What does it mean to be healthy? Is it a number on the scale, the size pants a person wears, being able to run a mile or is it something that cannot be seen by the naked eye? America has become the fattest nation and the most delusional at how to truly be healthy. With so many people striving to lose weight the focus has shifted from getting healthy to who can lose the most weight in the shortest amount of time. Reality shows like “The Biggest Loser” has glorified extreme weight loss and has given viewers unrealistic expectations when trying to lose weight and get healthy. Society today has become obsessed with physical appearance, specifically a person’s weight that the mind automatically assumes a thin person is in better health than someone who is overweight. The truth is actually the complete opposite. Trisha, a member of an elite fitness club, spoke about the moment she realized her weight loss goal needed to be reevaluated. Trisha weighed almost 300 pounds and was only 5 foot, 4 inches. Her work out partner, Rebecca, was the complete opposite when it came to looks. Rebecca was almost 5 foot, 11 inches and around 120 pounds. Trisha envied Rebecca’s body type and would give anything to trade bodies. Based on their heights and weights most people would look at them and automatically assume the thinner person would win if they raced against each other. After 6 months of working out together Trisha started to realize how much more she could do of everything! She could lift more weight, do more repetitions and stay at a harder pace on every cardio machine they used. One day while on the Stairmaster, Rebecca once again had to completely stop the machine and take a breather while Trisha was at a fast pace nearly jogging up the st... ... middle of paper ... ...n Toronto and his team determined an underweight individual has almost twice the chance of dying than someone who is overweight. (Underweight or overweight: Study looks at which is deadlier. March 29 2014). There needs to be a line drawn on how much weight a contestant can lose since it is clear the contestants cannot draw that line for themselves. Reaching an unhealthy weight that would disqualify a contestant from the grand prize is not enough to change the mentality of being thin is being healthy. Works Cited Underweight or overweight: Study looks at which is deadlier. (March 29 2014). Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/underweight-or-overweight-study-looks-at-which-is-deadlier/ 'Biggest Loser': Where are they now? (2012). Retrieved from http://www.today.com/id/40423712/ns/today-today_entertainment/t/biggest-loser-where-are-they-now/#.U1R-q1ftdJs
It is natural for a society to be concerned for the future generations. With the rate of obesity growing in adults and children, many begin to see it as an issue that needs to be addressed. New reports show “ childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years” (cdc.gov). Overweight and obese are not actually the same. Overweight is defined as “having excess body weight for a particular height from fat,” and obesity is defined as “having excess body fat” (cdc.gov). With obesity comes the chance for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Both can be
At the Gym, written by Mark Doty, dramatizes the conflict within the mind of a bodybuilder and his desire to change who and what he is. The speaker observes the routines of the bodybuilder bench-pressing at a local gym, and attempts to explain the driving force that compels him to change his appearance. The speaker illustrates the physical use of inanimate objects as the tools used for the “desired” transformation: “and hoist nothing that need be lifted” (5,6). However, coupled with “but some burden they’ve chosen this time” (7), the speaker takes the illustration beyond the physical use of the tools of transformation and delves into the bodybuilder’s mental state. The speaker ends by portraying the bodybuilder as an arrogant, muscular being with fragile feelings of insecurity.
After attending the meeting I left with a new view on overweight people. After seeing the tears and emotions of the people who expressed their feelings I have a better understanding of overweight people. The people who attended this meeting were suffering from a disease. One person used a great analogy. The food is their allergy. When they eat the food they have a negative reaction. One of the main reactions discussed was how they would willingly eat the food but they never knew how much they would need to satisfy that craving. Most people said the craving was never satisfied.
Is obesity really a serious health concern or is the “epidemic” merely a result of highly fabricated, misleading ideas of politicians and the media? The article, Obesity: An Overblown Epidemic? By W. Wayt Gibbs featured in the May 23, 2005 edition of Scientific America, raises this question. Most health experts and average people believe that obesity is one of the most prevalent health concerns today, resulting in increased risk for other major health issues; such as; heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer, and the chance for early loss of life. However, other researchers are suggesting that the consequences of being overweight are being blown out of proportion. Naturally, they do acknowledge that obesity rates are increasing and being overweight can play a role in other health conditions.
CDC – Obesity and Overweight. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 21 June 2010. Web. 26 July 2010. < http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/>.
