How Fat Is Your State?

[Lemur]

Here's an obesity map of the mainland USA:

How do you measure up? If you're from outside the USA, how does your country rate?

[Marshal Murat]

Florida, home of the skeletal and the robust Cuban.

[Adrian II]

How do you measure up? If you're from outside the USA, how does your country rate?

In The Neds is it 11%. Thumbnail:





From the small print of Lemur's source:

Obesity is defined as a BMI of 30.0 or over [..]

[Veho Nex]

They eat good in mississippi

[cmacq]

Just to lighten things up a little...

Here we see the effect but not the ultimate cause. So I fear at this point I really must trivialize the complex and complicate the mundane. One may note that both WV and Old Miss. are indeed the poorest per capita States in the Nation and have the highest per capita rates of welfare dependency. Thus as a wise and able statesmen once said:

The lessons of history, confirmed by evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence on relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. It is inimical to the dictates of sound policy. It is a violation of the traditions of America.

(President Franklin D. Roosevelt; 1935 State of the Union Message)

My how the apple has fallen far from that tree. In other words, someone apparently thought it was a great idea to pay some poor people to stay home, eat free food, and get 'buried in a piano box like' fat? In truth a brilliant exposé of human nature, yet I suppose if it helps to buy the votes, and the cause it is just, why not pork them plebs up?

[Samurai Waki]

Montana... lower end of the spectrum.

[TevashSzat]

Maryland. Towards the middle of the pack here. I must agree with the views regarding those of lower socioeconomic status as over here, the greatest number of obese people is located in the slums of the cities.

[drone]

25.5, not as bad as most of the south, but still pretty large. Southern cooking is full of fat, but it's better tasting than the tofu and bean sprouts those hippies on the left coast eat.

Give us 10 years of higher food costs and gas prices, and then we'll see. A lot more people are walking and biking around here now.

And BMI is a joke, it's just a lazy way to classify population "density", individual body fat analysis is the only way to go.

[SwordsMaster]

Ha! The only excuse to be fat is not apply the principles of my fitness thread enough!

[yesdachi]

Perhaps the rising cost of food in the US due to the “crises” caused by the demand for bio-fuel will be good for tubby America.

Of course the increased cost of cigarettes has only caused the smokers to bitch more, not smoke less.

Welcome to the USA, home of “More cushion for the pushing!”

[Proletariat]

25.5, not as bad as most of the south, but still pretty large. Southern cooking is full of fat, but it's better tasting than the tofu and bean sprouts those hippies on the left coast eat.

Give us 10 years of higher food costs and gas prices, and then we'll see. A lot more people are walking and biking around here now.

And BMI is a joke, it's just a lazy way to classify population "density", individual body fat analysis is the only way to go.

Agreed about the BMI laugh. It's a shame we can't get a break down between NoVa and the rest of Virginia. They don't think we're authentic Virginians anyway and I bet our tubbiness comes from their neck of the woods (no offense, Seamus ). Too much delicious ham down that way and too close to NC-style pulled pork, methinks.

[Adrian II]

And BMI is a joke, it's just a lazy way to classify population "density", individual body fat analysis is the only way to go.

It's not a joke. It isn't accurate for body builders and elderly, but the first category is statistically negligible and the second is roughly the same in percentage for every western nation. So yeah, the BMI statistics mentioned actually reflect differences in fatness, as between normal, blob and megablob.

[drone]

It's not a joke. It isn't accurate for body builders and elderly, but the first category is statistically negligible and the second is roughly the same in percentage for every western nation. So yeah, the BMI statistics mentioned actually reflect differences in fatness, as between normal, blob and megablob.

It's a joke. It's not just body-builders, but most athletes in general get classified incorrectly. It does not take into account the simple fact that muscle weighs more than fat, so anyone who is relatively fit gets classified as overweight or worse.

And I beg to differ about the elderly, our old people are way fatter than your old people.

[Adrian II]

And I beg to differ about the elderly, our old people are way fatter than your old people.

How would you know, it it isn't through measurements of BMI?

[drone]

I've been to Europe. Your old people are still moving along nicely, chucking down the vino, eating good food, and enjoying liaisons I'd rather not think about. Ours are scooter-bound, just waiting to die.

Actually though, you may be right, I'm surprised by the Florida results. It's lower than I thought, maybe our old people aren't as fat as I imagine.


I sat in the parking lot of my grocery store yesterday, thinking about this thread and watching the people go in and out. The ratio of overweight people (young and old) I saw was pretty high. Not a very encouraging observation.

[Adrian II]

It's a joke. It's not just body-builders, but most athletes in general get classified incorrectly.

Are you seriously trying to tell us the number of athletes in your country has doubled in the past 25 years?

[drone]

Are you seriously trying to tell us the number of athletes in your country has doubled in the past 25 years?

I'm not arguing the fact that the US is fat, but the methodology for determining that statistic is flawed and cannot be trusted.