What IS average anyway?

by

Hi Miz. Ive been reading for a while and had a question for you that I don’t think you’ve answered.

I think I’m average when it comes to my cardio fitness. Or that’s what Id say I am.

And then I think that if I’m even working out maybe I’m better than average (yay!!).   How on earth would I even tell this? Thanks!!

My first reaction to this email was *precisely* the emailer’s own reaction:

In today’s world (where 75% of U.S. adults are projected to be overweight & 41% obese by 2015) what is average anymore anyway?

I was at the grocery store recently & overheard a conversation between two people which went, essentially, like this:

One person asked another to describe a woman she wasn’t sure if she’d met before or not.

The first woman described the friend as ‘average,’  paused thought for a moment, and then further clarified by saying: WELL, SHE’S AMERICAN AVERAGE.

American average.

A phrase which I (and obviously the other woman as I watched her nod in understanding) took to mean a ‘just a little overweight.’

Sad—but that’s a post for a different day.

The short version of your answer, emailer?

Take a cardiovascular test such as this one.It’s fairly simple to do at home and the norms are listed on that page as well.

More intriguing to me is what my doctor boyfriend (known to others as Dr. Mehmet Oz) has to say on the subject.

Dr.Oz’s suggestion for an easy way to determine whether you are in ‘fine’ or average shape is to run up two flights of stairs or walk six blocks.

(seriously. go ahead. we’ll wait.)

Did you experience extreme shortness of breath? were you compelled to stop? You’re below average. Your heart and lungs need some work.

Simple. Easy. Blunt. And that’s why we love the Mehmet.

He also clarifies that, while this test is important, it’s almost MORE important to note a sudden change in this/spontaneous drop in your fitness level. A change for no discernible reason could indicate a health issue.

So there’s the answer: an at home test with norms (there are many others as well) & the Mehmet quick & dirty pass/fail type exam.

Now my question:

Have we kind of given up, America?

Non-Americans: do you see us as the Great Surrendering to SuperSizing nation?

Have we gone so far into the notion of perfect not being important & it’s ok to be less than our best & we need to love ourselves regardless that we’ve swung too far into deconditioned is the new black! territory?

Im not sure.

I guess if by ‘average’ we truly mean plain ole sufficient or lacking in distinction then perhaps we havent.

As the ability to walk six blocks without experiencing extreme shortness of breath is precisely that.

Are you of the opinion that we’ve lowered the bar of acceptable so far that it’s resting on the couch next to us as we snack & watch women argue about inane things?

Whatever your thoughts—please to hit us all up in the comments.

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Comments

  1. Non-Americans: do you see us as the Great Surrendering to SuperSizing nation?

    Answer: YES! Although you seem to be closely followed by your british neighbours! It seems to me that the US is a land of extremes – either people are super duper into healthy living or not at all, and hide behind the ‘it’s discrimination’ defence. Well, when you can’t fit into an aeroplane seat something is WRONG!

    In the UK we’ve grown up with the notion that America is the ‘land of plentiful’ – every single person I know that has travelled in or visited North America comes home reeling from shock at the portion sizes – the great surrender to supersize! And I do think the UK is following in your footsteps.

    Question is: in a society so obsessed with political correctness, how the dickens do we educate people to pursue health (and by that i mean eat right and exercise) ?????

    xxx

  2. What an interesting post! First of all, I have a built-in aversion to being average, which probably played a role in my excessive weight gain – if I was going to be fat, I was going to be very fat! These days my aim is to be healthy, not just sort of healthy, but VERY healthy.

    I love Dr. Oz’s take on exercise and am in the process of adopting his recommendations.

    I do think that “average” has changed in the US, and to a lesser degree in other Western countries, but I don’t think that Americans are acknowledging it. The fatter the population gets, the thinner the models in the magazines seem to be. And fat-bashing seems to be more, not less, prevalent. Vanity sizing further deludes the public.

    I will say this – nowhere in the world would you see as many fat people in one place (except maybe at a Sumo wrestlers’ convention) as in the USA. It really is very obvious when you visit the States.

