US obesity 'higher than thought'

• Lan wrote on 2012-04-04 00:17

  The obesity problem in the US may be much worse than previously thought, according to researchers.
  
  They said using the Body Mass Index or BMI to determine obesity was underestimating the issue.
  
  Their study, published in the journal PLoS One, said up to 39% of people who were not currently classified as obese actually were.
  
  The authors said "we may be much further behind than we thought" in tackling obesity.
  
  BMI is a simple calculation which combines a person's height and weight to give a score which can be used to diagnose obesity. Somebody with a BMI of 30 or more is classed as obese.
  
  The US Centers for Disease Control says at least one in three Americans is obese.
  Many more?
  
  Other ways of diagnosing obesity include looking at how much of the body is made up of fat. A fat percentage of 25% or more for men or 30% or more for women is the threshold for obesity.
  
  One of the researchers Dr Eric Braverman said: "The Body Mass Index is an insensitive measure of obesity, prone to under-diagnosis, while direct fat measurements are superior because they show distribution of body fat."
  
  The team at the New York University School of Medicine and the Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, looked at records from 1,393 people who had both their BMI and body fat scores measured.
  
  Their data showed that most of the time the two measures came to the same conclusion. However, they said 539 people in the study - or 39% - were not labelled obese according to BMI, but their fat percentage suggested they were.
  
  They said the disparity was greatest in women and became worse when looking at older groups of women.
  
  "Greater loss of muscle mass in women with age exacerbates the misclassification of BMI," they said.
  
  They propose changing the thresholds for obesity: "A more appropriate cut-point for obesity with BMI is 24 for females and 28 for males."
  
  A BMI of 24 is currently classed as a "normal" weight.
  
  "By our cut-offs, 64.1% or about 99.8 million American women are obese," they said.
  
  It is not the first time BMI has been questioned. A study by the University of Leicester said BMIs needed to be adjusted according to ethnicity.
  
  Last year in the BBC's Scrubbing Up column, nutrition expert Dr Margaret Ashwell advocated using waist-to-height ratio to determine obesity.
  
  She said: "It is a real worry that using BMI alone for screening could miss people who are at risk from central obesity and might also be alarming those whose risk is not as great as it appears from their BMI."

  
  
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17585734
• Cynic wrote on 2012-04-04 00:30
  /insert fat American jokes here
• Taycat wrote on 2012-04-04 00:32
  -eats a triple quadruple cheeseburger while slurping my ultra super gulp with chocolatechip cookies as fries while sitting my scooter-
• Rin wrote on 2012-04-04 00:49
  We probably need to have less convenience and less money in our lives.
  
  ... Just a theory.
• RicochetOrange wrote on 2012-04-04 01:00

  Quote from Rin;829937:

  We probably need to have less convenience and less money in our lives.
  
  ... Just a theory.

  
  
  We need more money and less work hours so we have time to actually prepare something decent to eat.
• MareneCorp wrote on 2012-04-04 01:02
  Or have men learn how to cook instead of making women do it? >_>
• Cynic wrote on 2012-04-04 01:03
  We also need crappy food to be more expensive and healthy food to be less expensive.
  
  Though, you'd think with all the work most middle and lower-class people do, they'd be a lot less tubby. Unless it's the upper-middle and upper-classes that are the obese ones. (which really wouldn't surprise me, since that's basically what I have seen)
• MareneCorp wrote on 2012-04-04 01:08

  Quote from Cynic;829951:

  We also need crappy food to be more expensive and healthy food to be less expensive.
  
  Though, you'd think with all the work most middle and lower-class people do, they'd be a lot less tubby. Unless it's the upper-middle and upper-classes that are the obese ones. (which really wouldn't surprise me, since that's basically what I have seen)

  
  
  There was a facebook post, telling us why people are so fat. Something along the lines of "A hamburger is 99 cents. A salad is $4.99."
• Second wrote on 2012-04-04 01:16
  Must be the pink slime.
• Osayidan wrote on 2012-04-04 01:37

  Quote from MareneCorp;829957:

  There was a facebook post, telling us why people are so fat. Something along the lines of "A hamburger is 99 cents. A salad is $4.99."

  
  
  Sad but true.
  I can go to the grocery store and buy a bag of doritos for less than a couple of apples.
  And doritos are the "high end" chips...
• Cynic wrote on 2012-04-04 01:43

  Quote from MareneCorp;829957:

  There was a facebook post, telling us why people are so fat. Something along the lines of "A hamburger is 99 cents. A salad is $4.99."

  
  
  It's basically the same way here. Fast food is kind of eh.. pizza is pretty expensive but other places like McDonalds are fairly cheap compared to healthy food.
  
  My Mom always makes sure to buy us fruits and veggies, but if we didn't, we'd end up spending around $100 less a month on groceries. And with the $100, we could probably buy a ton of extra cheap microwave food/chips/etc.
  
  I don't know how they expect people to be healthy food wise when healthy food is so frickin' expensive.
• Yoorah wrote on 2012-04-04 01:45

  "By our cut-offs, 64.1% or about 99.8 million American women are obese," they said.

  
  :shock2::shock2::shock2:
  
  Money isn't the issue. You can feed yourself without breaking the bank if you cook your own meals and spend wisely. But that actually takes some time and effort. No drive-thru? Oh noes, we can't have that!
• Lan wrote on 2012-04-04 02:11

  Quote from Yoorah;830020:

  :shock2::shock2::shock2:
  
  Money isn't the issue. You can feed yourself without breaking the bank if you cook your own meals and spend wisely. But that actually takes some time and effort. No drive-thru? Oh noes, we can't have that!

  
  
  It's a vicious cycle Yoorah D: Because they eat fast food they have less energy, if they have less energy then they may be too tired to cook, if they're too tired to cook they will get fast food.
• Yoorah wrote on 2012-04-04 02:32
  It's more of a mindset and discipline thing, I think. :(
• BizarreJuju wrote on 2012-04-04 02:40

  Quote from MareneCorp;829948:

  Or have men learn how to cook instead of making women do it? >_>

  
  
  Funny thing I see more of my male friends cook than female. They may not be all good but they seem to explore on what they can be capable of making. Most of my female friends are scared to cook or "I cant cook as good as that -insert restaurant name here"
  
  But I pat my empty belly every day, gotta love genetics~