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It's also worth noting that the things he listed aren't really "meals" for americans. Fries and ice cream are usually side items to a larger lunch or dinner. Get rid of "wheat" items as a main course (say for instance..no dominos pizza, or neverending breadsticks and pasta at olive garden) and total calories per meal drops in half.
Sure, you could in theory order your extra value meal at burger king without the bun- but very, very few people actually do this. They're more likely to just order something else.
My go-to fast food is the small chili at Wendy's. It has carbs, but not enough to worry about. It is so easy to eat low carb, I can eat almost anywhere, no problem. Five Guys and our other local burger places all have a bunless version.
Granted while, yes, we are absolutely overweight as a nation, I don't personally subscribe to the height/weight thing. I'm just under 5'6 (5'5 9/10ths) and my weight falls around 140-150 (I think, I haven't weighed my self in years...past of ED.) I wear a 4 (27 in designer) however.....I'm a lot of muscle. Muscle is more dense than fat.....but occupies much less space in the body.
Processed foods make me sick....I have Celiac and can't touch most of them. I rarely touch the GF products that are out there, other than the occasional bag of pretzels or TJ's gluten free bread.
As has been noted, there are staples of the American diet that aren't prevalent elsewhere. Two keys to this are wheat and sugar. I'm talking about HOW MUCH of these staples we consume. Wheat and sugar can be found anywhere, I'm sure.
Reminds me of a German basketball player that was in the NCAA up to 3 yrs ago. As a freshman he was lean, quick, uber athletic, etc...
Then his sophomore year he was noticeably heavier/slower. Still an awesome player but more sluggish.
Then his junior year he dropped like 15 lbs and was back to being quicker. When asked what he did, he said "I had to get rid of some of those American eating habits, got rid of the sugary stuff."
This is a disgrace. I'm a 5'10" male. A few years ago I put on a lot of weight in a short amount of time. Before I knew it, I was 200 lbs. I looked FAT. I felt FAT. It was uncomfortable to carry around that much weight. However, most people around me thought I looked just fine .. and if you're going by the average, I certainly fit right in. It took me a year and some change to lose the weight.
One of the things working against me was every time I dropped a few pounds (down into the 190 range still way, way too fat for my height) people would tell me how great I looked and that I was wasting away. When I finally got serious about being healthy again, I had to tune out what everyone said. I focused on eating the right foods in the right amounts and exercising. My weight dropped to 155, which is what it should be. People around me nearly had a heart attack. Are you ok? Are you sick? It's sad. A healthy weight looks abnormal now. Sad, just sad.
Most Americans look unhealthy and gross to me. Women who are 5'4" and 166 lbs look like walking corpses. America needs to get its act together and refuse to keep being victimized by Big Food. Fast food? NO. Snacks? NO. Sugary coffee drinks? NO. Soda? NO. Processed food? NO.
Let's get back on track and start eating healthy home-cooked meals in sensible portions again.
this sounds exactly like me. as a 5'10'' male, I weighed about 205 in 2012. I cut out soda & got a gym membership. I dropped it to 155 in six months and I got half "you look great" and the other half "too thin". take a wild guess how the other half looked. I get responses that are mostly positive now. one person asked me if I played sports this weekend(I don't). apparently I have a good build. that tiny bit of weight lifting that I have done must be doing its work. women are noticing more and i got old ladies hitting on me.
most people are fat & dumpy looking. the men look like gorillas and the women look like cows. it really is sad watching a family of livestock grazing in the junk food & soda aisles at the supermarket. and I am getting tired of subsidizing their unhealthy lifestyles in the form of higher medical insurance premiums. women AND men are too damn fat. and they are also more moody than most other people too and I am tired of dealing with the attitudes. I was working at the supermarket and this fat guy wanted a bunch some chicken tenders dipped in a bunch of buffalo sauce. fine. so I did that and reweighed it up and it was a higher price since the sauce weighed down the tenders a bit. he got all pi$$ed off and walked away over paying that extra dollar. i guess between all that eating, he couldn't find the time to understand basic physics.
put down the fork and pick up a gym membership or a pair of running shoes. it is cheaper and easier than ever to exercise now. I got a cheap barebones elliptical for $100 and I use that all the time, and I don't even need to leave my apartment!
nobody was this fat 30 years ago. and biology/genetics don't change that much in 30 years to where everyone all of a sudden has a thyroid problem or gluten making them eat like pigs. just a whole bunch of excuses. and whats up with all this fat acceptance crap? 5'4'' 166 pounds is plain fat even if you wear it better than most other women.
