lesser extent) are brainwashed into thinking they're fat and hideous. And sadly, the US isn't the only country where obesity is a problem.

No, it's not really funny to me, more like pathetic and ridiculous. I'm just waiting for the United States to collapse as more and more people eat themselves to death.

That isn't true at all. Go out on the street and start telling women to lose weight then come back here and tell us how many bruises you now have. The fight against "fat shaming" is a big reason why everyone is overweight because telling people (women especially) that being fat is unattractive and unhealthy is practically a hate crime now.

I think that's an unrealistic interpretation. The fat shaming nonsense seems to be primarily an Internet phenomenon. Do you see it much in real life?

It started because so many people were already overweight, so it couldn't have been a big reason why people became overweight. It wouldn't be as popular as it is now if there hadn't already been a ton of fat people available to join in.

You're right. Look at vanity sizing. What was size 8 in the 1950s is now size 00. In the 1950s that was considered to be an average sized body. In 2017 it's considered to be a tiny body. I've heard that in some cases, Asians who move to America have a hard time finding clothes that fit because Americans have become so much bigger than the rest of the world.

I hate vanity sizing! I pick an item my size and took it to the changing room just to find out I need to go out to pick a different size :/

In Poland many women complain that the global clothing brands make clothes 36 size (ab. 8 UK, I can't really get how the US sizing works) with no room for breasts nor any other curves, while the bigger size looks really baggy.

The point is, the clothes designers seem to believe small sizes are for either underdeveloped teenagers or the women who starve themselves for fashion. But where I live, there are lots of women who are just naturally small (also in height), with all the shapes in place.

Nowadays naturally small women sometimes get accused of having an eating disorder.

I'm an American who has lived in Holland for the last 6 years. I know this sounds so superficial, but when I came here, I realized I could go weeks without seeing a genuinely obese person! In the US, you see at least one, if not several, genuinely obese people per day.

What would really help the US, not just with obesity but also with the air pollution issue, is to do like the Europeans and have bike paths everywhere, and give people incentive to cycle. This keeps Dutch people really fit compared to Americans, even though the average Dutch person eats a diet just as bad as the average American person. They don't call it SAD (Standard American Diet) for nothing.