No duh: Americans don't eat well or exercise

Chuckman

Chuckman

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We like to bitch about healthcare, its costs and inefficiency, but most Americans don't seem to want to wean themselves off of it.

arstechnica.com

90% of US has a poor diet, and 25% doesn’t exercise

Health industry loves to peddle pills and tricks, but Americans are missing the basics.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com

We could eliminate billions of dollars we give to healthcare if we ate well, exercised, and took care of ourselves.
 
bigger threat to us than the covids. looking at pre 70s advertising (sans cigarettes) cinema, television or whatever and it's just sad what has happened to our country. i would suggest that the fda and pharmaceuticals want us fat and sick but that would make me a tinfoil merchant
 
Go to the grocery store and look at the bread and cereal isle. 75+% of the bread isle is made from bleached white flour. Whole wheat and whole grain probably less than 10%. The cereal isle is mostly the same with tons of sugar. Healty doesnt sell so the mfr's and sellers dont stock it. The crap my parents let me eat when I didnt know any better. It's no wonder I am diabetic now. I'm on day 2 of no (on purpose) carbs, again.
 
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Yeah, 25% seems way high unless opening a can of pringles counts.

And to make this better we’re well on the way to normalizing obesity. Is it really unfortunate when people are made fun of or even “discriminated“ against because of the choices they make?

BTW, I’m getting more and more hefty each year, so have at it.
 
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Peleton’s stock dropped 12% when Mr. Big had a heart attack and died on one, maybe TV shows could start having folks drop dead while eating fries.
 
jimmyjames8 said:
Go to the grocery store and look at the bread and cereal isle. 75+% of the bread isle is made from bleached white flour. Whole wheat and whole grain probably less than 10%. The cereal isle is mostly the same with tons of sugar. Healty doesnt sell so the mfr's and sellers dont stock it. The crap my parents let me eat when I didnt know any better. It's no wonder I am diabetic now. I'm on day 2 of no (on purpose) carbs, again.
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not to mention it's far more expensive to buy real food instead of processed trash
 
There is validity in all the comments here, so I'm not going to quote.

First of all, I am no hypocrite. I'm still about 10 lb or so overweight, I do love a donut once or twice a month, and I drink beer and booze. But what I eat is healthy 90% of the time, I allow myself to 10% rule so I can have the tasty stuff. I also exercise, and that does it's not always mean an hour running or weights or anything like that, it can just be walking with my family, golf (walking and not riding), raking the yard, whatever.

Cheap food is made with crap, high fructose corn syrup, sugars, all sorts of crap. It is so very very unfortunate that the healthy stuff is more expensive. That is cost-prohibitive to a lot of people.

I've had people tell me that they can't exercise or they can't eat well, and I regularly will throw the "BS" flag. No, these people are lazy. They just don't want to change and they would rather be a burden to the healthcare system and ultimately to you and I with our tax burden.
 
I’m about to do a carb purge/keto thing. I’m done with this crap. I’m gonna allow myself a weekly cheat meal (breakfast on Saturday….pancakes at a favorite diner with Shari) to offset the nastiness of no carbs, but other than that, I’m eating lettuce and celery with unsweet tea until I die…..

Sucks, but it is what it is


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Smithfields for lunch daily is my kriptonite. My weight is always up and down, I fluctuate from 190 to 240 depending on lots of variables. It's way easier to eat bad than it is good. I can lose weight by stopping sweet tea and soda for water only. I exercise irregular but work hard. My dr visits, blood work and blood pressure is always near perfect.
 
Watch Forks Over Knives or The Game Changers. Even if you don't go veggie only diet it is eye opening on the industry of food. It definitely made me want to reduce my meat and dairy intake with how many cancers and conditions they are linked to. It even makes the point that fat intake is more related to diabetes than carbs and they put the science in to back it up. They have even reversed diabetes with a plant based diet. The research started at stateside in the 1950's with a doctor at Duke.

Edit: And there is no excuse to avoid exercise. My wife and I work out together for 30 minutes after we put the kids to bed. If I run I push them in a stroller.
 
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I've been on a health kick for 9 months, following a minor stroke I had a year and half ago. A cardiologist I visited advised me to think about my weitht and the condition of my arteries. Since all that I'm at a stable point with a BMI of 23. A visit to the doc again in Feb. will tell me if my self checks have been reliable for all that science thing.

