Another sad and VERY QUICKLY WORSENING addition to this - childhood obesity. I am a pediatric PT and work mostly with kids with diagnoses of global developmental delay, cerebral palsy, genetic syndromes, autism and orthopedic problems that affect their ability to move in an age appropriate manner. Lately, I have been getting referrals for kids who are having movement problems - and it is because they are obese! I am talking 7 years old, 4' 0" and 105 #'s!!!! In trying to find studies or some kind of guidelines in journals to define terms such as overweight, obese, etc. I have basically turned up that there are none and that the healthcare world is really just beginning to define obesity in children. We are way, way behind on this and believe me, parents don't want to hear, your child does not need physical therapy, he needs to participate in group sports or exercise on a consistent basis, one hour per day. My own supervisor wants me to tread lightly on the language I use in my reports to describe kids who are overweight. I think it is worse to end up with diabetes, movement problems, etc than to be labeled overweight and face it.

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Check out my IMLP Janus Charity Challenge Page
https://www.kintera.org/...&supid=247145789
Raising Funds for Myeloma Research in Honor of my Mom

"However, I wonder what confounding factors there are in American culture or popular culture."

See my six points in the post above. It's pretty straight-forward. Oddly, the solutions are pretty straight-forward to, but I don't see any changes any time soon.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

It was the shock of my life moving to the midwest from the bay area. Seems like everyone here is fat and smokes. Just don't understand it.

Ric,

I came from the Midwest and moved to the Southeast. Believe me, you ain't seen nuthin'!

.

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Bob C.

The "science" on any matter can never be settled until every possible variable is taken into account.

sounds like someone has an admirer...
;-)

It's funny but I was thinking this just a week ago when my wife and I were flying back from my parent's for Christmas/New Years. Don't get me wrong, at 6'1" and 215 lbs. I am not a small person, but I am fairly solid. I don't look like I weigh as much as I do. Now the guy sitting next to me looked everybit of his 300+ pounds and then some. I had to lean towards my wife the entire 3 hour flight in order to keep the guy's arm off of me. What really got me upset was thinking about how much the airlines charge us for carrying our bikes or the extra $80 dollars a flight to have my dog sit under the seat in front of me. It's ridiculous.

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~Jeff Good

"I watched a marathon last year and was shocked at those finishing near the back of the pack. "

They could be beginners and just getting into the lifestyle change. I know a guy who has lost 60 lbs in the past year since he took up running. Actually he started off walking before he could run. He still is overweight but he's making great progress.

This has a similar mechanism for calculating ideal weight, but slightly different parameters for men: www.serpentine.org.uk/advice/coach/fh01.php

The average man is allocated 110 lbs (50kg) for the first 5 feet (1.524m) in height. Thereafter, he is allocated 5½ lbs (2.495 kg) for every additional inch (O.025m) in height.

See my six points in the post above. It's pretty straight-forward.

There you go again making things simple and easy to understand.

When will you ever learn.

:)

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You sir, are my new hero! - Trifan 11/13/2008

Casey, you are a wise man - blueraider_mike 11/13/2008

Casey, This is an astute observation. - Slowbern 11/17/2008

bingo. that's it.

go to this site:

www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/trend/maps/obesity_trends_2005.ppt#395

skip the first 4 slides, then see america get fatter, year by year.

sobering.

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Where would you want to swim ?

I apologize. I don't think I was clear. I was talking about CONFOUNDING factors, ie those factors which look like obesity but are not obesity, such as a bodybuilder who has a BMI of like 33 but, upon body composition testing, has 4% body fat and a resting heartrate of 50. This wasn't addressed in your post. Again, I'm not denying that there's a problem and I'm not denying that it's really bad here in the US.

Extreme example? Yes. However, these people exist and so I wonder how much they contribute to estimates of obesity as reported in BMI. Maybe people like this are enriched in American culture, making estimates of obesity in America as larger than what is real when compared to other countries. Maybe not. Maybe people like this are enriched in society today, but were less frequent in society 15 years ago. Then again, maybe not.

The reason I mention the bodybuilder is that BMI is an imperfect measurement of obesity. My idea was to take into account some easily measured variable to partially account for the fact that some people have a lot of weight in muscle and not in fat. Muscle weight usually does not manifest itself in increased waistline and it's easily measured in any setting without calipers, a water tank or electrical measurements (the three most common methods for body composition testing).

So what if 20% of people in America are considered obese by BMI standards and 1% of those are bodybuilders like mentioned above. Then, at least 0.2% of the entire population is not actually obese. So that number becomes 19.8% of all people are actually obese. Although there is not a huge difference between 20% and 19.8%, these numbers are not identical, but that 0.2% may be above the margin of error for the study.

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Alright, when I say your name, you say 'here.' And we will assume 'here' is short for 'here I am...rock you like a hurricane.
~Ignignokt

You should also check out "The Omnivore's Dilemna" by Michael Pollan. A number of different factors including farm subsidies leads to most farmland being used to grow corn and soybeans which are processed into food or feed for animals that cannot digest them. There was a good editorial in the NY Times this weekend by a chef on the same subject.