  3. I think Hanlie touched on an important point – vanity sizing. I inherited some of my grandmother’s clothes when she passed. I was shocked at how tiny and unforgiving they were even though we were supposedly the same size. Apparently we weren’t the same size 50 years ago when the clothes were made. And if you’ve ever tried to buy women’s clothes from a non-US manufacturer, you are well aware that our sizing is a bit misleading. No wonder we have such screwed up body image. “How can I be obese? I’m a ‘normal’ size!” Well, that’s all relative. In other countries, a centimeter is a centimeter is a centimeter. Here … ehhhh, not so much. By visiting a few stores, and sometimes within the same store, you can go up or down as much as 3 sizes depending on who made the clothing. (And then you buy the smallest size so you can say you are an 8, not a 12! Or whatever.) Until we are all collectively ready to face reality when it comes to sizing, I think the problem will just continue and worsen because we don’t want to see what’s obvious to everyone else. We’re not fooling anyone except ourselves.

  4. It is a problem over here too, Scotland is particularly bad. Our diet is terrible (where else can you buy deep fried pizza or deep friend chocolate bars?), we consume too much alcohol, our portion sizes are vast compared to the way they used to be.

    It does puzzle me though, the big town where I live has 5 excellent huge gyms and they all seem to be full of slim people working out hard. Then I take a walk in the shopping centre and everyone seems to be fat and eating. Oooooh, maybe that is it – shopping makes you fat!

    Seriously though, I don’t think we in the Western world have given up, but there is something we are doing wrong and it does need to be addressed urgently.

    I would propose more free/cheap leisure facilities, improved cycle tracks/footpaths, reduction in vehicles in residential areas, better public transport, more exercise/healthy/fun/dance classes for all ages, comfortable work clothing, workplace exercise groups, healthier options at work canteens, better labelling of food, slow food not fast food, etc.

    I could go on….

  5. I’m American and have never travelled abroad except to England, where I lived for a bit, but, I challenege anyone to walk into any WalMart in the US, sit down for 15 minutes and count the number of obese individuals. It is staggering.

    It also makes it pretty obvious – whether compared to any other nation or not – that we have a problem. a BIG problem.

    And the scary part is that we HAVE lowered the bar of acceptable. We have made overweight mainstream. Worse, we have given it “victim” status. If you smoke or drink alcohol to the detriment of your health then we say you need to stop, but if you sit on the sofa eating cheesy poofs and drinking sugary soda all day then you “can’t help it” and should just be “accepted as who you are”?

    I think Americans focus too much on looks. We say “Oh, well, I’ll never be as skinny as (fill in vapid “star” name here), so I’ll just eat this muffin and go to this website that tells me to love myself just as I am!”

    It’s not about how you look! It’s about HOW HEALTHY YOU ARE. I realy DO believe that it’s “what’s inside that counts”, but those insides need to be strong, healthy, and working smoothly to keep YOU – the personality inside that people love – going. 😀

  6. I recently had a fitness test and was deemed “average” as well. I had no idea what that actually MEANT, especially since I am living in the UK.
    After posting about it and beating myself about it, I came to the conclusion that I am not average or above average or below, I am…what I am…right now, and that can change depending on my behavior. The rest of the public really has nothing to do with it. So, I am trying to work with that new attitude 🙂
    BTW–how can Dr. Oz be your boyfriend, too?! 😉

  7. I don’ t think this will be a popular comment but I DO think that we Americans have gone too too far with the self-love and acceptance.

    Look at our children.

    I remember reading you say that it used to be that a child feared being the overweight child on the playground and now MOST of the children are the overweight ones on the playground.

    We need to stop saying “average” is ok and start expecting and demanding more of ourselves.

  8. love my early morning (where I am anyway :)) commenters.

    THANK YOU.

    Vanity sizing.

    A few weekends ago I went with the Ren Man so that he could get new jeans.

    I knew womens clothing was a mess with regards to size regularity but had no idea that mens was sliding down that slope as well.

    He brought in his regular size and found that only 50% of them fit and 50% were w-a-a-a-a-y too big.