About the only foods I've identified that shoot up my weight are ham and italian sausage, probably because of the salt content that keeps water weight in the body. Chicken salad is my friend along with the pulled pork barbecue I eat about once a week. Next visit to the doc is in Feb. so my self-checks will be verified soon, for the good or the bad.
 
Meckmeister said:
I've been on a health kick for 9 months, following a minor stroke I had a year and half ago. A cardiologist I visited advised me to think about my weitht and the condition of my arteries. Since all that I'm at a stable point with a BMI of 23. A visit to the doc again in Feb. will tell me if my self checks have been reliable for all that science thing.

About the only foods I've identified that shoot up my weight are ham and italian sausage, probably because of the salt content that keeps water weight in the body. Chicken salad is my friend along with the pulled pork barbecue I eat about once a week. Next visit to the doc is in Feb. so my self-checks will be verified soon, for the good or the bad.
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Chicken and turkey have just as much cholesterol as red meat does.
 
What if you buy meat that isn’t processed from local farms? No antibiotics, hormones, coloring, etc.

That’s kinda pricey but if it’s healthier (don’t see how it couldn’t be) it’s worth it


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I’ve always wondered about the correlation between lack of exercise/unhealthy eating and working more hours/2 working parents.

I feel that we as a society put so much emphasis on working to survive, that healthy eating and exercise takes a back seat. The government talking heads and most major companies talk the talk of “promoting healthy lifestyles”, but not when it comes at the expense of their business interests.

I could be wrong about this but I believe there’s something there.
 
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Jerzsubbie said:
I’ve always wondered about the correlation between lack of exercise/unhealthy eating and working more hours/2 working parents.

I feel that we as a society put so much emphasis on working to survive, that healthy eating and exercise takes a back seat. The government talking heads and most major companies talk the talk of “promoting healthy lifestyles”, but not when it comes at the expense of their business interests.

I could be wrong about this but I believe there’s something there.
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people could argue its an excuse (and for many it probably is) but i can tell you from my experience, work is a major health risk. the stress, the hours and sitting behind a screen coding are terrible for you. you may get away with it as a yoot but eventually that changes for most of us.
 
smithnwesley said:
people could argue its an excuse (and for many it probably is) but i can tell you from my experience, work is a major health risk. the stress, the hours and sitting behind a screen coding are terrible for you. you may get away with it as a yoot but eventually that changes for most of us.
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All the more for exercising and eating right. I have worked in EMS, the military, nursing all very stressful jobs with, unfortunately, bad attributes that go with them (lack of sleep, physical stressors, mental and emotional stressors, etc.). Recognizing those stressors and doing whatever we can to combat them will only be helpful.

@Meckmeister @ChickenHawk I am not sure the debate on cholesterol is settled. Yes, those food have cholesterol, but 'better' type than fried food. I think it's like carbs, right? Some are just better than others. @JimB I read an article this morning that Peloton has stopped production because the sales jus ain't there (https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/20/pel...-of-its-bikes-treadmills-as-demand-wanes.html).
 
Chuckman said:
We like to bitch about healthcare, its costs and inefficiency, but most Americans don't seem to want to wean themselves off of it.

arstechnica.com

90% of US has a poor diet, and 25% doesn’t exercise

Health industry loves to peddle pills and tricks, but Americans are missing the basics.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com

We could eliminate billions of dollars we give to healthcare if we ate well, exercised, and took care of ourselves.
Click to expand...

I bet the numbers show that Educated left leaning folks eat better and excercise more than the trumpers.
Yoga pants sure fit better as I get closer to chapel Hill.
 
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I'm starting to pay attention to these Covid reports. Many, and I mean most, of the people with Covid in these reports are over weight. And it's not a little thing with Covid. The virus replicates and/or stores in fat cells.

And I get grief at work for how I eat. But it works for me and keeps me within 5-10 lbs of my goal weight. I'm close enough I just don't feel like pushing harder to get there most of the time.

@1911gobang when I did keto I was rarely hungry and really ate pretty well. We did go heavy on veggies in part because we did it in the summer when our garden was producing well. But you need to figure out how to eat things you like, or more likely find things you like in that low carb area. "Going hard" the wrong way gets old fast. And drastically changing your diet fast, and doing it with things you don't much like, is not going to work. We kind of eased into it so we could use some of the food we had around. Once we went through some of that food and saw it working we started looking for ways to do more. Because at the end of the time you don't want to be on a diet, you want to change how you are eating. Long term success is a lifestyle change.
 
