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CDC: Americans Getting Heavier, Average Woman Weighs As Much As 1960s Man

schwit1 writes: New statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the average American has packed on the pounds in the past 50 years. Both men and women have gained a considerable amount of weight since 1960, with the average American woman now weighing 166.2 pounds — nearly identical to what American men weighed in the 1960s. U.S. men have been getting bigger too, gaining nearly 30 pounds from the 1960s to 2010 — 166.3 pounds to 195.5 pounds today. The good news is that both sexes have gained almost an inch in height since then, so that accounts for some of the overall weight gain.

10 of 409 comments (clear)

  1. Which of course has nothing to do with... by Karmashock · · Score: 4, Interesting

    the corn subsidies and the silly food pyramid.

    We eat too much, we exercise too little, and we eat the wrong things.

    More fruits, veg, and yes meat... and less starchy food.

    As to getting people to move their fat asses every so often... good luck with that.

    My ultimate solution to all this is massive genetic engineering.

    First there's no reason we couldn't make our staple crops more nutritious. If we can put beta carotene in the rice of third world farmers just imagine what we could do with our OWN food. You could turn your staple crop of choice into a fucking multivitamin.... shift the resources in it to fats and proteins. And that is just the ONE crop.

    A more reeasonable way to do it would be to have about 20 different breeds of wheat etc and have each one have its own special characteristics. THEN you just blend them together in the desired ratios at the flour mill. The health nuts will blend their own and most people will be happy with a standard blend.

    We can also do stuff like change gultin to something else that people aren't sometimes allergic to.

    Then of course there is the human body. The body does not NEED exercise to build muscle. It is TRIGGERED to build muscle by exercise. Those triggers can be adjusted. Ideally you want them to be related to food intake. If in some future we go into famine, the body must not keep assuming it has access to our 21st century food supply. It has to adapt. And of course, if you're getting lots of food, the body shouldn't stock pile excessive amounts of fat but rather build up some healthy muscle.

    On top of that, we should awaken the portions of our genes that permit regeneration. Currently we have only a few parts of our bodies that regenerate. The intestines for example still regenerate. But there is no reason it couldn't grow new internal organs, grow new limbs, grow new eyes, new ears, regenerate nerves, etc.All of that is latent in our biology.

    And while we're doing that... how about raise the standard human IQ to something less obnoxiously pitiful. Because boy oh boy are there are a lot of morons.

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  2. Re:Comparing apples to miniature oranges by rockout · · Score: 5, Funny

    I know you don't read the article in your giddy rush to get first post, but christ, that exact point was made in the fucking summary.

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    I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.
  3. Mostly because our food is shit. by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Honestly 90% of what we consumer is not food but just piles of sugar coated shit.

    Stop eating at any restaurants, Stop eating anything that comes in a box or Bag. Hell even our bread is so sweet that most europeans call it cake.

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    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    1. Re:Mostly because our food is shit. by rainmaestro · · Score: 5, Interesting

      A couple years ago I decided to give up refined sugar in general for a few months, particularly soda (like any good dev, I consumed more than my share of the stuff). After 3 months without, I drank a Dr. Pepper (my favorite) and it was disgusting. Tasted like a mouthful of sugar. Amazing how much you become desensitized to sugar, and the same holds for salt.

      The real surprise was one day when I discovered that carrots are actually sweet. They just don't seem that way when you consume a metric ton of refined sugar every week. That really made me start wondering just how badly my perception of foods had been corrupted over the years.

  4. Which Woman Did They Check? by Greyfox · · Score: 5, Funny

    If her name was Caitlyn and she had big manly hands, it's likely your average woman WAS a 1960s man.

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  5. HOwever... by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 5, Funny

    The one-inch gain in height was dwarfed (so to speak) by the six-inch gain in heights listed on online dating sites.

  6. Re:We could just raise wages by jedidiah · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No. It's about having better impulse control.

    Poor people are also much more likely to have 5 children each with a different person. Maintaining a healthy weight requires some degree of effort and discipline. People that never adequately prepared for their future are simply demonstrating the same faults in their eating habits as they have done in other things.

    Being poor doesn't eliminate the possibility of doing better. People like that are just less likely to stay poor (been there, done that).

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  7. Re:Point was made but wrong by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

    If nothing else he was correcting a bad summary.

    No he isn't. The summary is correct, and he is wrong. Americans are one inch taller than in 1960, not two inches. In 1960 the average man was 5'8", today he is 5'9". The average women went from 5'3" to 5'4".

  8. Re:Comparing apples to miniature oranges by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Funny

    bigger tits.

    Unfortunately, they're mainly on men.

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  9. Re:Comparing apples to miniature oranges by Foobar+of+Borg · · Score: 4, Funny

    Based on the cube law, you'd expact the average female weight to have increased almost 10% as a result ((65/63)^3 = 1.098).

    Increased height accounts for more than half of the weight gain noted in the study.

    So, you started your analysis by assuming a spherical human?