Why are American Women soo much larger than Women from other countries?

We don’t walk as a matter of habit due to sprawl, and, in general, our “national menu” of food choices has too many calories per serving.

Just women?!

especially women—

Why? Because junk foods are so cheap and constantly advertised and easily obtainable in large quantities. Because McDonalds and other fast food restaurants don’t tell people what the nutrition facts of their foods are. Because parents don’t teach their kids to eat a healthy, balanced diet. Because people don’t pay attention to the “per serving” part, and only notice the “45 calories” and then eat the whole bag without bothering to notice “Servings per bag: 34. Serving size: 6 crackers.” Because the FDA doesn’t care about the fattiness of all the food that we eat anymore. Because everyone’s too lazy to get up off their butts and exercise once in a while.

Why does this feel incredibly sexist?

Exhibit A
Exhibit B
Exhibit C

Men are too, but women more so. I agree with that statement, even though I’m a girl.

american women are beautiful, inside and outside, :)

It’s not just women, obesity is rampant across the board in America.

Why? High-fructose corn syrup, sedentary lifestyles, high-calorie meals, you name it. Seems kinda obvious to me.

“incredibly sexist”, sorry, I forgot that the thought police were out today.

Admittedly my view of Americans may me a tad skewed since most of the ones I’ve met were Texans, flying a desk in an IT company, but I don’t think it’s the “women more so”. In fact I think the opposite. I haven’t met many small men from the US, but a good few women.

Regardless, I completely agree with kevbo, everyday habits seem to me very different and this is most likely the reason for the difference in average sizes.

At work we have a recurring dread; any time the company decides to give us t-shirts, we get American sized collection and only very, very few will be lucky enough to get a size that fits…..the rest of us get a nice mini dress or sleeper tee :)

Women gain weight easily but is considered ‘hard’ to lose once gotten compared to men; of course I agree with flyawayxxballoon with her ealier reply on the fast-food industries. The cheaper of product draws in consumers, simple as that. Although Allengreen is comparing ethnic groups aswell as weight, asians and some others tend to genetically have a smaller waist size. Their “overweight” spand would be the standerd American+

That question needs to be qualified; “Why are some American etc.” Fluther does not have “thought police” but it is an “equal-opportunity” site.

@allengreen If you make an extremely prejudiced and inaccurate statement, expect it to be challenged. Not thought police, just thinking people.

Ok what’s with all the questions relating to the weight of women lately? I’m beginning to find it to be a bit much. This is like the third one in the past two days. Enough.

I believe fat has something to do with the obese American public (not just women).

Actually isn’t the real question “Why are American’s so preoccupied with women’s weight?” I think women in America have a difficult time with their weight because others are so judgmental about how much or how little other people weigh. Unless you’re the person’s doctor, mind your own business.

You know why? Because we’re freaking happy. Life is too damned short. If you’re overweight but healthy, what do you care? Don’t look. Damned if we don’t have some shallow-ass people in this place today.

If women are fatter now, explain this.
Hips, ass, bellies, and tits are what make a woman different from a man. Deal with it!

@tinyfaery Exactly, shall we bring up Greek goddesses?

A. Since when did a question become a statement?

B. If there’s some science and/or anthropology that speaks to the validity of this question (as indicated by Triozoo and tinyfaery), how is it prejudiced and inaccurate?

“overweight but healthy”—an oxymoron?
” what do you care? Don’t look..” being weigh leads to health problems and higher medical cost for all of us, like cirgarettes.

“I think women in America have a difficult time with their weight because others are so judgmental”—-So I am the reason for all the large girls? If I were not judgmental, they would be fit and healthy.

“Damned if we don’t have some shallow-ass people”—Actually, large a$$ people is what I was talking about. Sorry you took offense.

Judgmental people are a big reason why so many people have eating disorders. Call someone fat and they’re going to either eat more because of the depression or starve themselves.

Do we even need to bring up the fact that not everyone is over weight because of what they eat? There are so many medical conditions that cause weight problems. You can’t just look at a person and decide why they weigh what they weigh.

This last message has been the most offensive thing you’ve said…”large a$$ people.”

Well, we could start nit-picking at your use of language, but I don’t think that that would accomplish anything.. More flies with honey, remember?

Unless we’re talking about grammar and spelling, of course. Some things have to remain sacred.

;-)

@Kev; definately, defiantly, defentively, and of course, “being weigh leads to health problems.”

Now you’re talking constructive criticism! LOL!

hee hee

Okay, now I need a cirgarette.

well frankly I’d rather be overweight than an idiot like yourself, allengreen. So I guess we’re both happy.

Idiot. Pig. Any other epithets we should expect?

@Andrew: sorry.G

@Allen; you said that one of your areas of interest was psychology. Perhaps you might want to apply some to your self-introduction to a new group of people.