You want a fun example of this? Look at the shooting community, specifically the “OFWG” stereotype.

This is a stereotype, not a personal or targeted attack at anyone here. If it offends you, sorry, but I’ve been to enough ranges, matches, trade shows, and classes in the past 15 years to see this is a thing.

People will make “self-defense” an entire component of their personality (or even their life’s work) while ignoring very basic realities of self-preservation.

Folks will shell out thousands of dollars for equipment and training to increase hypothetical survivability for a statistically-improbable violent attack—going so far as to avoid no-carry zones altogether and even carrying multiple guns—while eating themselves to death.

Everytime I see someone at a match, a class, open-carrying in public, or otherwise being a 2A advocate while obese, it makes me wonder: is the justification that no one has the right to kill you but you? Or is any pretext of trying to preserve your own life out the window?

That’s not to say people should avoid things they enjoy because they’re detrimental to overall health (e.g. risky hobbies like mountain biking or rock climbing, eating good food, drinking, enjoying a cigar). But, healthy moderation is a lifestyle thing. There’s a difference between an occasionally risky or unhealthful experience, done to provide short-term enjoyment, versus consigning oneself living a completely harmful and avoidable lifestyle.
 
@JRV you are spot on. I agree, seeing people at classes with $2,500 in guns, $300 PC, $300 in plates, who cannot move from here to there are ignoring THE second most important part of self defense/tactical preparation (the mind being #1). Taking care of yourself is primary.

What is the number one LOD death for firefighters? Heart attack, not fire or structural collapse. And most of those guys ain't healthy to begin with.
 
Chuckman said:
We like to bitch about healthcare, its costs and inefficiency, but most Americans don't seem to want to wean themselves off of it.

arstechnica.com

90% of US has a poor diet, and 25% doesn’t exercise

Health industry loves to peddle pills and tricks, but Americans are missing the basics.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com

We could eliminate billions of dollars we give to healthcare if we ate well, exercised, and took care of ourselves.
Click to expand...

Buncha effin' fat shamers is what they are.

Where do they get off on telling people they're overweight and unhealthy?

RALLY THE SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIORS!
 
Chuckman said:
@JRV you are spot on. I agree, seeing people at classes with $2,500 in guns, $300 PC, $300 in plates, who cannot move from here to there are ignoring THE second most important part of self defense/tactical preparation (the mind being #1). Taking care of yourself is primary.

What is the number one LOD death for firefighters? Heart attack, not fire or structural collapse. And most of those guys ain't healthy to begin with.
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The doctor behind Forks Over Knives has a son that retired from being a professional triathlon athlete and became a firefighter in Texas. He has got them all eating a plant based diet because their numbers all plummeted within a week of eating plant based. Has his own book and documentary called Engine 2. People makes fun of people for eating rabbit food, but it is becoming more apparent that it is much healthier especially for athletes. The animal protein thing is apparently bad no matter what kind of animal protein it is according to new science coming out. I haven't given up meat yet, but it has been severely reduced.

Edit: Cows milk is also linked to type 1 diabetes developing in children and even SIDS. Interesting documentaries if you want to avoid cancer and diabetes. Even revered heart conditions. I say this as someone who has eaten like crap and at 33 has high cholesterol and pretty high blood sugar readings. The Game Changers is on Netflix and was made by a UFC fighter.
 
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JRV said:
You want a fun example of this? Look at the shooting community, specifically the “OFWG” stereotype.

This is a stereotype, not a personal or targeted attack at anyone here. If it offends you, sorry, but I’ve been to enough ranges, matches, trade shows, and classes in the past 15 years to see this is a thing.

People will make “self-defense” an entire component of their personality (or even their life’s work) while ignoring very basic realities of self-preservation.

Folks will shell out thousands of dollars for equipment and training to increase hypothetical survivability for a statistically-improbable violent attack—going so far as to avoid no-carry zones altogether and even carrying multiple guns—while eating themselves to death.

Everytime I see someone at a match, a class, open-carrying in public, or otherwise being a 2A advocate while obese, it makes me wonder: is the justification that no one has the right to kill you but you? Or is any pretext of trying to preserve your own life out the window?

