So obviously the West in general is putting on the pounds, but Americans seem to lead the field.

This also is a stereotype, when in a country as big and as varied as the US, you’ll get fit trim people and overweight ones.

41 comments

  2. the US is massively varied, so it’s kinda tricky to generalize about the body types of everyone in the country. but i reckon you might be onto something when it comes to cultural factors. the food options here are pretty board, and convenience foods, which often are high in sugar and fats, are super accessible and affordable. also, portions in restaurants are notoriously large, which can encourage overeating. couple that with sedentary lifestyles increasingly common in many parts of the country, and it might explain a bit of what you’re noticing.

  4. Lack of walkable neighborhoods is a factor as well. In most places, people use a car for any trip that involves leaving their house.

  5. It’s funny because I would be considered overweight if I was 170lbs given my height, even if most of that weight is muscle weight. I’ll gladly be overweight with those circumstances.

  8. Among the meme responses:

    Around 40-50 years ago diet culture and medical advice both made a choice: Discourage sugar or discourage fat?

    Most of the west went anti-sugar. America went anti-fat.

    And here we all are.

    Exercise is part of it, too. Places in the states with strong local outdoors and/or pedestrian cultures are thinner than the rest of the country. A number of European countries have bigger chunks of their population living in the “strong pedestrian culture” category than we do.

  10. I have some extra weight on me. Not enormous, but some belly.

    I grew up having to “clean my plate.” I was taught to finish everything, leave no waste, no matter what, even though food was getting higher and higher in calories and portion sizes were getting huge. I was essentially raised to eat too much, and now as an adult I get to deal with the struggle of figuring out how to reverse the damage this did.

  13. We used the power of science to turn food so tasty you can’t stop eating it. Also we’re a huge agricultural power so we’ve just got a lot of good sitting around.

  14. I feel like I have to do an unusual amount of working out and a strange diet of lean protein and vegetables just to not be overweight. It’s so weird.

    One thing I’ve learned in my journey of seeing a personal trainer and building muscle, is that our nutrition and physical education is so messed up. We’re so confused about what we should be eating and when and confused about the correct way to exercise. I gained a ton of weight from taking on running as a hobby because I didn’t know that burning cardio calories is not the same as exercises that are meant to build muscle or burn fat. I didn’t understand protein levels vs vegetables. Or that dairy is actually not healthy. I also didn’t even know like how to work out- like how to work different muscle groups. I’m learning so much. The industries are meant to confuse us. There’s so much misinformation and conflicting information.

  19. A lot of it has to do with how sedentary most of the population is. 90% of America was built for cars. In some places, the parking spots outnumber the amount of homes. People don’t move their bodies anymore. Plus as others have said, America has normalized a lot of over processed convenience foods. Large serving sizes are expected at every restaurant.

    I work an office job and before I wanted to lose weight I would average 1,000 steps a day. My only walking was to the car, to the bathroom, to the break room, to the car, and into my house. A lot of people work from home which means even less walking.

  20. We like sugar and fried stuff more than we like being skinny. Have you ever *had* a taco? They’re amazing. It’s hard to eat just four.

  22. 1. Marketing.
    2. Poor nutrition education.
    3. Western diets are heavily focused on fat and carbs and often not great versions of either.
    4. Cheap junk food.
    5. The real unpopular one, we are a victim of our own success. Americans love variety/options and we also love that we have a ton of different cultural foods. When those foods are adjusted and hybridized to American palettes it means you can eat various forms of fried shit 50 different ways that taste completely different and love every one.

    I am not immune to any of these. I grew up with a very poor understanding of nutrition, was not well taught it by the education system and have struggled as an adult with food for most of my life. These days I understand it better than I ever have before and it shows through my diet. There’s a lot of bullshit that has to be cut through and many people simply don’t have the time or knowledge or ability to sit down and figure it out.

  23. Poverty, poor nutrition and exercise education, easy access to cheap and filling snacks/fast food, a lack of emphasis on preventative health care, alcoholism.

  24. I just went to a small southern town to visit relatives and the obesity rate is astounding. And fast food was everywhere like 12 drive trus in 5 blocks

    The amount of highly caloric food and drink that many Americans are addicted to is incredible.