    He ended up buying jeans that were a size he hadnt seen since…high school? (I didnt know him if he ever wore this size ;)) and we both laughed.

    It certainly wasnt his waist size—-so Im not sure to what the number was referring.

    I really did think that this was only an affliction of the women’s industry…guess I was wrong!

  9. I’m not sure that it’s love theyself no matter what. Me (and a lot of my friends) that are over weight, not over weight, seditary, active, etc. are still struggling to love theyselves. A lot of people are not happy, and don’t know how to get there. Maybe that’s my glass half empty. but, I know so many people (thinking of my parents’ cohort now) that work or work around the house, just to “relax” by sitting in front of the tv all day or night. We even get shushed if we try to talk to much during shows. Heck, we have a friend that does that in OUR home (she doesn’t get invited often), but then complains that we never do anything but sit at home. lol. It’s so sad. TV as coping is just as bad as eating as coping, but either way it’s a mass problem that we need to address somehow.

  10. I believe that the obesity epidemic has really snuck up on the US. Convenience foods, convenience driving, and mass market-driven consumer goods have led to a nation that eats more of bad food, exercises less and has lost a grip on setting their own priorities and agendas. We’ve let ourselves be taken along the Madison Avenue path. It’s difficult to swim against the tide of mass-marketing – to get up off the couch, turn off the tv, walk past the golden arches and demand and create good health.

  12. “American average”

    I hadn’t thought of it but I knew exactly what she meant as well.

    And I am man enough to say that I think we guys have gotten even worse than the women.

    It’s ok for us to have a paunch or gut and yet it really is no more ok for us to have a paunch or gut for our HEALTH than a woman or child.

  14. I saw your tweet yesterday so I shall borrow your word:

    FRACK.

    I’ll try the stair run and be back.
    I think it may not be pretty.

    Nan

  15. It’s ok for us to have a paunch or gut and yet it really is no more ok for us to have a paunch or gut for our HEALTH than a woman or child.

    INTERESTING perspective as I know at least my women friend lament the fact that it’s “OK” for men to age and get, well, fat.

    That a belly on a man can be viewed as distinguished or as a sign of success (too busy working and being prosperous to exercise?) and that it just isnt that way for women.
    Id not thought so bluntly about the fact that its still BAD FOR THE MANS HEALTH

    Id gotten derailed by the focusing on how cruel mass media can be.

  17. I think it’s easy to sit back and say we should be doing more, that people should be expecting more of themselves. Maybe focussing more time and effort in getting people to realise they are WORTHY of better instead of SHAMING them to be better might help.

    It’s not that people don’t expect more of themselves, it’s that they expect too much of themselves and can’t cope with the pressure. I didn’t end up 500 lbs because I thought it was acceptable. But I did lose the weight and gained fitness once I accepted I was worthy of being alive.

  18. I’m a nonUSA’er and have to say that YES we do sort of laugh at your obsession with health and fitness while you seem to still be more overweight than we 🙂

    **runs from MizFit**

  19. It’s sad that I knew exactly what the woman meant by American Average.

    Yes, I think the majority of people have accepted the new normal. But there are a small, and hopefully growing minority that are trying to spread the message of:

    The New Average is Dangerous!

  20. I love this post Miz! I live in Japan and you would be shocked at how thin everyone is. For the most part, they don’t go to gyms either. Yes, they walk and bike places, but mostly they watch what they eat (but they eat white rice, pasta and bread!!). In this country, men have to get their waists measured every year for their health insurance. If their waste is over “ideal” the company has to pay a little more for that individual’s insurance. My husband was the only American that got an “A” grade. We were shocked! Sure, I obsess about my 10lbs that I would love to lose, but in this country they take it seriously. Weight is seen as a personal responsibility. I would love for them to coach us in America!!

  21. We are a nation of extremes aren’t we? We put emaciated models on the covers of our magazines, but act like it’s normal to eat 4000-5000 calories of sugar, transfats, and white flour a day and get minimal exercise.