That’s not to say people should avoid things they enjoy because they’re detrimental to overall health (e.g. risky hobbies like mountain biking or rock climbing, eating good food, drinking, enjoying a cigar). But, healthy moderation is a lifestyle thing. There’s a difference between an occasionally risky or unhealthful experience, done to provide short-term enjoyment, versus consigning oneself living a completely harmful and avoidable lifestyle.
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those people have watched the ballistic gell tests and know how many inches they need to add on to be safe
 
ChickenHawk said:
The doctor behind Forks Over Knives has a son that retired from being a professional triathlon athlete and became a firefighter in Texas. He has got them all eating a plant based diet because their numbers all plummeted within a week of eating plant based. Has his own book and documentary called Engine 2. People makes fun of people for eating rabbit food, but it is becoming more apparent that it is much healthier especially for athletes. The animal protein thing is apparently bad no matter what kind of animal protein it is according to new science coming out. I haven't given up meat yet, but it has been severely reduced.

Edit: Cows milk is also linked to type 1 diabetes developing in children and even SIDS. Interesting documentaries if you want to avoid cancer and diabetes. Even revered heart conditions. I say this as someone who has eaten like crap and at 33 has high cholesterol and pretty high blood sugar readings. The Game Changers is on Netflix and was made by a UFC fighter.
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That is some good information, thanks. There are a lot of great diets out there, eating lifestyles. Some work for some, some for others. The secret is to find one that you like and can stick with. What we do know is the "standard" American diet is unhealthy and does not work.
 
This is exactly why I started the rucking thread and we have the beginning of a CFF rucking group. There‘s too many of us that are aging and out of shape. I wasn’t about to start doing marathons or power lifting with some of my recent injuries, but I can walk. Slowly stretch out the distance and add a little weight it becomes a decent workout. I’m 53 and had a quadruple by-pass at 40, and I’m doing at least a 6 mile ruck or longer every week with 20 or 30 lbs in the pack depending on the terrain and how I feel. Not killing myself, but improving slowly. We’ve got a handful of us trying to meet at least monthly formally, and a few of us have gone almost every week. I mix in a few shorter walks during the week with no weight. Going to start adding in so e kettle bell work, push ups, squats and deadlifts with some gear I bought.

Now about food and diet….🥺
 
Chuckman said:
That is some good information, thanks. There are a lot of great diets out there, eating lifestyles. Some work for some, some for others. The secret is to find one that you like and can stick with. What we do know is the "standard" American diet is unhealthy and does not work.
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Agreed. Western diets in general. I'd say part of it is the price of prosperity.

@CZfool68 set the group up. I usually run on Saturday mornings, but I'd love to get back into hiking.
 
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I have a confession. I stopped weighing myself the second week of November. I'd been behaving pretty well regarding diet for months prior. I cleared my doctor's appt and got the blood test results and simply threw responsibility out the window since weight was down, BP was good, all the other tests were in range for normal/healthy. Last week we got invited to a birthday party at a fancy restaurant. I tried all my dress pants and none of them fit. I had to run to Kohls to grab a pair with a 38 waist just to go to the party.
I jumped on the scale this morning and my weight is up 10 pounds over what it was in November.

(This is where I break into the excuses.)

I don't like to walk/exercise. I do walk the dog about 1.5 miles every day, but that's not a get your heartrate up kind of event. The winter weather/temperatures makes my legs hurt. If I walk too much or push too hard I pay for it with fatigue...side effect of CIDP condition.

I don't like green vegetables. Just yuck.

I need to get back to my fasting, only water, no alcohol diet, but I really hate it. Not fitting in a closet full of pants was however eye opening.
 
Timfoilhat said:
I have a confession. I stopped weighing myself the second week of November. I'd been behaving pretty well regarding diet for months prior. I cleared my doctor's appt and got the blood test results and simply threw responsibility out the window since weight was down, BP was good, all the other tests were in range for normal/healthy. Last week we got invited to a birthday party at a fancy restaurant. I tried all my dress pants and none of them fit. I had to run to Kohls to grab a pair with a 38 waist just to go to the party.
I jumped on the scale this morning and my weight is up 10 pounds over what it was in November.

(This is where I break into the excuses.)

