What i've read:
healthy bmi for healthy, long life = 21-25 (?)
healthy # of calories to be eaten per day @ LEAST= 1200
which group of people ahve the longest lifespan? == Japanese people
what do they do?
average bmi: 16-20
eats: around 1,020
dunno... from many different sites/ sources... so i just averaged them out... but overall, they eat WAYY less calories than what CC recomends, but is able to live much longer than the rst of the world......
how?... any thoughts?
The less you eat, the less oxidation you face. =) Everytime you eat you're sort of... literally rusting. But without the food, you die anyway! Funny how that works, right? You eat, you die. You don't eat, you die. =P You have to find a happy balance. Maybe Asians are on to something!
Eat, but don't stuff yourself. Sounds simple. =)
yes i was just reading the other day about how asian people have bones that are more porous, and higher body fat is normal for for them.
african americans have more denser heavier bones then caucasians and are supposed to have less body fat
so my body fat % is supposed to be less then 20% (mines is 18.5%)
apparently your cells only can regenerate that certain number of times... so if you manage to slow your metabolism down, you technically will be able to live longer as well. the problem is that slowing your metabolism down also involves eating very little, and if you eat too little, you end up dying earlier due to malnutrition... so it's a matter of being able to strike a balance.
anyway, if you have got a very small frame and need less to sustain your body, it's possible that the minimum requirement of healthy cals to be eaten in a day will be less (which might be the case for japanese people). then if the 1020cals eaten consists of nutritious food, they're probably less likely to end up suffering from malnutrition than even people who eat 2000cals of high sugar+high transfat items that have very little other nutrition value...?
just my 2cents. i don't think the life spans of japanese people nowadays are getting any longer though. healthcare does play a part, but more japanese people are dying younger too, mainly cause of the high stress levels... and food in japan is getting less healthy too...? japanese meals rarely hit less than 600~700cals when they're eating out nowadays i think...
The standard BMI is not appropriate for Japanese people so the WHO reclassified BMI for them. If you're Japanese, a healthy normal BMI is 18.5-22.9, overweight is 23-24.9 obese is 25-29.9 and severely obese is 30+. I don't know a lot about it but it has to do with the relationship between your ethnic background and where you store abdominal fat. If you're interested, go to the library and search for this article.
Also, Japanese lifespan isn't significantly greater than most other developed countries - it's the women who throw the curve off a little and live (on average) a year or 3 longer than women of other ethnicities. The men don't live longer at all. Their average life expectancy is longer, but not by much:
Japan - 82.07
Australia - 80.73
The Netherlands - 79.25
Hong Kong - 81.77
Canada - 81.16
New Zealand - 80.24
I actually made an entry about this before.
The "Experts" tell us that we must consume at least 1200 calories a day or else we will go into starvations mode.. and so many Americans are severely obese.
Yet the Japanese, who consume an average of 1083 calories a day are the longest living population!
I remember reading an article written by a Japanese person who came to the US for college; she said that the first day she arrived here, she bought a glass of orange juice and "it was the biggest glass of juice she's ever seen."
You also have to keep in mind that Japanese people are very short and small framed, so they don't need as many calories as the average American.
Where did you get your information. Please provide a link if you can. Those numbers don't look right.
"The "Experts" tell us that we must consume at least 1200 calories a day or else we will go into starvations mode.. and so many Americans are severely obese.
Yet the Japanese, who consume an average of 1083 calories a day are the longest living population!"
And that's exactly why I don't listen to everything I hear/read on here...or anywhere, for that matter. Everyone is their own expert, so I don't take anything anyone else says too seriously.
Here are the statistics from the World Health Organization. Personally I think the Japanese do better than the United States because they have national health insurance. I doubt if it has much to do with diet or how much they eat. When the Japanese eat red meat it's extrememely fatty, and they eat a lot of white rice.
Japan statistics
Total population: 127,953,000
Gross national income per capita (PPP international $): 33,150
Life expectancy at birth m/f (years): 79/86
Healthy life expectancy at birth m/f (years, 2003): 72/78
Probability of dying under five (per 1 000 live births): 4
Probability of dying between 15 and 60 years m/f (per 1 000 population): 89/44
Total expenditure on health per capita (Intl $, 2005): 2,498
Total expenditure on health as % of GDP (2005): 8.2
United States statistics
Total population: 302,841,000
Gross national income per capita (PPP international $): 44,260
Life expectancy at birth m/f (years): 75/80
Healthy life expectancy at birth m/f (years, 2003): 67/71
Probability of dying under five (per 1 000 live births): 8
Probability of dying between 15 and 60 years m/f (per 1 000 population): 137/80
Total expenditure on health per capita (Intl $, 2005): 6,350
Total expenditure on health as % of GDP (2005): 15.2
for example I have lived in both the US and Italy....I have always been at a healthy BMI and am a pretty small guy, but compared to my Italian counterparts I am bigger....not because I am fat, but rather our body strctures are just completely different.....
