Why is America so fat?

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I think it contributes our weight problems.

On days I work I usually get up at the last possible minute to shower and get to work at 1 minute before the hour. I'm usually fine to go most of the day without food and have plenty of energy.

On weekends I usually have breakfast...while eating breakfast I'm usually watching Mad TV on comedy central or something of that nature, and by the time I'm done I am too interested in the show to get up and do something, plus the next episode might be even funnier, or I have time to channel check and find something else that looks interesting. By the time that's all over it's lunch time and, well you know, history repeats itself. Football or something else is on that is interesting. See the trend.

If I skip breakfast on the weekend, I find myself doing things I should be doing like yardwork or remodeling or something constructive.

So my opinion is breakfast is the real culprit, not fast food, (which I hardly ever partake in anymore). Tho I'm not overweight, I could stand to lose a few pounds so I have stopped eating breakfast.

What I have noticed is that in prepared foods and restaurants - everything is either fried, or smothered in cheese, or all of the above, plus some fatty ground beef or something. Going meatless isn't the total answer, but eating the right stuff is. I'd also suggest not skipping meals conciously - if you don't feel a need to eat, certainly don't, but don't starve yourself. Small snacks throughout the day will rev your metabolism versus starve-until-large-dinner strategies.

Stick with chicken, pork or lean beef if you must, when eating out. Chinese is my personal fav, so I usually eat steamed rice with some hot Kung Pao chicken when I'm craving something filling. Avoid fried stuff. Part of the losing weight game is just moderation, don't tell yourself you'll NEVER have chocolate, or pie, or whatever - just don't eat them all the time.

What I find works for me is I'll 'give in' to a craving, have some of what I want - but then immediately go back to my regular eating habits. It prevents the mental trap of wanting something really, really badly - and has the benefit of gradually weaning yourself from these foods.

After a while, especially if you work out, you'll notice your tastes for certain things will diminish. Sometimes we just eat out of habit, or for other reasons unrelated to true hunger. I'm not a saint, but I know my weaknesses, and try to steer clear of them when I can. If I give in and I'm 'bad', it really isn't the end of the world, I know I'll be in the gym that week, so I don't beat myself up about it.

One thing I would recommend to anyone is to fight the food intake battle first, then incorporate a workout later on. Don't do both at once, its just too much sometimes, and makes it easier to get discouraged.

I should write a book on this, haha. Anyway, in case you are curious, these tips plus incorporating working out just three days a week have allowed me to lose 100lbs over the past year.

Have a good one

You can get rid of those pesky breakfasts by getting up at noon!

While I don't often have breakfast, when I do it's usually something non-traditional. I'm blessed with the gift of not liking sweets, so the cinammon rolls or even cereal is out for me. Yesterday for breakfast, I had an avacado; the day before, a spinich salad. Weird? Yes. Good? Yes. Not 900 calories? Check!

eating breakfast actually gets your matabolism going for the day. it's sort of like coffee for your matabolism. but, if you're eating a giant cinnabon or something for breakfast, that pretty much defeats the purpose.

Good post, Maxx.

Another thing is it seems fast food and chain restaurants value HUGE portions and sizes to be selling points. Their pricing is structured to push more food: 10 cents more for a large! Get the value meal for the same price!

And people buy it. I don't know how many times I've heard "Great place, they have big portions." And how many commercials are there now for burgers bigger than my head?

Because the food is so darned good?

If you want to cut back on eating junk food, read the book Fast Food Nation.

Did you know that the Medium fries McDonald's serves was originally the Large size?

And sadly, it still isn't enough fries

And why the f do I have to hijack the drive through to get the damn hot mustard sauce from the McD jackass? I know I didn't order the f'in' nuggets, I want it for my fries. Now pass it through the window and nobody gets hurt!

Kris, I will be implementing your tips of the day and plan on being up very, very late today.

Oh, and as for the waistline issues. Eat more often (5-6 times a day) and in smaller portions, then add in lean protein and whole, unrefined cards and some exercise. Avoid foods like fatty meats, processed/refined carbs, and high-sugar foods. Go look for a list of power foods such as almonds, instant oatmeal (unsweetened/unflavored), turkey, berries, peanut butter (sugar free), and whole grains.

I'll bite. (pun intended)


Really, it's a very simple problem. People in America these days tend (yes, that's a blanket statement) to care about their jobs, their relationships, their cars, and their American Dreams more than they bother to educate themselves on what they put into their bodies. After all, with a wide range of digestable media, why bother?

Problem with that is companies have taken that as cue to compete on marketing campaigns more than they compete on nutrition. There are entire lines of breakfast cereals, milks, sodas, and so forth with artificially added minerals. Many of them are just added for the tab on the box.

Further, they have placed utility (more crap for your dollar) as means to compete. Hence "bigger is better" and larger portions. In cutting costs, companies like McDonald's use less expensive lard over better, more expensive oils.