I don't like to walk/exercise. I do walk the dog about 1.5 miles every day, but that's not a get your heartrate up kind of event. The winter weather/temperatures makes my legs hurt. If I walk too much or push too hard I pay for it with fatigue...side effect of CIDP condition.

I don't like green vegetables. Just yuck.

I need to get back to my fasting, only water, no alcohol diet, but I really hate it. Not fitting in a closet full of pants was however eye opening.
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Then don't weigh yourself. Do what you can, when you can, how you can. Eat better. Go by how you feel and how your clothes fit.
 
1911gobang said:
I’m about to do a carb purge/keto thing. I’m done with this crap. I’m gonna allow myself a weekly cheat meal (breakfast on Saturday….pancakes at a favorite diner with Shari) to offset the nastiness of no carbs, but other than that, I’m eating lettuce and celery with unsweet tea until I die…..

Sucks, but it is what it is


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Hope it works for you. I tried it for a few weeks and I ate way more total calories because I was always hungry. Didn't lose much if any weight.
 
Timfoilhat said:
I need to get back to my fasting, only water, no alcohol diet, but I really hate it. Not fitting in a closet full of pants was however eye opening.
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Does the forum have a weightloss-focused recipes thread? I know bodybuilding forums tend to have a boatload of recipe threads for cuts.

Lots of lean protein and filling veggies can keep you completely satisfied, hitting a rough 40/30/30 macro split (protein, carbs, fat) in a calorie deficit, despite eating huge meals.

Cauliflower rice, for example, is a great “cheat” for bulking out recipes with 10-20% of the same calories and carbs (by volume) as white rice. Blacken and sauté some chicken breast (or cut up some andouille chicken sausages); season and sauté up some cherry tomatoes, jalapeños, okra, and green beans; and you can eat a stuff-you-full jambalaya with a ton of protein and fiber with not a lot of calories.

Meals like that keep well, too, so you can cook 4 or 5 big servings on a Sunday and know lunches or dinners are taken care of.
 
chiefjason said:
I'm starting to pay attention to these Covid reports. Many, and I mean most, of the people with Covid in these reports are over weight. And it's not a little thing with Covid. The virus replicates and/or stores in fat cells.

And I get grief at work for how I eat. But it works for me and keeps me within 5-10 lbs of my goal weight. I'm close enough I just don't feel like pushing harder to get there most of the time.

@1911gobang when I did keto I was rarely hungry and really ate pretty well. We did go heavy on veggies in part because we did it in the summer when our garden was producing well. But you need to figure out how to eat things you like, or more likely find things you like in that low carb area. "Going hard" the wrong way gets old fast. And drastically changing your diet fast, and doing it with things you don't much like, is not going to work. We kind of eased into it so we could use some of the food we had around. Once we went through some of that food and saw it working we started looking for ways to do more. Because at the end of the time you don't want to be on a diet, you want to change how you are eating. Long term success is a lifestyle change.
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The top accelearators for COVID are diabetes, being overweight or an underlying respiratory issue. The first 2 too often go hand in hand.

I cannot stress this enough. Diets don't work long term when the central component is denying yourself foods you enjoy. You need to moderate things not eliminate them. When you go all out and remove something like carbs from your diet you are setting yourself up for failure because eventually you will want what you cannot have. For me the better approach has been to limit the portion of carbs. I love bread, rice and pasta. I still eat them but the portion I consume is less than half of the amount I used to. You try to find substitutes and eventually with additional exercise and a modified diet you reach a healthy and sustainable place which is where you want to me for long term success. IHMO
 
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Red meat, eggs, Greek yogurt, fish, berries, green veggies, basmati rice, protein powder, coffee, whiskey...pretty much the extent of my diet these days.

I workout like mad and intermittent fast.

American diet is trash, and it's about to get worse globally as they continue this restructuring of global food supply and "sustainable" farming to curb climate change and reach net zero emissions.


Just imagine how difficult it will be when beef is $25/lb, and "tastes like beef" soy and insect based burgers are $0.50/ea.

I don't eat much anymore. I simply can't afford tons of quality food, and I'm not going to eat trash.
 
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ha ha
i'm on a work trip and I spent $20 the first night on freezer burritos so i could save my per diem money
besides, they order lunch for us.
and I bought a bunch of the fancy healthy freezer burritos that taste like cardboard, so i'm doing okay.
 
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