    I really feel for the folks who are overweight or obese but trying their best to get fit and healthy. We are superficial culture that vilifies fat, and many just are stuck with lousy metabolisms.

    I find myself less sympathetic to those who feel entitled to indulge themselves constantly and refuse to exercise, especially when they pass these habits onto their kids, who then may be faced with a lifetime of struggle.

  22. First off: Thanks for the links to the two tests today-for sure gonna take them!

    Secondly: I found what Crabby McSlacker had to say very interesting…and I totally disagree!! Crabby said:

    “I really feel for the folks who are overweight or obese but trying their best to get fit and healthy…I find myself less sympathetic to those who feel entitled to indulge themselves constantly and refuse to exercise”

    I feel the exact opposite! I don’t feel sorry for people who are obese and trying their best-I feel proud of them and happy knowing that they are actively trying to improve their lifestyle.

    Unlike crabby feel more sympathetic to those who continue to indulge themselves too much because they don’t yet have the confidence to make a change or perhaps don’t yet even understand that they should.

  23. yes. This is definitely a focus on the FIT and not the FAT.

    The fact that, when a few friends and I tried the test, the thinnest among us struggled the most.

  24. I think Americans are sitting on two sides of a fence right now. 1/4 of us are in the super into fitness and health side and maybe 3/4 of us are in the “its ok to be less than my best boat” Very odd situation!

  25. I don’t know that we’ve lowered the bar, but I think some of the weight issues have to do with being disassociated with society. People sit in front of computers (ahem…yours truly), watch tv and can generally get by all by themselves in their house. It’s easy to let yourself go when you don’t have a community to answer to. Blogging is becoming a great support for me, but getting out of the house, being with people, being proud of how you look and feel, is important.

  26. I disagree with you MizFit and agree with Fat Fitness Food.

    I don’t believe one can truly be fat and fit.

    If you’re fat you are american average and that surely is not fit.

    I have 50 pounds to lose.

    I’m not fit and will not be in my own eyes even if I succeed at the Dr.OZ test.

  27. I think we’re very quick to judge but less so when it comes time to act. Example: experts decrying the childhood obesity problem and yet schools opting only for sending home BMI scores and not increasing recess or phys ed classes. Too many talking heads and not enough moving bodies.

  28. I thought Dr.OZ was mine 😉

    Did you see he has a new show coming out?

    I’m average.

    And not in the good way.

  29. Rant Warning: Sadly I find that one of America’s health problems is mis-information. The FDA keeps approving foods and products that are toxic and even deadly to our bodies. But Americans tend to trust in the thought that “if the FDA approved it, then it must be good/safe”…just to have said product recalled later due to terrible side-effects (if we’re lucky enough for a recall)…Thanks Lobbyist!

    My current new moto is to go with as close to real and natural as possible…sure there’s no such thing as pure food, but the less pesticides & junk in your food, the less chemicals in you water and cleaning products, the better for you in the long run…less build-up of foregn materials in the bod. Throw in things that naturally detox-ify us like exercise, good old sweat, hard work, and “fresh” air, then the chance of us being better than average are there.

    I’m not saying go organic & green (or maybe I am) but as long as we remember moderation and to make smarter choices instead of choosing to potato out and/or eat chemically altered snack foods, then I think we’re in for a long and fruitful life (God willing).

  30. I’m “above average” in weight, thats for sure… but I have to disagree with Nora. One CAN be both fat and fit. One friend of mine comes to mind. She weighs what I do, if not more. She has also RUN 5 marathons, eats well, and is more proud of her body than any other woman I know. But looking at her, you’d think “typical fat american.”

    Let’s not forget the “skinny fat” people as well… those women who are tiny, but have the same health issues as some obese people.

  31. INTERESTING!!! Well, the fact that I can keep up with 7 grandkids & I am almost 52 might say that I am “OK”! 🙂

    The average woman. What is that? We are all so unique & different. I think we all need to do the best we can based on our own circumstances. We all come to the table with different perspectives & life experiences so we have to accept that.

    BUT, I do think we have to be less complacent & take a stand on being fit & healthy. You can be a size 12 & be all that!