  25. Come visit and you’ll see why so many of us our fat.

    We got good food.

    (But for real, a lot of it has to do with poverty, car dependency and access).

  27. Well, I think as a culture, we are youth and beauty obsessed. Like, really. Nothing is more ridiculous than a 40 year old walking around claiming ’40 is the new 20″. Girl, no it is not. My knees didn’t just stop working for no reason when I was 20. They sure can at 40. Do you know how much people will pay for straight, white teeth?!?! So, when we see something that defies that cultural standard, we call a bunch of attention to it because it doesn’t fit the culture. Of course there is (and should be some) push back…the counter culture of ‘Beauty at any size’ or ‘F your beauty standards’ encourages people to embrace who they are right now without feeling bad that they don’t fit the cultural norm. There are lots of other reasons that a lot of attention is called to our expanding waistlines (like diabetes and dying early). American culture reaches everywhere. It just does. So any time there’s a cultural shift, everywhere is going to hear about it.

  28. I grew up with fat parents who didn’t make a lot of money and I was fed a whole lotta ramen and mac and cheese, boxed and frozen meals, etc. I feel like I’ve been large my entire life. It feels normal to me.

    It was only last year I stepped on the scale and saw almost 180, calculated my BMI and it was almost 37. I was like *holy shit I need to get this under control*. I got down to 131 at my lowest. But it’s hard to keep that weight. It felt like I was eating so little and I was so tired.

    I’ve fallen off the wagon and it feels like I have no self control with so much stress in my life, I’m very low wage etc. So yeah, still overweight and fat. It’s not my main obsession right now like it was last year. I’m chilling at around 140, for the first time I’m actually liking my body and seeing good parts about it. So I feel no pressure to keep losing despite being fat. I weigh less than I did in high school at least too.

    It feels like I have an addiction to food or something because every day it feels like the only thing to look forward to. Obsessing over the next meal and stuff like that, counting down to when I’ll eat again. It’s super distracting.

  29. Honestly it’s gotta be the quality of our food. I studied abroad in Europe, and I’m a foodie so I was trying EVERYTHING and eating at every shop, and I was noticeably smaller when I came back. I also noticed that the food actually gave me energy, while back home it makes me sleepy

  31. I honestly don’t know and it’s been bugging me for a long time.

    My diet isn’t materially different from my parents’ or their parents’. But my generation is much, much larger. What could it be? Hormones in the meat? Maybe. Micro plastics? Maybe. But without a direct diet based cause, there almost has to be something else.

    To add to this, I’ve been to Europe – it’s true that our portion sizes are bigger but not by *that* much. Whenever I consider the food I look at this – and my grandparents diet, which was objectively worse than mine (consisting in my grandfathers case of literal cheese and Hardee’s biscuits) and I can’t fathom how we are putting on so much more weight. It just doesn’t track.

  32. Well we definitely have an obesity issue (largely do to sugar and the sugar lobby).

    We also have a fair amount of large muscular people. I work with a lot of foreign nationals and I’ve definitely noticed Americans are generally stronger and bigger in blue collar jobs. (no offense)

  34. Strong agricultural subsidies and lax food regulations give us an overall less healthy diet where processed foods are often cheaper than healthier foods.

    Our cities are almost universally car-centric compared to the rest of the world where people are expected to walk quite a bit to get to work, run errands, etc.

    Declining standards of living mean people are working more and more and often settle for speed over quality when choosing food, so again, more processed food, takeout, and fast food.

    As for the last point, the difference is largely a class one. If you have the money to afford a nutritionist, dieting apps, fresh foods, and you aren’t working 80 hours a week, so you have time to use all that, you probably won’t be as overweight.

  35. There are a number of reasons, and previous commenters have acknowledged quite a few. I’ll add a couple more:

    • Cars. Not only do we walk much less than people in other countries, the highway system encourages fast food and drive throughs.

    • Unhealthy work/life balance (plus a little bit of cars again). Americans are often expected to work mandatory overtime or multiple jobs to get ahead. It’s also not uncommon to have 40+ minute commute each way. Convenience food has become really popular, especially with working families.

