Obesity 'epidemic' affects one in 10 worldwide

I've never been able to understand how people can allow themselves to become so fat. If you eat too much you'll get fat. It's not difficult to figure out. However, people seem to have little restraint or motivation to exercise or eat better.

I'm not an over eater... just lazy I suppose. I don't get any pleasure from getting hot and sweaty running or lifting weights... I work in an office and drive to work. Should I cycle to work? No... we don't have shower facilities here, and I refuse to wear lycra shorts. :D

The United States and China, meanwhile, had the greatest number of obese adults -- respectively 79.4 and 57.3 million.

Those American obesity rates are crazy considering China is roughly 4x the size of the US.

I've never been able to understand how people can allow themselves to become so fat.

Ever heard the story of the boiling frog? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog

I'm not an over eater... just lazy I suppose. I don't get any pleasure from getting hot and sweaty running or lifting weights... I work in an office and drive to work. Should I cycle to work? No... we don't have shower facilities here, and I refuse to wear lycra shorts. :D

People always have excuses. I hear similar stuff about why some people have lived in Japan for years, yet speak worse Japanese than an infant.

Ever heard the story of the boiling frog? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog

Yeah, it's an amusing metaphor! I'd like to think that the majority of people are smarter than frogs and aware for sometime that they are gradually getting fatter however.

I guess it's just peoples priorities and how they use their time. I just find it difficult to understand why people allow it to happen.

People always have excuses. I hear similar stuff about why some people have lived in Japan for years, yet speak worse Japanese than an infant.

I wasn't making excuses - I don't like sports or the exercises associated with them. I'd rather spend my free time being creative :D

Not so much a question of how much they eat, but rather WHAT they eat. Focusing on eating less fat will not work, and will just get people discouraged.

People get obese for a number of reasons. Poor nutrition and education regarding it. Stress, comfort eating, addiction to artificial ingredients. Abuse. Mental illness. So many factors involved.

While I think people should not be persecuted for their body shape, I also disagree with how being big/overweight has become normalized in our current society. It's an unhealthy state, and we should not be normalizing it, to try to make people feel better about it. It's important to eat healthy and exercise, and that's what we should be pushing for.

People are fat for a number of complex reasons. It's not a black and white issue, everyone knows that if you eat less calories than you use you will lose weight. Smug 'Why don't they eat less?' comments do nothing except make the writer feel better about themselves.

Smug 'Why don't they eat less?' comments do nothing except make the writer feel better about themselves.

The problem is that most people never learn how to eat proper. Generally more protein and fat, with less carbs and sugar, is a good rule of thumb. As is a 'colorful' meal. The more colorful your meal, the more likely it's healthy. If you look at your meal and it's a bland cross section of browns and greys (think a McDonalds meal), it's probably not very healthy.

Watercress. Very, very healthy. And you can add it to almost anything.

Watercress. Very, very healthy. And you can add it to almost anything.

Indeed... like tuna... a tuna, salad cream and watercress bap. Yum!

Of those deaths, more than 40 percent involved people deemed non-obese -- indicating that being overweight, even without being obese, is leading to millions of premature deaths.

I have issue with this statement. There is conflicting evidence indicating the opposite in 2016 studies.

Meaning, that weight does not directly influence the rate of disease and this statement oddly proves that. There is also conflicting evidence concerning BMI, it turns out to be an ineffective measurement of excess weight.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439