You are overweight, I am not!
http://www.webmd.com/content/article/121/114065.htm. The article reads:
Most Americans See Excess Pounds on Others but Not Themselves
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Really? I guess that "denial" isn't just a river in Egypt any more!April 12, 2006 -- Most Americans see a serious weight problem among other Americans but often can't see it in themselves.
So says a new survey from the Pew Research Center. The survey, done by telephone in February and early March, included 2,250 randomly chosen U.S. adults.
The survey showed widespread agreement that the U.S. is heftier than it should be. But most participants thought those extra pounds were on other people's bodies.
Among poll takers, 90% said most Americans are overweight. A smaller group -- 70% -- said most people they know are overweight. Even fewer -- 39% -- called themselves overweight.
Participants mainly blamed insufficient exercise for America's weight problem, followed by lack of willpower about what to eat, the survey also shows.
The article continues:
When asked if Americans are more overweight than five years ago, 85% of poll takers said yes, and two-thirds called that trend a "major problem."
The CDC recently reported that . But in the Pew survey, less than four in 10 thought they were overweight, showing a gap between perception and reality. [...]
Both polls showed that among people who had ever dieted, about 75% reported losing at least 5 pounds and keeping that weight off for at least a year. In other words, dieting may have been more common 15 years ago, but people weren't much better at it then.
"Nearly everyone -- dieters and nondieters alike -- say that is difficult to lose weight," the new poll states. For instance, 59% said it is "very hard" for people who are very overweight to lose weight. Women, people aged 50 and older, overweight people, and dieters were more likely to agree that weight loss is very hard for the very overweight.
Exercise a Big Issue
Why are so many people in the U.S. overweight? Insufficient exercise is the biggest reason, the poll shows.
Again, this "reason" just comes from the polls. I suppose this is part of the "well, most people are average but I am above average attitude that I see so often in many walks of life.
posted by Harriet at
6/13/2006 02:07:00 PM
3 Comments:
Well, yeah! For instance I myself am neither overweight nor average, heh.
I fight almost the opposite problem. I know that I'm overweight. I should probably be about 20 pounds lighter than I am currently. Yet, when I'm in any crowd other than a running crowd and state that I'm overweight, people disagree with me. It may be that I'm just not as overweight as some other people are. Or, perhaps by saying that I'm not overweight, it allows others to remain in denial about their own weight. But, I can think of some skinny people who argue with me when I say I'm overweight. My wife says I have some sort of issues with my body and my weight, but it's easy to see in the mirror that I'm carrying too much extra fat.
OTOH, while running on Sunday, one of my skinny running buddies did not contradict me at all when I talked about being overweight. I did enjoy leaving him behind on some uphills later in the run, despite outweighing him by 60 pounds. Well, he might be older than I am, but he's a much faster ultra-runner, shooting for sub-20 at the VT100 next month.
If we use BMI as our standards though, are we being too strict? If I were to get my BMI below 25, my BF% would be sub-8%. That's in the realm of elite athletes. Clearly, the BMI method doesn't allow for differences in the amount of lean body tissue that different people have.
Of course BMI is one of those things that works for *most* people. The "gold standard" is underwater weighing, of course.
Interestingly enough, some top walkers told me that, while I am not fat, I would do better if I lost weight. One told me to stay away from the weight room. :-)
Of course, I don't think that weights have much to do with the roll around my midsection. :-)
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