How Big Is Too Big
In our country there are a greater number of people who are dangerously overweight than there are people who are just not at a healthy weight. This is not just a guess, this has been studied. Is this something that should worry us? They are determined by the way that the pounds on a person are distributed over one’s body and are a result of the total amount of pounds that are carried. Being over a healthy weight is because of a combination of many things. Obesity is having a high amount of extra body fat.
The most common way to measure overweight and obesity is he body mass indicator. This ratio gives a much clearer indication of whether a person is at a healthy weight or if they are at risk of being morbidly obese. In the past thirty years the number of those in the danger zone has increased two fold while the number of people who are just at an unhealthy weight has not changed. Not being at a healthy weight has many health implications that can lead to an early death. These health complications are more prevalent among those who have the highest BMI rather than those whose BMI is not as high.
It is not a simple matter of getting a large group of people together to do a bunch of six pack ab exercises, before they go to work in the morning, it is a much deeper problem that needs to be attacked on many levels with people of all ages. As our nation grows continually larger the example set for the children by the adults is getting worse. Almost one third of the nations children are considered overweight. The effect of this will be a generation of people that have many more healthy problems.
Television and technology are a major culprit in the problem of obesity. Kids are not as active as they used to be because they are entranced by the boob tube. If they are not watching a television show they are sitting down playing video games for hours on end. One easy place to lay the blame for all of the weight issues is with the media that glorifies unhealthy foods. We consume the things that the media sells to us that are full of fat, and calories. There are also numerous advertisements for products that promise to show a person how to lose weight fast, thus giving us the false sense of security that we can get our weight under control any time that we want to without having to do any real work, all we have to do is take a pill and watch the fat melt away. But those weight loss products cannot solve a weight problem alone. The weight loss plans need to be combined with a proper diet and exercise. The combined effort can help transform a person.
Reality TV has given us a show that is making being dangerously overweight seem more popular. On the reality show The Biggest Loser the contestants have gotten bigger and bigger, and now there are posts on the biggest loser forum that question whether the show is sending the right message by choosing people who are morbidly obese instead of choosing overweight people that more of the fans of the show can relate too. It is truly amazing what the contestants accomplish on the show, but it does not mean that everyone is that big.
There is no doubt that our nation is struggling with a major problem. If the older generation can not do something for themselves, than the younger generation will follow in their footsteps. Adults need to help change the way our children eat and to make sure that they are getting outside and exercising. The trend of more people being obese rather than overweight must be reversed. Without changing it, or kids will face a life that will be much harder than it should be.