    • Desire for innovation and novelty. We have been a country on the cutting edge since it was founded. Americans love the newest most exciting thing. We have access to a massive variety of flavors and experiences. Because of that, it’s easy to make food and eating a source entertainment.

    • Corn. For decades, farmers were subsidized by the government to grow corn. It was so cheap and plentiful, food manufacturers had to come up with something to do with it, so we ended up with high fructose corn syrup. The rise of HFC coincided with America’s war on fat, and manufacturers were thrilled to be able to swap out flavor from fat with loads of sweeteners.

    As far as general stature is concerned, disregarding obesity, more nutrionly dense food, particularly in childhood, promotes greater height and muscle development. Something else to consider is our genetic diversity.

  36. You can’t walk anywhere without being miserable. The nutritional quality of our food is criminal. Healthcare is so expensive to have that it’s too expensive to use. Corporations have spent billions to know how to sell pure sugar to children and their exhausted parents so they can make trillions. Social community has been atomized into consumption demographics. Eating a bowl of Great Value ice cream every night is a cheap momentary escape.

  37. I live in Tokyo but used to work in NYC. I don’t think urbanites are all that big.

    Prepared foods and portion sizes are likely major factors. Since I have lived back and forth between Japan and the US I can say that you can stay thin in the US. I only gain about 1kg when I live in the US, but when I go out to eat a lot of times I’ll eat an appetizer and get a drink. Or a lighter entree like fish but no app. At home I don’t eat tons of prepared junk or fried or goopy stuff.

    Now compare that with Tokyo life and you don’t need to think as much about it. Portions are smaller, a lot of times casual restaurants post calorie counts, and dinners are served as small plates and you order multiple small plates. Plus yeah -you do walk more.

  38. I was watching a video recently where a guy gave a bunch of British school boys some American fried chicken, biscuits, and iced sweet tea. They all thought it was some of the most delicious food they had ever tasted and I realized something very important in that moment: Americans (on average) are so much fatter than the rest of the world because we have the best food on the whole damn planet. A variety of cuisines from all over the world exist here, and when you have that much delicious food to eat, it’s hard not to have a population that ends up generally overweight.

  39. We have food in abundance and our eating habits haven’t quite caught up with most of our much more sedentary lifestyles compared to our ancestors. If I consistently ate most of my culture’s traditional foods without tweaking the recipes all of the time, I would be big as a house.

  40. So real talk here:

    **Corn grows in swing states.**

    Bare with me.

    When we have national elections (for the President) the elections are largely dictated by the results of “swing states.” While most states usually vote for the same party, there are three states that are infamously known to vote for a different party each time. (There’s also flip states and other factors, but commonly these states are the most targeted by politicians because winning them will swing the election their way.)

    Bare with me.

    Because they swing both ways, swing states get lots of attention from politicians, because neither party would dare do something that upsets them. Not counting Florida, two of these swing states are known for growing corn. And as such, corn is a major part of the economy and livelihood of many people whose vote swings the results of elections.

    Bare with me.

    To make sure all these corn farmers stay in good graces with the government, **corn is heavily subsidized**. This means the government is paying to artificially make corn cheaper so everyone buys it and it stays profitable to grow lots of corn.

    Here’s where it all comes together:

    Because corn is artificially cheaper, corn products are cheaper, most notoriously: **High Fructose Corn Syrup is cheaper than real sugar**. And as a result, HFCS is used as a sugar replacement in EVERYTHING (OH LAWD IS IT EVER) because it is a cheaper way to make something taste “better” or sweeter. Any product available both in the US and in Canada will use sugar in Canada but HFCS in America. Soda, candy, fruit gummies, even snacks and foods that aren’t sweet but still use a little bit of sugar will use HFCS instead.

    And that ups the calorie content through the roof.

    Thus, Americans get fat because they are consuming more calories, even if they actually ate the “same” foods as someone else.

  41. Poor dietary choices and a lack of exercise. Bad habits are then passed on to the next generation and the cycle just continues and gets reinforced.

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