The Teen Obesity Problem in America."

[Skwim]

NOTE! THIS THREAD WAS FORMERLY TITLED "FATTY, FATTY TWO BY FOUR . . ."

The other day I happened to get stuck in traffic when one of the local high schools was getting out for the day. Sitting there waiting for the kids to cross the intersection I couldn't help but be struck by how many of them were conspicuously overweight.

When I was in high school obesity was very uncommon. Very few of the students were considered fat, or even overweight. Most of us were pretty fit, and even if we weren't at least we didn't look unfit.

But today being overweight and even obese seems closer to the norm.

This is borne out by the stats on teen age obesity I came across.

​

Being overweight is neither healthy nor attractive. So what's going on with teenagers these days?

.

 

[psychoslice]

Simply just laziness, and expecting everything given to them, even a thin body, but it doesn't work like that, they need a cow prodder up their behinds to get them moving.

 

[Revoltingest]

Just wondering about standards....
If it's wrong to use disparaging names for women (eg, b****) or blacks (eg, coon), is it really OK to use "fatty"?

 

[Iti oj]

Diet

 

[psychoslice]

Just wondering about standards....
If it's wrong to use disparaging names for women (eg, b****) or blacks (eg, coon), is it really OK to use "fatty"?

I see nothing wrong with it, I think we are becoming an age of whimps.

 

[Nietzsche]

.
Being overweight is neither healthy nor attractive. So what's going on with teenagers these days?

.

Do please speak for yourself.

 

[Skwim]

Do please speak for yourself.

I am.

 

[Revoltingest]

I see nothing wrong with it, I think we are becoming an age of whimps.

Aye, tis a gray area in an evolving climate.

 

[Nietzsche]

I am.

Perhaps it's just me, but it looked like you were saying "no one" finds it attractive.

 

[Skwim]

Just wondering about standards....
If it's wrong to use disparaging names for women (eg, b****) or blacks (eg, coon), is it really OK to use "fatty"?

Where I grew up in the Midwest there is (maybe "was") a popular rhyme about overweight kids that started out, "Fatty, fatty two by four . . . ."

 

[Revoltingest]

Where I grew up in the Midwest there is (maybe "was") a popular rhyme about overweight kids that started out, "Fatty, fatty two by four . . . ."

We had rhymes about black folk too...."Eenie meenie minie moe...catch..." you know the rest.

 

[Deathbydefault]

I didn't see many fat kids when I was in school, but I don't doubt your data.
The reason for the obesity issue probably lies with the parent more times than with with the child.

Of course some would throw the blame at our ever more accepting culture.

 

[allfoak]

The times, they are a changing....

Societies and cultures are breaking down all over the world.
Everything must breakdown to make way for the new spiritual awakening that is coming.

 

[Shrew]

Being overweight myself, I plan to try a low carb lifestyle in the new year.
The idea behind low-carb is that it's not fat that makes you fat but carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates rise your blood-sugar and after a while it sinks again resulting in hunger.
And here we are at the heart of the problem of modern food: sugar.
Sugar, sugar everywhere.
The sugar industry was very successful in downplaying the unhealthy effects of sugar while branding fat as evil.
This resulted in the development of a lots of low fat products designed to give the weight conscious costumer a good feeling while doing absolutely nothing to solve the problem.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

Probably nothing so simple that it can be broken down into a single list, and a few things we don't fully even understand yet (hormone and enzymatic responses to processed food and lactose or other forms of sugars, or inflammatory responses to food brought on by processed foods, genes, environmental toxins and pollutants, as a side-effect of medications, etc.)
I really do think that 'they're just lazy' is itself a lazy response, however. As lots of teens are being diagnosed with disorders in increasing numbers which are real and traceable, and effect weight gain. Things like polycistic ovarian syndrome (which I have.) Despite being an active farming girl who ate pretty cleanly I still became overweight at an early age, and couldn't get it under control until I got prescription medications that dealt with the hormone imbalances brought on by that disorder. And there are lots of women like me, and in other similar positions.

 

[jeager106]

I'm 5-10 & 165 or so.
Never had a weight problem.
Active as a kid. Lived in the country, gardened, fishing, hunting,
active.
Even ran a mile long trap line in winter to make a bit of money
in furs.
Not much money though. Cold, freezing, dirty, work.
A muskrat was worth 75 cents, a nice large raccoon might fetch
two bucks.
That was 50+ years ago.
I'd have to be very poor to ever trap again.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

What's the point of this thread? To shame people? Seems so, since you have an insult as your thread title. You think people with a certain body type aren't shamed and bullied enough? This is just rude. Grow up.

 

[Treks]

I didn't see many fat kids when I was in school, but I don't doubt your data.
The reason for the obesity issue probably lies with the parent more times than with with the child.

Of course some would throw the blame at our ever more accepting culture.

I don't think it's the accepting culture that's the heart of the problem. It's a sedentary culture with poor food awareness and big appetites. We have too much food, being served in too big quantities, that is too easy to get, and a whole entertainment industry build around sitting down.

Perhaps our metabolisms are changing as a species?

I worked with a guy, super skinny, who no matter what or how much he ate, couldn't put on weight. No one questions that that is a problem with his metabolism. But fat people? Obviously they're just lazy.... /sarcasm

 

[Timothy Bryce]

What's the point of this thread? To shame people? Seems so, since you have an insult as your thread title. You think people with a certain body type aren't shamed and bullied enough? This is just rude. Grow up.

 

[Timothy Bryce]

The other day I happened to get stuck in traffic when one of the local high schools was getting out for the day. Sitting there waiting for the kids to cross the intersection I couldn't help but be struck by how many of them were conspicuously overweight.

When I was in high school obesity was very uncommon. Very few of the students were considered fat, or even overweight. Most of us were pretty fit, and even if we weren't at least we didn't look unfit.

But today being overweight and even obese seems closer to the norm.

This is borne out by the stats on teen age obesity I came across.

​

Being overweight is neither healthy nor attractive. So what's going on with teenagers these days?

.

I have a fatass aunty (thankfully not blood related) who is extremely passionate about hurtful comments about women specifically being criticized for their weight and how it can lead to bulimia/anorexia. She's always banging on about it and never hesitates to bring up the one time my drunken grandmother made a comment about how her daughter (and subsequently her granddaughter) should lose a little weight.

My aunt is also a stupid *****.

I think our culture's focus on preventing anorexia/bulimia (which are basically just euphemisms for pathological vanity) is completely steered in the wrong direction.

We do have a serious problem with body weight in the west: and it's obesity.

People shouldn't feel "proud" of being fat; they should feel ashamed enough that they feel compelled to improve themselves.

Done.