Do you see it?

So- yeah, I'm always hearing about the exorbitant rate of obesity in the states.  But among the people I know, definitely less than 50% are overweight or obese!

Granted, I'm still in high school and the rate is lower among minors, but I know very few overweight minors and only a handful obese.  Even when just looking around my school, I see few.  Do I just live in an incredibly unrepresentative area?

And among adults I know, I don't even think 25% are overweight.  My dad is possibly overweight, but I guess he carries his weight decently because I never thought he was too bad...

And I'm rambling.  Your thoughts?

Original Post by looseymoose:

Do I just live in an incredibly unrepresentative area?

What's your socio-economic background? Minorities and those of lower socioeconomic statuses are disproportionately affected by obesity rates. So it is entirely possible you live in an unrepresentative area.  

While I am personally in mid- to upper- middle class, I go to a school with a disporportionate amount of lower income students and a very large minority population.

Coupla thoughts:

(1) The statistics on "overweight" and "obese" individuals are based on BMI, which is notoriously inaccurate measure of actual health and fitness.  Your observations could say more about the fallibility of BMI measurement than about the health of your peers.

(2) Statistics are really just a way of talking about probabilities.  Most statistical studies take a sample of people who are presumed to be representative of the population as a whole, measure them or ask them questions, and extrapolate the information they get from the sample to the entire population.  It certainly doesn't mean that every one in two people is, actually, overweight.  It just means there's a probability that out of every two people you encounter, one will be overweight.  Think about it like flipping a coin.  If you flip a coin fifty times, probabilities say you'll get heads 25 times and tails 25 times.  Does it actually happen that way?  Not always ... and, in an ironic way, not even most of the time.  If you could flip the coin an infinite number of times, on average you'd get 50-50 results.  Same thing with people.  It's just a way of averaging results.

Rambled a little bit there, hope you get my drift.

granted i live in LA but i was just saying this very thing yesterday at trader joe's because EVERYONE in my classes eats healthily. 

I agree I don't see it either. I go to Louisiana State University, and we're supposed to be one of the fattest states. Most of the kids around campus look good. There's no way 2/3 of them are overweight. In fact, I'd say those that are overweight stand out. That shows how few overweight people there are! 

I'd guess 20% is more of an accurate statistic, at least at my college. 

I absolutley see it and Ive lived in many areas across the US. I think people misinterpret Obesity. You dont have to be considered 300 pounds to be obese.

I live in Indiana and I see it daily.  Maybe it's just the area that I live in.  My daughter has even asked when we've gone out to eat why we are so skinny.  She's only 10--but she noticed.  My entire family is within the healthy BMI index except for my husband.  He is very muscular though and not obese.  There are only two families on my street of maybe 15 other families that are not obese.  I live in a middle class neighborhood.

i think there's good reason to believe that we should not trust what we "see" when making judgments about population-level phenomena

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heu ristic

I don't know where you live, but here in central Texas - YES!  I'm sorry to say it.  The area I live in is probably one of the worst in the country!  If hubby and I see a thin person in our local WalMart we say  "they aren't from here".   It's sad to see so many people putting themselves in an early grave.  We see families out shopping and the entire family is obese.  Carts full of chips,  cookies,  soda, white bread, no veggies, etc.  I think they don't know how to eat properly and fast food is also a culprit.   The place where we work has 45 employees.  There are only 7 of us not overweight.  It's a shame.  We have access to a great gym that the ISD pays for and they won't go.  A few have started to the gym and I have encouraged them but they go once or twice and we don't see them again.  I wish I could help them.

I think about this often too, and I try to take note of people.  Sometimes, I feel like everybody I see is mostly normal weight... other times overweight people stand out and I feel like there are a lot of people who are not at a normal weight. 

Overall, I do see a lot of overweight people, but also a lot of normal people...

Original Post by ching12:

I absolutley see it and Ive lived in many areas across the US. I think people misinterpret Obesity. You dont have to be considered 300 pounds to be obese.