Studies show that fat people suffer from embarrassment, pressure to diet, judgement, and insufficient health care, all leading to a feeling of remoteness in society (Kirschling). Due to the discrimination of overweight individuals in America, a pro-fat movement has broken out, completely contradicting the pro anorexia and pro bulimia movements. This movement focuses on the acceptance of living out an obese lifestyle. America is tolerant to larger sized individuals do to our easy access of unhealthy food and toleration of sedentary lifestyles. However, this mentality of “I acknowledge the fact that I am overweight and I will remain this way because it is acceptable now” is not necessarily healthy in the physical way. Yes, accepting yourself and your body is mentally nutritious, but countless illnesses can come with this if you are not consuming the proper diet and engaging in exercise. Body positivity has gained a whole new meaning. Being positive about something when you are knowingly impairing it is contradicting. A considerable part of the pro-fat movement is the theory of health at every size. Scientifically, this notion is false. For example, an individual with an eating disorder is obviously sickly in size. Medical experts claim they need restorative health possibly in a hospital. Therefore there is no such thing as health at every size. If society embarrassed an obese individual by pointing out
In a study from 2010, the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) found that the number one cause of death, killing 597,689 people each year, is heart disease. A major cause of heart disease is obesity, meaning that obesity kills many people in the united states each year. “In 1999-2000, 27.5% of men were obese, and by 2009-2010 the prevalence had increased to 35.5%” (Ogden, et al. 4). It is obvious that obesity is on the rise in our country. “the most recent national data on obesity prevalence among U.S. adults, adolescents, and children show that more than one third of adults and almost 17% of children and adolescents were obese in 2009-2010.” (Ogden, et al. 6). If the trends continue, obesity will become an epidemic, killing thousands of people. The CDC defines obesity as having a BMI (body mass index) of 30 or higher. In some instances, this can be misleading. For some people, say athletes that have plenty of muscle and not much body fat, their BMI can indicate they are overweight. Nevertheless, it is still a good indicator for the general public. And studies have shown, using the BMI system, that obesity in America is on the rise.
Americans are becoming more obese due to the challenges of the economy because healthy food is overpriced, fast food restaurants at every corner, and not enough motivation to exercise. If we are going to make a change, we need to take baby steps. A healthy world is a happy world.
A severely obese 10-year-old girl died because she was too overweight, an inquest has heard.
Americans need to accept that obesity is a disease, a disease that nearly 40 percent of all American adults have. Obesity is not simply an issue of being overweight, obesity is an issue of killing your body slowly, your organs, your lungs and all other bodily functions suffer when you develop obesity. When we encourage a climate in America where obesity is seen as the norm we encourage a toxic environment of allowing a disease to run rampid. And, In 2018 obesity has become an epidemic in America. An epidemic that American schools and the government should be addressing, as well as the American public as a whole.
In modern society, the media has a very big influence on our lives. Whether it be a film, a cartoon, or a television series, it is going to impact our daily life in some way. A nasty habit that the media has started is casting overweight characters as gluttonous eaters, aggressive, overtly funny, bullies, reassuring best friends, or sloppy dressers. This makes society as a whole look negatively at overweight people because of their presumptions. Sadly, those stereotypes have been around for over fifty years and still exist today.
Tie to Audience: Weight loss has always been a popular trend in society, whether it being for health reasons or just for self-image satisfaction. For instance I’m sure at one point you have thought about your weight in a negative or positive way. Maybe there has been a time where you have really put some thought into the way you look and decided you weren’t happy
In our ever-changing society, the one common thread that now every American seems to possess is a desire to have a body that is not hour-glass (1950’s) nor waifish (1990’s), but one that is lean, trim, and can physically go the “extra mile”. I speculate that the all-around athletic look is so popular because it is probably one of the hardest body types to achieve. In earlier times, hour-glass figures were the product of genetics and corsets, and the emaciated Kate Moss look could simply be achieved by starvation. To be physically fit inside and out is something that every person can control and achieve, but only through strong self-discipline. “The $52.9 billion fitness industry is constantly coming out with activities and products designed to get and keep us interested in working out” (Whigham-Desir 84). Two of these types of work-outs, specifically Tae-Bo and Spinning, were created just for the purpose of keeping “us” interested in working out. Despite this revolution in the fitness industry, many false preconceived notions about losing weight persevere and impede the movement.
Many people have been persuaded to believe that being overweight is more of a major risk factor of death than being underweight. But, they are mistaken; believe it or not in reality being underweight puts you at a higher risk of death.
For most people, the phrase , “you are what you eat”, rings more than just a few bells. In a growing visually appeasing society it may come as a surprise however that most Americans are overweight and that poor diet/obesity is a leading cause of death in our country. There are many ways that Americans try and attack this problem, the most common being dieting and exercise. Yet with all the money spent yearly on diet programs and personalized fitness regimens, Americans still top off the list in percentage of adults that are overweight. As of 2010, more than one third of all Americans were overweight and that number continues to climb at an alarming rate. In 2012 , there was an estimated twenty billion dollars in revenue for any and all diet books, diet drugs, and surgeries (1). Capitalism has a say so clearly, one aspect of the money is pushing the mentally weak toward fatty foods, the other form is racking in twenty billion on improper self discipline and fitness fads of those trying to be the opposite. Even with the increasing numbers of diets and obesity prevention programs, American obesity remains an instable issue. In our society obesity has become a primary link to heart diseases and other preventable lifestyle illnesses that can lead to early death. Why is our society overweight, and why is it our attempts to correct the issue have yet to yield positive results? Without the proper understanding that obesity is a social disease, our society will continue to seek quick fixes for obesity and never address the ongoing issue at it's core.