Shard

Iceland and MALTA have more obese people that the UK?! I didn't expect that!

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2...-obesity-study

scot47

But there are not very many of them !

Shard

That's true. But even in proportional terms I am surprised. I envisaged the Icelanders and lean outdoorsy types and the Maltese all eating a Mediterranean diet.

SchnookoLoly

Mediterranean diet = buckets of oil. Yes it's a good type of fat and all that, but at 120cal/tbsp, oil adds up shockingly quickly.

However both those places I always thought were more active... so it does surprise me quite a lot!

Shard

I know what your saying about the oil, could drink the buckets if it wasn't for the high calorie count!

SchnookoLoly

Likewise. I do calorie counting and when I first started it was one of the hardest things to adjust to, particularly for things like sauteeing and whatnot. Pain in the backside...

Shard

I thought olive oil was not good for sauteeing owing to its low burning point? Or is that just the EVO?

SchnookoLoly

I use canola or rapeseed oil for sauteeing as its burning point is much higher. For anything that needs taste, though, I use olive oil. http://www.stylecraze.com/articles/o...vs-canola-oil/

scrubbedexpat091

I need to lose about 22 pounds to bring myself into the "normal" weight range, but all my blood stuff like cholesterol and such come back fine and normal.

MrFloyd

I remember seeing lots of tubby people in Malta last year. A severe lack of Mediterranean... gems...

Tirytory

Really I think stats should focus on obesity, rather than being overweight. The general consensus is that BMI is an inaccurate way to measure weight anyway, it's margins taken from a post war population who because of rationing may not actually have been the healthiest bunch albeit slightly slimmer.

If "overweight" became a more normalised figure, then actually the UK has only a quarter of it's population being obese which doesn't sound too bad, although still clearly needs to be addressed for health reasons.

Jingsamichty

Look at photos from the 1970s and even the 1980s. Virtually nobody was fat.

Portion size is ridiculous these days.

SchnookoLoly

I don't entirely disagree with you, but I have done a lot of research into BMI and the various other forms of what makes "average" weight. From what I've been able to determine, and it seems sensible:

--The boundaries of each category are more grey, they more just exist in their current form for simplicity. There isn't much difference between a person with a BMI of 24.9 (normal) and a BMI of 25.1 (overweight), they're just borderline figures.

--For the vast majority of the population, BMI *is* an accurate way of working out how much weight you should be carrying for your height. The majority of us have average bodies - we are of average height, average build, are not elite athletes or bodybuilders, are not exceptionally small or exceptionally tall. Unless you fall into one of those outlier buckets, BMI is going to be a mostly representative measure for you, within a few BMI points.

--While there is some debate on the accuracy of the "overweight" category, there is next to no debate on the "obese" categories (obese, morbidly obese class 1-2-3). Unless you are an elite athlete or a bodybuilder, if BMI is telling you that you're obese, then you're obese.

--Those who are on the lower end of overweight could probably stand to lose a bit but aren't going to have any major problems because of it. (For awhile, I was in that category, BMI around 26-27ish, but down around 22-23 now; doc told me that I was only a bit overweight but ideally should lose a bit.) However, if you're in the upper half of overweight (27.5+) then you definitely have some weight to lose.

I agree with Jings - portion sizes these days are simply insane. One serving of meat is about the size of a hockey puck, yet if you go to a restaurant you can order giant cuts of meat and even the smaller cuts (8oz steak) are more than you should have in one sitting. Side dishes are loaded in butter and oil, vegetables are often sauteed in so much oil they're barely vegetables anymore. Fast food is so commonplace and so easy to get a hold of that it becomes too much of a "staple" too easily. Places that offer healthy choices are harder and harder to find.

This is getting long so I'll shut up now.

Oink

Cyril Smith? And then there was Captain Pugwash.

Souvy

It is ridiculous. When my missus and I go for a pub lunch, we order one meal and split it. In NY last December, we'd order a single starter, as a main course, and split it.

I honestly do not understand how people can get that much food into their bodies.