In America, it seems that sports are given a lot of focus throughout school and college (at least compared to most other countries). A lot of adults take interest in watching football, basketball etc. Despite sports being a big thing, I’ve read that 70% of people overweight or obese. It’s quite surprising.

26 comments

  1. I don’t think the vast majority of people are overweight. I would also be curious as to how it is measured. If using BMI, you can throw out a lot of the data.

  2. Most Americans sit on their asses and WATCH sports — they don’t engage in sport. Oh, and while they’re sitting-and-watch, they eat tons of crap and drink vast amounts of sugar-water or alcohol (which, I guess, is a kind of sugar-water, at that).

  4. I think there are two main reasons.

    1: Most people that are interested in sports don’t play sports, they watch it on TV

    2: There are a surprising number of people they WEIGH more than they should but are also strong enough to throw people into low earth orbit

  5. 1. Sports becomes harder to participate in after college

    2. Car culture means it’s hard to walk anywhere

    3. Additives in the food

  7. I think unhealthy food is the main cause. People are also a lot less likely to play sports/get exercise after college and a lot more likely to watch people play instead, and since most adults have left their 20s I’d guess that that’s causing the numbers to be as they are. We probably just need more athletic culture after your 20s and more healthy food all around

  8. A lot of people watch these sports on TV, drink beer, and eat unhealthy foods while doing it. Honestly though, if you go out and about where I live, it would almost be more like 30%. I believe that number is high and not really true. Now I’ll admit there are more fat people than there used to be, but 70%??

    I think it’s because a lot of what we use to measure peoples weight is the BMI system, which I’ve heard from many people is inaccurate…

  9. Is it true that sports is a bigger focus in the US than lots of countries?

    But anyway, a lot of adults are also interested in watching movies about superheroes or jewel thieves, but that doesn’t mean that those adults are superheroes or jewel thieves.

  10. A tiny sliver of the population lives and breathes actually playing the sport from freshmen year of high school through to whenever they’re too old to play. They’re pretty fit, for whatever muscles or activities are needed for that sport. A tiny fraction of THAT actually gets paid for it. Everyone else just watches.

    If you’re in football, swimming, what have you in college, you’re 110% devoted to that as a lifestyle from 6am to 8 at night whenever you’re not actively doing academics. It both turns off people with a desire to multitask anything at all and may also take focus away from more casual aerobic exercise programs that would benefit more of the population.

    There are other factors, sure. Long commutes discourage after-work/school exercise. Plus diets west of, like, the Hudson have a great deal of meat and deep fried fatty foods.

  11. Being a sports fan doesn’t help you with fitness. If anything, it usually means you are on your couch watching games a few hours a week (at least some of the year) eating wings, pizza, and nachos.

  14. >A lot of adults take interest in **watching** football, basketball etc.

    There’s your answer right there. Just because people like to watch sports doesn’t mean they’re in shape enough to play them.

  16. Watching sports is a big part. Actually doing them, not so much. And even if they did, you can’t outrun your fork.

  17. I am 6’5″ and weigh 215lbs. I workout 2x a day using crossfit and BJJ. I am considered overweight by BMI standards. I need to weigh 202lbs to be considered healthy weight. However, not a single person would look at me and consider me overweight. That’s one reason we have so many “overweight” people.

    Then you add bad diets, a work-life culture that places priorities on the work part of the culture so people have less time to spend maintaining their health

  18. > Sports and athletics are a huge part American culture yet the vast majority of people are overweight, why is that?

    Movies and television are also huge parts of American culture… Yet the vast majority of people aren’t actors.

  19. I think 70% is a bit on the high side, I’d like to see data that backs that up.

    Edit: spelling

  21. Sports are a spectator thing for most of us…

    And also I really hate “why are you Americans so fat” questions.

  22. Diet is much more critical for maintaining a healthy weight than exercise unless you’re very far to the extreme end of exercise.

    Plus, a lot of Americans have very sedentary lifestyles and don’t walk anywhere, let alone actual exercise.

  23. The US, as a country, is very new. A vast amount of population growth occurred around the era in which cars became widespread. Not only do we have a huge country, but except for large urban centers, public transport and walking to work, school, etc is impossible. Compare Europe. All the major cities there are old and therefore easily accessible by foot, bicycle, public transport, and so on. Even with public transport, most people are walking back and forth to the pickup spots.

  24. We have plenty of health conscious people but we’re also the home of of fast food and big portions so it makes it very easy to eat too much. Considering the current cost of a McDonalds extra value meal due to inflation we might start seeing people losing weight.

  25. We have the most obese people and we have the most healthy people. It is a land of extremes. You have to stop thinking about the US as one entity.

  26. You can play sports as much as you want. If you’re eating in a 1000 calorie surplus everyday, it won’t make a difference.

    Excersise accounts for a tiny fraction of calories burned throughout the day when you do it for small amounts of time, which people don’t seem to understand. Playing a sport for an hour would equate to maybe a single granola bar of calories burned.

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