Why are Americans so fat ?

Question:

Answers:
Lack of education, lack of willpower, lack of corporate ethics, lack of a good diet, lack of good exercise, lack of ways to reduce stress, lack of good role models.

The following healthy living recommendations will help you if you’re trying to lose weight, tone up your muscles, have aspirations of building lean muscle mass, are attempting to get a wash board stomach, or just want to feel better:

*1) Burn more calories then you're consuming everyday and measure your results using the following formula: Calories Consumed minus Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) minus Physical Activity minus the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF). A website that explains this formula in more detail and will help you determine how many calories you need to reach or maintain a certain weight is at http://www.primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/library/weight/calsburned.htm

Get a diet and fitness calculator that you can put on your computer or cell phone. This will allow you to easily calculate the above formula, set goals, log your daily calorie consumption, and register your physical activities.

Set realistic goals for your ideal body weight. Here are two websites that will calculate a suggested body weight:
Adults: http://www.halls.md/ideal-weight/body.htm
Teens/Children: http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/exercise/weight/bmi.html

It is difficult and unhealthy to lose more than one or two pounds per week. There are 3,500 calories in a pound. If you eat 500 fewer calories per day for a week you will lose one pound. If you burn through exercise 500 more calories per day for a week you will lose one pound.

*2) Eat natural and organic foods found on earth versus something created by a corporation to make money. Eat meals in small portions throughout the day and take a good multi-vitamin supplement.

Avoid “High Glycemic Load Carbs” (sugar, pastries, desserts, refined starches such as breads, pasta, refined grains like white rice; high starch vegetables such as potatoes) and drink lots of water. Read this article for more information on high GL Carbs:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/carbohydrates.html

Do not try fad diets or diet pills. Here is an excellent food pyramid that anyone can follow: http://www.rayandterry.com/html/images/PyramidLRG.gif?osCsid=26a424be471d1337e7c2f105d5c64d9d

*3) Exercise on most days by doing cardiovascular training and/or resistance training activities.

Read a book or find a certified trainer to make sure your doing all resistance training exercises correctly. A great book to buy that teaches you the resistance training basics is “Weight Training for Dummies”. A superb magazine to buy with resistance training routines that will not get you bored is "Muscle and Fitness". Signup for the free newsletter. An excellent free online resource is at http://www.exrx.net/

A good book to buy that teaches you the cardiovascular training basics is “Fitness for Dummies”.

*4) Get plenty of sleep. Sleep experts say most adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep each night for optimum performance, health, and safety.

*5) Educate yourself continually on health issues and make a life long commitment to good health. A great free publication is “Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005”. A superb book to read is “You The Owner’s Manual”. An excellent periodic publication is the “Nutrition Action Health Letter”. A reputable test you can take to measure your biological age is at http://realage.com

Look at all areas where you can enhance your health. For example, make improvements in the quality of the air you breathe. Review outdoor air quality forecasts where you live and get an indoor air purifier. Send me an email or yahoo instant message to "gainbetterhealth" if you want an indoor air purifier recommendation and if you have any questions.

*Click on all the source links below to get the full benefit of the recommendations. The answers presented to your health questions are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

Other Answers:
Ask Ronald. (Macdonald)

I'm American and I am under weight actually

we like food! fast food, junk food, lots of food

Not all Americans are fat.
But its probably because some are either busy with their lifestyles, or too lazy to cook, so they just get something convenient like fast food.

it is a combination of inactivity and diet. even though there are many healthy alternatives that the masses can choose from, they choose the unhealthy way because it is the easy way out. With many fast food companies growing at a steady pace, the people suffer dramatically with those results and causes the stated question.

Mike

because we can afford it

Most Americans are fat mostly because of the diet they have. If you look at the number of fastfood outlets in the US, you will see that eating out is actually easier than cooking and eating at home. It also doesn't help that most of the servings can be "supersized" - supersized fries, supersized softdrinks, supersized burgers. If you train your stomach to consume that much food, its no wonder eating a small serving of salad is not going to fill a tummy used to being filled with a quarter pound of burger and fries.

Another reason, I guess is because of lack of exercise. No need to get up to switch channels, there's a remote. No need to manually mow the lawn, theres this little thingie you can ride around in to mow it and all that jazz. Everything's been made so convenient, there's no motivation to move. Heck, there are even have hats with beer cans stuck to the side so you don't have to go through the effort of bringing the beer can to your mouth to take a drink. :-P

Americans are fat because all of our food is processed.

About 10-15 years ago, America went on a low-fat diet craze. Unfortunately, most Americans gained weight. Why.. because they took all this natural food that was actually healthy for us and stripped it of all the fat.. but then it tasted like crap.. so they added sugar. Fat doesn't make you fat..but they weren't telling us that. They made it seem like as long as you stayed under a certain number of fat grams a day you'd lose weight. So people started gorging themselves with low fat and fat free foods.. gummy bears, tootsie pops, tootsie rolls, rice, popsicles... none of which are good for you.

We all became acustom to all thes foods. Almost all Americans eat packaged foods that are full of sugar, fat, and preservatives.

We also have forgotten what an actual serving size is. Did you know that when you go to a restaurant and order a 9 ounce steak, you should be splitting that with the other two people at your table. Thats 3 servings of steak, yet most of us eat that, both of our sides, and the basket of rolls.

Americans figure that we have food so why not eat it.

And weve become lazy. Most children come home after school and play video games or watch tv.

In other countries they are lucky sometimes if they get to eat 2 meals a day. We generally consume 10 times that amount.

In other countries the children that get to go to school come home and do work. The ones that dont go to school work all day. They don't sit around and play video games.

Americans are fat because they are lazy pigs. Unfortunately, all this processed food and laziness has increased the number of patients who are diagnosed with adult onset diabetes. Whats even scarier is that most people diagnosed with adult onset diabetes (meaning you get it later in life) are under the age of 15.

because we are busy and need something fast to eat and not enough time to keep track of what were eatting and no time to excersise and

We just have more people who enjoy a good burger and fries!

Look at almost any product in the snack food isle. You can get a 12 pack of little debbies for .99 or a cucumber for $1.49. A 2-liter of soda cost .99, while a bottle of water cost $1.19 (in the old days we drank right from the faucet). Which one is the average consumer on a budget going to choose. A huge majority of the junk food is made with corn products, which is subsidized by the government. There was a report done a few years ago by John Stossel explaining the whole thing.

Also the economy sucks for most people right now and junk food is a quick luxury type of thing for some people. Can't afford $3.29 a gallon for gas to go camping 200 miles from home? No problem, grab a movie and some junk food for the family and make a weekend out of it.

Plus we're arrogant and if people don't like we'll invade them and show them we can still put our big fat boots in their ***.

rccola1979 has some really good points on this also, I completely agree.

I'm not. I am 105 pounds. But I do have some fat friends (one fat ex-friend).

Blame Ronald McDonald
Peach

not all Americans..... sorry to tell you this but its bad to generalize

Because they r "pigs" & that is y a muslim will not eat their fresh as it is "unclean" meat.
Did u know that 9/11 was an inside job so George W Bush could steal millions worth of gold from the twin towers & it was a good way to cover it up,blame the muslims ??

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Why are Americans so fat ?

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