in fact when I was even medically underweight at one point I was still larger than my Italian cousins who were the same age, height, etc....if I weighed what they weighed I would look completley unhealthy and probably be dead.....
like someone said, if you're a small Japanese, Italian, French, etc. person you should eat like one...if your a 6' big boned American or whatever than eat like a 6' big boned American.....
and like someone said with the orange juice example....our portions and idea of a portion in the US are COMPLETELY different than other nations....I was in Italy since April and would have a little cup of espresso in the morning...now that I am home I get my large dunkin odughnuts iced coffee every morning whcih is probably equal to what I drank my whole time there hahaha
Maybe for some reason they just have really slow metabolisms? I mean I was eating 1300+ calories a day and got down to a frighteningly low BMI..
wait wait.. I just realized that if the average japanese woman is about 5'0", and has a BMI of 16, she'd have to weigh about 80 pounds.. yeah, that could be it!
they have lower muscle mass levels, therefore lower metabolic needs. they have tiny bone structure also. ur metabolic rate depends on ur weight and height.
if they are 5 ft and 80lbs.....then chances are that her metabolism is 1000 ish. and coz shes lighter she expends less energy doin anything active coz shes so light!
not that hard guys come on!
actually japanese guys are around 5'7" and girls are around 5'2"
I have lived in Japan for more than twenty years and have been eating a Japanese diet the whole time (I'm American). You can probably get fat on any diet. Japan is increasingly struggling with overweight issues throughout the population. I see a trend of eating larger portions happening here and there too. Americans are the worst offenders of this. Every time I go to the States, I am grossed out by the excessive sizes. Even the Small size of a soda drink is sometimes larger than a Large drink in Japan. Americans like to think they are saving money by buying the larger Economy size. Is consuming a too-large size of anything really a bargain? It probably isn't from a health perspective.
I am 5 feet high (typical mongrel American ie. European mix), and my husband who is 60 years old is typical of his age at about 5'6." I think Japanese tend to eat less junk food, and a lot of their "junk food" is less sugary and fat-loaded than American style junk food.
It might be true that Japanese consume less than 1200 calories a day, but I doubt it is true for most people (except the elderly). I have nothing to prove it except being here and seeing how people eat in a variety of situations. I do think that centuries of a mostly vegetable plus tiny amount of fish based diet have left the average Japanese with less body fat in general. But, there are plenty of big, overweight Japanese of both sexes.
It is a fact, based on my personal experience that becoming overweight eating a typical Japanese diet is pretty easy to do. I have gained more than 50 lbs over the last twenty years. A bowl or two of rice extra or a totally sedentary lifestyle will definitely put on the pounds. I think it is hard to make generalizations.
Although I am a big believer in eating fewer calories for health and longevity, I think your figures are dodgy (and I live in Japan, BTW)
First off, yes, Japanese have a lower average BMI, in part because east asians have a different build than caucasians and are considered by doctors to be overweight at a slightly lower BMI than caucasians.
But that calorie count you listed is bogus. The average calorie intake for Japan is generally listed by most sources to be about 2000-2500 per day - higher for men and lower for women obviously. Most women I know here eat at least 1500 per day, and active women eat closer to 2000.
People here go to McDonald's drink soda, love Korean barbecue, LOAD UP on white rice, etc etc. I don't know who told you that the average calorie intake here is 1000 cal, but they are liars. Even a relatively poor country like Vietnam would have a much higher average calorie intake than that.
Original Post by mimi_js:
Yet the Japanese, who consume an average of 1083 calories a day are the longest living population!
They certainly do eat less than Americans - the Average American eats 3500 per day, but the 1083 number is simply NOT TRUE, not by a long shot.
Personally I think this OP is pushing ED behavior and disguising it as having something to do with health. Even pygmies would need more than 1000 cal per day.
Here's a map of the calories available per person by country in the 90s.
http://www.fao.org/NEWS/1998/img/NMpdfs/world -e.pdf
Japan is between 2900-3199,
Of course that doesn't mean they eat that much, but I doubt that they throw away an average of 2000 cal worth of food per day per person, either.
So you can log your weight -- which allows you to do the following:
- Plot your weight curve
- Analyze the trend of your weight (see under Recent in the figure above)
- Determine the projected target date (see under Overall in the figure above)