Good point. I think I've come to accept "chunky" as healthy. If I see someone who I think is "chunky," I think they're in the healthy weight range, with just a few extra pounds. In actuality, they're probably overweight. I guess our society has just become so used to seeing overweight people that we fail to recognize who is actually overweight.

Original Post by glamgram:

  There are only 7 of us not overweight.  It's a shame.  We have access to a great gym that the ISD pays for and they won't go.  A few have started to the gym and I have encouraged them but they go once or twice and we don't see them again.  I wish I could help them.

 You are lucky!! Wish work would pay for a gym membership, ha! As for your other employees, maybe they feel too embarrassed to go because that would be acknowledging their weight problems and sometimes we just don't want to face them [yet.] Not much you can do to help without the risk of offending them... :o\

As for the OP- Living in Kansas City, I would say I see a lot more overweight/obese people compared to when I was living in Arizona.

When I was driving through Alabama/Tennessee, and at most stops- I saw a lot of morbidly obese people, really scared me enough to silently pray for them.

Original Post by jcl76:

Original Post by ching12:

I absolutley see it and Ive lived in many areas across the US. I think people misinterpret Obesity. You dont have to be considered 300 pounds to be obese.

Good point. I think I've come to accept "chunky" as healthy. If I see someone who I think is "chunky," I think they're in the healthy weight range, with just a few extra pounds. In actuality, they're probably overweight. I guess our society has just become so used to seeing overweight people that we fail to recognize who is actually overweight.

 I think this is the case with most people...We've convinced ourselves that chubby and fluffy and slightly curvy people are at healthy weights. They're not. It's that simple. And here in central Louisiana, it's quite obvious, that yes, we're one of the fattest states. Not everyone is mobility-impaired obese, but it's easy to see that at least 40% of people are overweight with another 10-15% being obese.

I live in Tennessee, and the obesity epidemic is very apparent almost anywhere you go, with the exception of the university campus where I work.  But everywhere else in TN, there are so many overweight and obese people, it seems as though over half the population must be large. 

Truthfully, I find it deeply frightening.  The very thought of losing my physical independence scares me more than almost anything else.  Once a person starts to lose mobility, they're totally dependent on cars, elevators and a way of life that exists only in a delicate balancing act of international exploitation.  What happens when we can no longer drive our cars everywhere, or have to start growing all our own food?  I realize there is an edge of paranoia to this, but this is what motivates me to keep fit.

Original Post by laura916:

i think there's good reason to believe that we should not trust what we "see" when making judgments about population-level phenomena

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heu ristic

 Thanks for this link. I could see where I've done that in the past. I'll watch out for this bias in myself from now on.

Original Post by augustnkate:

I live in Indiana and I see it daily.  Maybe it's just the area that I live in.  My daughter has even asked when we've gone out to eat why we are so skinny.  She's only 10--but she noticed.  My entire family is within the healthy BMI index except for my husband.  He is very muscular though and not obese.  There are only two families on my street of maybe 15 other families that are not obese.  I live in a middle class neighborhood.

This made me LOL because when I read the beginning of the thread, I immediately thought of a time when I visited relatives in Indiana a few years ago. My relatives and all their neighbors and friends are in great shape, and I was shocked when we went to a water park/amusement park. There were so many overweight and obese people! I distinctly remember mentioning it to my family, and this was 3 or 4 years ago. I wonder what it is... I'm sure this could be said for amusement parks everywhere though.

Go hang out at Wal-mart for a few hours... or visit this site.

I live in Texas. I see it every day, every where I go. I am a woman, about a size 10 and I am definitely smaller (WAY smaller) than the bulk of the adult population around here.

Original Post by laura916:

i think there's good reason to believe that we should not trust what we "see" when making judgments about population-level phenomena

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heu ristic

Oh gosh.  Psychology flashback!  My teacher would be disappointed.