Granted while, yes, we are absolutely overweight as a nation, I don't personally subscribe to the height/weight thing. I'm just under 5'6 (5'5 9/10ths) and my weight falls around 140-150 (I think, I haven't weighed my self in years...past of ED.) I wear a 4 (27 in designer) however.....I'm a lot of muscle. Muscle is more dense than fat.....but occupies much less space in the body.
Processed foods make me sick....I have Celiac and can't touch most of them. I rarely touch the GF products that are out there, other than the occasional bag of pretzels or TJ's gluten free bread.
Of course there will always be statistical outliers such as yourself, but in general, height:weight ratio is pretty reliable. A normal distribution of statistics always produces a bell curve. MOST people who are 5'4" and 166 lbs will absolutely be overweight. MOST people who are even 5'4" and 150 lbs will be overweight. Let's not overestimate how many people will have 'stocky', 'muscular', or 'athletic' body types--outliers don't disprove the overall value of general guidelines such as BMI. Of course something like a skin fold caliper test is much more reliable, but you can't give 300,000,000 people guidelines based on a caliper test since the vast majority of people aren't going to get one. They have height:weight though.
I believe losing weight is 90% diet. Years ago, I cardio'd my ASS off (then it was the elliptical) and didn't come close to losing weight. 4 years ago I went on a modified low carb diet (Tim Ferriss' Slow Carb diet) and lost 55 pounds. I've gained some of that weight back because the diet is very restrictive, and I've found it hard to maintain, especially because I like to eat out.
As to the "Americans are overweight" observation; I was at the beach last summer, and we were by a group of Canadians (I heard them mention where they lived in Canada) on the beach. Two men and two women, ages approx. 30-40. They were NOTICEABLY slimmer than the big Americans around them. Many of the Americans around us were eating potato chips and drinking beer, and the Canadians were eating small, healthy portions of vegetables and fruits from small plastic bags. It was quite a contrast.
Yep, the big culprit is the switch from homemade food to eating out/processed foods. It's hard to believe that 50 years ago most people only went to a restaurant on a special occasion. Now its impossible to imagine a weekend without going somewhere.
I'd have to disagree with this. Many people don't cook healthy meals and homemade portions can be huge. I don't see how eating a bowl of pasta at Noodles & Co. is any worse than eating a bowl of pasta at home, where you can easily have seconds, thirds or load up on garlic bread while watching tv. Think about Hamburger Helper and all that packaged junk - it's loaded with calories. All from the luxury of your own home.
I'd have to disagree with this. Many people don't cook healthy meals and homemade portions can be huge. I don't see how eating a bowl of pasta at Noodles & Co. is any worse than eating a bowl of pasta at home, where you can easily have seconds, thirds or load up on garlic bread while watching tv. Think about Hamburger Helper and all that packaged junk - it's loaded with calories. All from the luxury of your own home.
There have been studies done showing that this is exactly the case.
Restaurant portions are MUCH LARGER than portions people make for themselves at home. If you live alone, you probably aren't making enough to have thirds every night. If you have a family of five, you probably aren't making enough for everyone to have thirds every night either- outside of thanksgiving dinner. cost and space limitations for most people make this impractical.
Americas problem isn't wheat or our food supply. America has a willpower problem.
This.
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I get responses that are mostly positive now. one person asked me if I played sports this weekend(I don't). apparently I have a good build. that tiny bit of weight lifting that I have done must be doing its work. women are noticing more and i got old ladies hitting on me.
i guess between all that eating, he couldn't find the time to understand basic physics.