I saw the video and the slides, both are really amazing.

215 to 150 in a year is stunning. Congratulations. Keep dreaming big dreams, and keep walking on the path to health.

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That is truly amazing. What was your initial motivation for changing your lifestyle?

Keep it up- I'm sure you are an inspiration to a lot of people!

:-)

Jodi

Hey if you're MOP in du's, should be FOP in tri's without a problem. :-)

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I would also like to congratulate you on losing all those pounds. That is quite an accomplishment. I am FOPer but I have more respect for people that are overweight and bust their butt to get in shape than pros. I have never been overweight in my life but my sister was and watching her get back into shape was an eye opening experience. I never used to wait around to cheer on the last finishers because I used to think that they could be faster if they trained harder. But after watching my sister have to run the entire 5K for the first time and the look of accomplishment on her face when she finished I realized that everyone no matter if they finish first or last is giving it thier all.

My wife has a pretty good ability to step back and see the differences in locales- she's from Panama, and has only been in the US a little over 5 yrs, so can still do a little of the "outside looking in" perspective. She was really surprised at the # of overweight people when we moved to Arlington, TX in DEC 03. When we moved to northern IL last MAR, one of the 1st things she said was something to the effect of "there aren't as many fat people, but man, do a lot of these people smoke!". I guess its just different aspects of the same unhealthy lifestyle. In raising our 3 y/o daughter, we've found the advertising really is insidious. EVERYTHING is Dora/Backyardigan/Princess branded. This stuff is loaded with sugar. Get the kids hooked on sugar early, and they grow up wanting something sugary (pop), and quick (packet of fatty-puffs, or whatever).

Like others have said, there were just a few overweight kids growing up (I'm 29), and they were made fun of. Now that its OK to be fat, there's nothing to dissuade the kids from being fat. I sometimes wonder if I should impart a bit of disdain for overweight/sedentary people to my daughter (and future kiddos) to keep her from thinking its OK. It is a dick move, but maybe better that than diabetes and an inability to move around?

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If I don't, who will? -Me
It's like being bipolar in opinion is a requirement around here. -TripleThreat

[reply]"I watched a marathon last year and was shocked at those finishing near the back of the pack. "

They could be beginners and just getting into the lifestyle change. I know a guy who has lost 60 lbs in the past year since he took up running. Actually he started off walking before he could run. He still is overweight but he's making great progress.[/reply]

Absolutely. It's important to be careful in passing judgement on people who may not have the ideal running/swimming/biking/hockey/whatever body type. If an overweight or obese person is just getting into it, an odd look or rude comment could cause them to give up trying at all. I think it's important to encourage people who are making positive choices in their fitness.

I think it's important to encourage people who are making positive choices in their fitness.

I made the original observation and it related to a marathon I watched. One man probably weighed over 280 lbs and was noticeably struggling at the halfway point. His face was red and he was only walking and still had 13 miles to go. He ended up walking the rest of the way and almost collapsed at the finish.

It is important to encourage people but also important to suggest that a marathon is not appropriate for some people. That man should have focussed on his diet and slowly increased his fitness level by doing consistent short walks, not trying to run a marathon. He was probably 100 lbs over the weight he should be before even considering a marathon.

I think we go overboard in our fear of offending some people. This man was asking for a heart attack and instead of someone telling him advice that could save his life, we are so busy trying to build up his self esteem. Sometimes the truth hurts but it has to be said.

A marathon does not make you healthy but exercise done to the point of over exertion can be deadly. Nutrition/reducing stress are more important to your overall health and exercise can compliment health if its done within safe boundaries. That is the message we have to tell people.

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You sir, are my new hero! - Trifan 11/13/2008

Casey, you are a wise man - blueraider_mike 11/13/2008

Casey, This is an astute observation. - Slowbern 11/17/2008

Absolutely. I agree with you 100 percent and would never suggest a person in that physical state complete an event like that, nor would I consider that a positive fitness choice!

My comment was meant more in the general physical fitness arena. I see some really large people walking around town lake here in Austin, and while they are slow and sometimes get in my way, it would be wrong of me to turn my nose down at them or say something rude about their weight.

I guess this issue is really close to my heart because my husband is about 100 lbs overweight. Last year he successfully, and comfortably, completed the Houston-Austin MS 150 at 295lbs. He's a big guy, but he can move pretty good. I would be upset if some bony-arse rider said something rude to him about doing the event at his weight.

Don't worry, if you look at overweight/sendentary people with disdain so will your children. On the other hand if you're proud of and enjoy your fitness without judging others they'll learn that instead. Making fun of someone doesn't discourage the behavior. If that logic worked there would be fewer weight issues now instead of more.

congratulations, and keep it up! I wish what you have going on in your head could be bottled and put in the water supply.

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If I don't, who will? -Me
It's like being bipolar in opinion is a requirement around here. -TripleThreat