Going back to the question, I think other countries have even stronger cultural pressures than the US for women to be skinny—for better or for worse.

Take Brazil: (the following statements are based on my trip to brazil and living for 3 years with a brazilian). Even disregarding the fact that Brazil has the largest number of plastic surgeries, my Brazilian female friends wouldn’t touch sugar if their lives depended on it, in fact, it’s where I found out about liquified artificial sweeteners (for your cold beverages). It was not a rare occurance for an overweight, balding man to accompany a young, skinny woman to dinner or a club. Even to my tourist’s eye, I could tell there were different standards in play.

The question has validity, though. See French Women Don’t get Fat.

Easy on the name calling folks, and remember to at least keep your derails in whispers.

Since I’m not the only one who has pointed these things out, kevbo, why are you singling me out?

Actually, I’m not singling you out. See my response above to Marina’s assertions.

I think the better question to ask is why you are feeling singled out.

a real woman has a belly a good bum and nice strong thighs americans are beautiful. xxxxx

This last message has been the most offensive thing you’ve said…”large a$$ people.”

I was offended by the “shallow ass people” comment.

Sorry for the typo’s., and sorry for the offense some have taken.

When one travels it is striking to notice the size difference in the people here in the USA, and since I am a hetro male, maybe I just don’t notice big men since I am not looking.

When I see a potentially georgeous big girl, it makes me sad that there is one less potential partner in the dating pool.

If 6 of 10 American girls are extra large, it makes the competition for the 4 of 10, more difficult. The result is very average women thinking they are 10’s, just because they are normal size, and by normal I mean, the medical definintion of healthy….sorry in advance for the typos and misspellings ect…...pls do not kill the messanger.

US media sends mixed messages all the time—be skinny, but eat Doritos, look young, but be tan, etc. Read. A witty and edifying book about American media and consumerism.

So a woman cannot be big and “georgeous” at the same time?

I give up, this question has turned into nothing but insulting each other and is going nowhere.

@kevbo: forgive me but there is a whole lot of ignorance going on in here today; things are being said not in the spirit of learning new things or getting answers, but in the spirit of hurting others and stirring-the-shit, so to speak. The way people are speaking about women today is sickening and shallow, and I’m not going to sit back quietly and watch it happen.

When I was 17 and living with a French family in Burgundy and hanging out with French teen-agers, I was skinny as a willow wand. But I towered over the young men and felt that I could bench-press most of them.

may i mention that I love women, poofandmook, i do. and the intention was to have a lively debate, and I am sorry you are offended…sincerely

i have a really big nose, if it makes you feel better…..

@dragonfly, let’s assume that men are also “victims” of mass media messaging. We’re told who the hottest women are in our Maxims, Playboys, etc. It’s not surprising, then that some men would unequivocally regard overweight women as unattractive. Speaking for myself, I dated at both ends of the spectrum, but never fully appreciated plus-sized women until my late 20s when I dated a larger girl who hung around a bunch of larger friends. From that point on, I understood how “big is beautiful.”

So, I agree with you that a woman can be big and gorgeous, and it’s unfortunate, I suppose that other men aren’t so enlightened. Even so, I would say the phenomenon is more media driven than people driven.

@poof, we all have our standards and the “right” to enforce them. The kneejerking that I sometimes see doesn’t pass for discourse in my book.

Next trip: Brazil…..

@allen Now you made me laugh, so I can’t hate you. I Love Fluther!
Wait! I changed my mind again. I love Fluther!!

The unfortunate answer is: Poor eating habits and lack of exercise.

But I agree with Marina, there are just as many overweight men, possibly more. Let’s not disregard the forest just because a few trees got in the way.

Personal note: More women than men seem to be living healthy around here; I am usually the token male at my gym. Stinkin’ up the joint.

OK——I really opened pandora’s box, no pun intended…..

Here is the answer to my own, poorly crafted, insensitive, politically incorrect, sexist (some say), question:

http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/Agriculture/hormone.html

http://www.organicconsumers.org/Toxic/hormoncancer.cfm

Hi, I’m here with the data. From a meta-analysis published in 2007 about the obesity epidemic in the United States:

“More men than women were overweight or obese (68.8 percent vs. 61.6 percent in 2001–2002).”
http://epirev.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/29/1/6.pdf

@allengreen: Your initial question is both offensive and inaccurate.

And for the record, moderators, I can’t believe you would take down a perfectly valid post about the philosophy of science and call it “offensive” and leave this post up.