So, America is so fat because America as a nation is filled with people that refuse to understand basic nutrition. The only way to break from that trend is to take back mealtime.



There are three things I started doing that really helped me, in this respect:

1) Drink more water. If your piss isn't clear, you aren't having enough.
2) Read the label. If you cannot understand more than 1/3 of the ingredients, don't bother.
3) Learn to prepare your own food. Even fried isn't bad - just use olive oil.


I'm blessed/cursed with a system that makes me ill if I take too much sugar or fats, which is why I started in the first place.

But on the whole, I blame our "blame someone else" society for this problem (heh). If people would take the matter into their own kitchen, it would not be an issue.

That has spoiled my appetite for the foreseeable future

You're welcome.

Won't someone think of the children?!

Watch your sodium intake

Hehe Kris. He's not wasting any food. He was so kind enough to point and ask someone about theirs.

I waitress part time at a mom and pop burger joint and some people need to be backhanded for what they feed the kids.

We serve 1/2 lb patties as our regular burgers. They are HUGE burgers. For the "kids meal" the burger is a quarter pound, since it's half of a normal patty. (No, this place doesn't order two different size patties, they break the huge ones in half)

This one family comes in quite often. I only work 4 days a week, 5 hours a shift and they are in there 2 or 3 days. They have a boy that is around 1 and a half, maybe 2 and he eats an entire kids meal with the soda. We do offer the option of 2% milk or a juice box, but they get him coke. The whole family is on the rather large side. Oh, and they make his burger a bacon cheese burger no veggies.

I am astounded that people will feed their kids that at such a young age. I only let my kids eat at McD's as a treat sometimes, and they get milk to drink. Lucky for me both of my kids will usually choose water when given a choice. They don't drink soda. (As for me...lol...umm Let's just say I need to follow their example)

I also know this family goes home and lets their fat child watch as much tv as he wants. The mother was telling me one day when we were talking about what our kids liked doing. Mine always want to go outside and run around, hers just likes tv.

A lot of the problem starts with parents and lack of education in nutrition. AMerica is so fat because we are raising our kids to be so damn fat. I do let my kids have candy and cupcakes, but in moderation.

I will never do what I saw a friend of mine do though. She put ROOTBEER in a bottle for her little girl. I just wanted to smack and say, "WTF ARE yOU THINKING?!"

Exactly, I like too cook and I like to eat and I'm not so good at the exercise part. I'm fairly healthy and have low cholesterol and rarely do I eat fast food, I'm just well padded. I've come to the conclusion I'm not going to kill myself dieting just to make my fat obsessed culture happy, when I'm pretty ok with how I look.

A better term is 'cuddly'

Americans aren't significantly fatter than those living elsewhere. Some years back, the Federal government changed their weight charts. This classifed far more people as overweight. The normal weights listed in the present charts are too low based on historical data.

Presumably someone wanted to push a fat tax. Thanks, but I'll handle this one myself.

This is true. I dun live in America but the people lining up in McDonalds are just as fat over here.

And if we had Carls Jr here I would be too!

Some just appear to be more disgusting in their fattitude. But, then maybe I'm watching too much Cops and Jerry Springer.

I have seen this on TV before about the obesity in East Asia. America is just on a much larger scale and thus classified as the fattest nation.

Blaming weight problems on the food doesn't make much sense. You can eat nothing but fatty crap and never get fat. Just eat less! People simply eat way more food than they need for the amount of calories they burn. People who lead sedentary lives don't have any business eating 6000 calories a day.

I agree - quit blaming fast food and quit buying it. Learn how to cook, it's not that difficult. Personally, I find cooking relaxing and an artistic outlet.

I also think it helps to listen to your own body. If it says, I'm not hungry, I don't need breakfast, then don't eat breakfast - not everyone needs breakfast.

We are all different. Some people do better eating small snacks every 4 hours or so and others do better eating one or two full meals a day. Not everyone is the same - I think that's what all the experts just don't get.

One size/diet does not fit all.

Find what works best for you and then stick to it. That applies to exercise as well. Do something you enjoy because if you don't you will never be able to incorporate it into your lifestyle. I say this from experience too.

I was on Prednisone in high doses for awhile plus one round of steroid based chemo which really packed some pounds on me at which point I determined that the drugs were doing more harm then help and stopped almost everything, but trying to take the weight off was excruciating. I'd put on more than 65 pounds.

I have taken off 30 lbs since February of last year. I still have more to go and I am slowly working away at it. Unfortunately I still have other drug interactions (anti-seizure) that make it difficult.

Some of the lifestyle changes I made were:

1. My leisure activities are designed NOT TO CENTER ON FOOD

2. No more eating in front of the TV night after night

3. Actually got a garden set up in the new house and got a routine started working in it - love the exercise because I love gardening.

4. Fast food not more than once a month if then.

5. Eat only when I am hungry, stop when I'm not.

That's it. No fancy diet. Just a few small changes.