Posted on 08/02/2006 3:37:05 PM PDT by nckerr
Survey: Most Obese Claim to Eat Healthy By MIKE STOBBE , 08.01.2006, 11:59 PM
More than three-quarters of obese Americans say they have healthy eating habits, according to a survey of more than 11,000 people.
About 40 percent of obese people also said they do "vigorous" exercise at least three times a week, the telephone survey found.
"There is, perhaps, some denial going on. Or there is a lack of understanding of what does it mean to be eating healthy, and what is vigorous exercise," said Dr. David Schutt of Thomson Medstat, the Michigan-based health-care research firm that conducted the survey.
The survey also found that 28 percent of obese people reported snacking two or more times a day, only slightly more than 24 percent of normal weight people who said they did.
But the survey failed to ask people what - and how much - they ate, noted Dr. Jeffrey Koplan of Atlanta's Emory University.
"The questions leave out quantity," said Koplan, who chairs an Institute of Medicine committee on progress in preventing childhood obesity.
Roughly two-thirds of Americans are overweight or heavier, and nearly one-third qualify as obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Respondents to the survey were contacted through computer random digit dialing in January through March. The surveyors relied on the respondents to be truthful about their height, weight and other answers.
Obesity was determined by body-mass index, a calculation based on height and weight. Using BMI, a man 5-feet-10 would be considered overweight at 174-208 pounds, and obese at 209 pounds or more.
About 3,100 of the people in the survey were obese or morbidly obese; an estimated 4,200 more people were overweight; about 3,800 were normal weight and about 200 were underweight, according to the Thomson Medstat.
Those demographics are generally consistent with the federal health survey that actually measures and weighs people, said Schutt, the company's associate medical director.
It was surprising how some responses from obese and overweight people paralleled those of thinner respondents.
For example, about 19 percent of obese people said they always read nutritional labels on food packages, compared with 24 percent of normal-weight people. And about 29 percent of obese people said they eat out at restaurants three or more times a week, compared with 25 percent of normal-weight people.
"The numbers aren't wildly different," Schutt said.
One of the largest differences was the answer to the question: How often do you eat all of the food you are served at restaurants? About 41 percent of obese people said they always did, while 31 percent of normal weight people always did.
Thomson Medstat is a data collection and analysis company that contracts with the federal government and about 20 states, on health projects. The data about eating and exercise are part of a larger package of survey information being marketed to employers, hospitals and other customers. It is not being published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
The survey had a sampling margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point, according to the company.
Dignity + girth?
I get strange looks when I request whipped cream on my mocha light frappacino at Starbucks. Hey, at least I'm cutting SOME of the calories of a regular. Actually, I don't often have the luxury of gourmet coffee drinks and, fortunately, there isn't a Starbucks, or the equivalent, close to me, but when I am on the road and the opportunity presents itself...well, I must admit to occasionally giving in to that particular temptation.
Wow... according to the BMI I am overweight. I'm 5'10" and 180lb. But I lift weights quite a bit, have a nice build with a fully visible 6 pack. When I do self body fat measurements I'm around 10%. I can guarantee you that almost no one who would see me would every classify me as overweight.
Two Big Macs, a large fry , and a DIET coke....
Wow.....I never knew so many people gave a crap about other people's weight.
When my 9-year old grandson was here, I noticed that he is starting to get a little bit of a gut on him, not bad, but enough to notice. Neither of his parents have an ounce of extra fat anywhere on their bodies. The problem is, he's an extremely picky eater, and most everything he actually likes is bad for him. Add to that the fact that you almost have to force him to go outdoors because his neurotic dad has made him so afraid of every possible life form that he might encounter "out there," and you have a recipe for problems.
Most recently, I read that we should eat at least 6 servings of fruit and vegetables a day. If I ate 6 servings of ANYTHING in a day, I would look like the Goodyear blimp.
Don't feel bad.
Back "in the day" I was "overweight-borderline obese"...but was curling over 200#; did my "Kennedy 50 miler"; bench pressing 250#; and regulary swam a mile at least once a week.
The rest of the time I was either longshoring, stevedoring, dancing, or skiing, in between hiking, hunting, camping.
5-10 and never weighed less than 180 then; more often, I was about 200#. Oh, did I mention that all that was despite asthma?
These "pyramid people" make me want to puke.
You're right. I have a perfectly normal BMI of 21 and my coworkers call me Twiggy (while eating their entire restaurant lunch every day).
I'll give you one guess what a girth-quake is.
That stinks about the neurotic dad. Our family tends to grab life by the horns.
Same here. Work hard, play hard. Make the most of what God gave us. My grandson is Puddleglum...without the webbed feet. I suspect it isn't too late to modify his "worst case scenario" approach to life. He isn't living with his dad any more.
It happens to me every day. I'm a 5'6" woman and weigh a good healthy 125 thanks to a heart-healthy diet full of fresh fruit and veggies, lean protein, good fats and whole grains. And I'm very fit. I get crap all the time from all the "haystacks" at work. I get called anorexic and they try to get me to eat all the donuts and other garbage that gets brought into work every day. "Well at least I'll die happy!" they sneer. Obviously they've never seen anyone die a prolonged, painful, miserable and expensive death from congestive heart failure.
That's because these aren't healthy foods - especially the tofu. Why don't most folks understand that those sharp pointy teeth aren't for chewing rabbit food? They're for ripping and tearing flesh.
I have to giggle. I had the "I'll die happy" idea when I was 110 pounds. I have since gained 10 pounds for each child I have.
I hope you don't have 6 or 8 kids :-)
Yep, and it's interesting how people who would never use a derogatory term to describe any other physical aspect of a person will use terms such as "porker" and "fatso" with no qualms. And before anyone tells me I need a thicker skin, let me just say I don't have a problem with these words... as I said, I find the double standard interesting.
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