I’m sorry. Is Pandora fat or not fat? It’s kind of an important detail given the discussion.

here you can see a lil’ bit of what I’m mean with a beautiful full figured lady, try to google Fernando Botero’s art :)

I just don’t understand what’s the deal with weight lately

As far as your initial question goes:

“The obesity epidemic is not restricted to industrialized societies; this increase is often faster in developing countries than in the developed world,” according to the World Health Organization, which has a nice summary of the obesity epidemic here:

http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/publications/facts/obesity/en/

There’s a big difference between sitting back and saying “Anyone who doesn’t look like this is fat, no matter what. What slobs.” And recognizing that there is an issue with the method of thought about food. Don’t judge by weight, though, people. Seriously. Don’t assume that just because a girl has a little bit of smooshyness that she’s slobbish. If you have an ollld american heritage, and those are your dominant genetics, you probably have a very slow metabolism. Your family would have died through initial pilgramage-winters here. We have a significantly more stagnant lifestyle now, yes, and we are all doing less manual labor… There is, however, a difference between being obese and having a figure for bearing kids and living through winter.

I’m not a stick. I dress Very Very well for my weight. I am always extremely careful about it, but I spent around four years refusing to eat in public because I would be judged for being a fat person who is stuffing her face. I seriously went on a class trip when I was in highschool and subsisted on nothing but apples. This was a whole week. No food. I was too horrified at the notion of seeming disgusting because I had to actually consume something.

There is an obesity problem in america, but don’t automatically assume any girl with a little bit of plush is stuffing her face with sugar, chips, and fast food. This girl, who has curves and is learning to respect them and would be more suited for the perception of beauty in the renaissance, hasn’t had fast food or meat in over seven years. I eat better than anyone i’ve ever met. But I’m not a stick. I won’t be a stick no matter what I do.

Just keep in mind that there’s a difference between a girl with curves and someone who is truly obese (which means that its a dangerous amount of weight).

There are girls out there who have an hourglass figure but happen to just have a slightly larger hourglass. There’s nothing hanging out anywhere, but we still get a lot of the flack.
Don’t judge them as being irresponsible, or stupid, just because the true goal of perfection might be unattainable for them.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y127/Delightedly/curves.jpg?t=1216934838

Don’t take on a ‘holier than thou” attitude just because some of us look like the above and not Julia Roberts.

I got lucky because I found a man who thinks i’m the most beautiful girl in the world and relishes in my breasts and my hips and the curves they make. A lot of girls, sadly, don’t get that lucky.

@niki, are you serious? How does your info prove the inaccuracy of asking about American women vs. Non-American women?

What’s offensive is that someone can’t ask a simple question based on their perception. Sure they may be wrong, misguided or otherwise ignorant in their line of thinking but let the information prove them wrong. Ridiculous.

@kevbo I don’t see any data in this thread from anyone that shows American women are any fatter than American men. That is what I meant by prejudiced. Having a double standard on the subject is prejudicial, a double standard.

So, it’s more okay to be nationalist or racist on this topic so long as men and women are included?

@kevbo: Okay, thanks for catching me. The way this question was asked was offensive. I think the intention behind the question was malicious. The follow-up statement “especially women” (in response to Harp’s “only women?”) was inaccurate.

I don’t see anyone being nationalist or racist. Maybe I skimmed the thread too quickly.

American v. Non-American indicates slicing the data along national and maybe racial lines if you factor in that other countries are more homogenous than the US.

I have been educated today…Here is what I learned—

Big can be hot, and can be sexy. (a few folks here that have sent me links to photos, and I must admit, I’m a bit turned on. (Can we make up now :)

Let me actually interject some real data to this discussion. According to the CDC’s National Health and Nutrition survey, 62% of American women are overweight, while 67% of American men are overweight. In order to see the data for yourselves (go to Table 69), you need a PDF viewer.
In summary, I trust the CDC more than I trust allengreen’s purely un-scientific analysis.

And you agree that there’s a difference between not being a stick and being obese?

tis a passionate issue for almost everyone. Its hard to not have an opinion. We still all lurve you.

@shilolo: Many European and Asians and Latin Americans are wealthy but not so huge? Why?

you missed the point

@delirum: I agree, curvey = sexy….

Habits such as driving instead of walking and eating mostly processed food isn’t necessarily a sign of wealth.

I’ve entertained US colleagues who found the walk from the pub to the cab office challenging – regardless of their size.
And I still haven’t gotten over the steak sizes I saw in TX. The kiddies menu was same as standard size here in Ireland.

How did I miss the point? Your “question”, if I can call it that, asked, “Why are American women so much fatter…?”. For example, in response to Harp’s question “Only women?”, you replied “Especially women.”

If you had asked the question about “Why are all Americans so much fatter than the rest of the world?” there wouldn’t be this much “confusion”. You obviously intended your question as a slam at women, and I wanted to point out that men in the US are, on average, fatter than the women.

@shilolo, et al. you obviously took it that way, but I don’t think that’s how it was meant, as allen himself has stated.

@shilolo: I don’t think you’re giving him credit. agreed, @kevbo.

who could go for a pizza right now?

@Kebvo and Andrew. Really? You both can’t be serious. He totally meant it as a slam towards women (i.e. see his response to Harp’s query.) As the old saying goes, “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”

I can’t do dairy :(

I agree with shilolo I think he meant to slam American women. (Did you know that if I spell america without a capital A my spell check registers it as an error? Interesting.)

@shilolo—i can see how you in could be taken that way—and I have said that I am sorry for the poor choice of words.

I detect a “femi-Nazi” attitude developing here.

Who was it that said, “so young, and so angry”?

Again, he doesn’t look at guys. Sue him for being myopic.

I think allengreen is backpedaling here. He meant it as a slam on women. I am happy if he is feeling differently after seeing how upsetting it was to many people.

By the way, the fact of Americans being more obese than their counterparts in Europe and elsewhere cannot be disputed. Allengreen is right in that.

Here is some data from Fortune:

“OBESITY Percent overweight

Men Women U.S. 19.9% 24.9% Germany 18.2% 21.3% France 8.6% 8.4% Britain 16.0% 17.0% Netherlands 8.4% 8.3% Sweden 5.3% 9.1% Italy 6.5% 6.3% Japan 1.8% 2.6% South Korea N.A. N.A. ”

Femi nazi? Now you’re just trying to be incendiary. Not cool!

@tiny

@allengreen OK, I was going to give you the benefit of the doubt until the femenazi crack.

Ok. I’ll go in on a pizza.

BBQ sauce and extra cheese on mine!!

What, this wasn’t met with hostility?

@kevbo Yes, it was, because it was so patently one-sided. It came across as an attack on women.

This could be a classic example of what I have to tell my boyfriend nearly weekly: Your choice of words can often be way worse than your point if you don’t take time to choose them carefully. Also, your poor choice of words can destroy any good point you try to make. Sort of along the lines of “First impressions are everything.” The first way you phrase something is what’s going to stick, no matter how you try to correct yourself later.

American women at that, and from an enemy who has had suspect travelings abroad. Someone call Homeland Security.

@Kevbo. Myopia is no defense for misogyny. I have seen many more morbidly obese men as patients than women, by the way. And, if you ever watch football games on the weekends, you’ll see 100s of guys, shirts off, bellies hanging over sweatpants, holding 5 hotdogs and downing a case of beer. Finally, who can forget the quintessential obese American.

OMG that is so mansogynist.

Woo Hoo!

“Misandrist.”

Continue.

You can’t dig your way up from a hole you dug yourself in to. Just park the spade and reach for a hand.

@knotmyday, literally, I’ve been wondering for 15 years now if such a word existed. Thanks!

no problem

I’m going to happy hour, get me some pizza, beer, and a BBW…..

I am taking my shallow a$$, presbyopic self to a break.

I enjoyed the discussion, I have learned a lot, and take the lesson of crafting a more concise question seriously. I have also learned that American women cannot engage in an objective conversation (however poorly crafted the question) without FREAKING OUT. If I said American men were fat, no body would have ever responded, I bet. Some one try it and prove me wrong.

We live in a man hating culture. To be man and have an opinon is a crime in America, like crying fire in a theater.

This community is a lot of fun, and you all rock—even those who now are angry.

Look forward to another polemic question tomorrow for sure.

Peace and love to all.

@allengreen Well, it was a lively discussion, wasn’t it? You are right about men not caring about fat, but men have plenty of other sensitivities.

We do not live in a man hating culture. We live in a culture in which women are beginning to call men to account for actions and behaviors. I love men. I just want what they have. I would like equal pay for equal work.

None of that has very much to do with this question, however. See you in the Q&As.

@Allen. FYI, I am a man and thought your question was poorly worded at best, and misogynistic at worst. I simply wanted to point out that making generalizations on faulty, anecdotal “data” is wrong. Man or woman, it doesn’t matter.

Wow. Time to close up the site, I guess. No more questions without independently researched, double-blind data. Just relying on one’s perception no longer meets the standard.

sweet discussion.

Oh my, what’s happening here :s

waiting for shilolo response

Very funny Kevbo. Perhaps the old adage “Think before you speak” should be part of the Fluther motto. How many times have people been corrected for not doing even a modicum of research before posting (the 100s of iPhone questions come to mind)? Allen (deliberately, in my mind) wanted to stir the pot, and I point out that even his (intentionally malicious) observation is wrong, and this upsets you? Gee, what am I going to do with myself?

I commend you for defending someone who was obviously trying to be a jerk.

As an aside, science and medicine are what I do for a living. I detest anecdotal “evidence” for precisely this reason. Here’s an example, I saw a red-headed fat man today walk down the street today… My question “Why are red-heads so much fatter than brunettes.” Sound vaguely familiar?

lurve to u buddy