  32. “American Average” is sadly a very good descriptor.
    I’m not sure how we’re defining overweight anymore so someone who is really average though fit and healthy might be considered obese by some standards. That means the truly “hanging it over the waist snap” overweight person has to be called something else. Our clothing sizes make no sense, our body sizes and images make no sense, and ultimately we make no sense.
    All that said, it is better to be fit and curvy than to be nothing but skin and bones.

  33. Intriguing point about so many kids now being the fat kids on the playground.

    When I was young it was horrible how the lone chubby child was teased.

    More often than not that child was me.

    I’m not sure if its good for the teased to have so much company or not.

  34. I think we place way too much emphasis on the appearance of the outer package whether it be “too” skinny, fat, average or anything else. I deeply wish that a) people would start worrying about their own HEALTH (not size) and leave other people alone and b) everyone would focus more on what we can do for each other rather than what we look like to eachother. For instance, my aunt is “average american” – yes, pudgy – but has performed humanitarian service the likes of which would have earned her a medal in any other era.

  35. I think that supersizing also happened because of work: too many people are working 10 hour days, and then are too tired to work out.

    And for me, it’s easier to eat healthy when I work out.

    Is it weird that I assume I’m average in everything? Including my ability to do 1 arm pushups (5 per arm!), what I eat, etc.?

  36. I really feel this when people say to me that I don’t need to burn myself out and I should relax and eat junk once in a while… just because I try to eat real food and exercise regularly! Lots of times people will tell me that I should eat this or that because “whatever, you’re healthy most of the time, and you’re way healthier than other people!”. As though it’s all a competition. It’s not. I could care less about how healthy I am in regards to other people. It’s about being healthy, plain and simple.

    The bar has been set SO LOW that nowadays, comparing fitness levels to the “average” doesn’t really say much. Like everyone else was saying- it’s not about size at all. It’s about health. And yet we seem to confuse these time and again.

  37. I think of myself as average*, at least I suppose I do.

    I’m somewhere between Couch Potato and Superfit. I’m thinner than some, heavier than others. Exercise more than some, less than others. Eat healthy most of the time, but occasionally indulge.

    Wonder if I should rethink the whole thing in light of the new average, or as you put it “American Average”.

    *Using my dad’s rule for finding the “average” speed of highway traffic – if you’re passing a few people, being passed by others, and staying with the general flow of traffic… followed, of course, by the official “NO SPEEDING” lecture in front of my mom.

  38. Having lived abroad for most of my childhood I do find America kind of lackluster when it comes to health and exercise. As a kid in Germany I remember walking almost everywhere and going to markets all the time for fresh food. There weren’t a lot of options for fast food and the like. We only had one car but gas was expensive (at least it felt like it back then) and so we walked to the bus stop if we had to go somewhere or just walked.

    I must admit that I fell into this trap when we moved back to the states for good. We ate convenience foods and drove everywhere. It’s too easy to not be healthy that unhealthy has become the “average.” You have to work at healthy because all we have available makes it too easy not to be. When we want bigger meals at restaurants for a better price instead of just lowering the price for a smaller meal it says something.

    Sorry for rambling. We can make average healthy again but we just need to work at it.

  39. Great post!! I think a lot has changed since we’ve gone from 1 income to 2 income families. Being a 1 income family once again, we’ve started focusing on slowing things down, not going for convenience and focusing on healthy choices.

    American Average is a great way to put it.

  40. I think a huge player is our food.

    If you look at the Europeans (and I spend at least 4 weeks of the year in Germany) their food is much less unprocessed then ours.

    The milk goes bad after a few days, their meats dont last for weeks and weeks, oh and have you been ever seen their chip aisle!? its literally the size of an endcap!

    you dont ‘snack’ on chips. and usually the chips aren’t even found in the kitchen but in the living room and brought out on occasions.

    and yes, like someone else commented, there are far less gyms and many more carbs and the majority of europeans are considerably smaller than us Americans.

  41. Great post because it makes us stop and think about what we want average to be. I don’t want to be “average” if average is X lbs overweight and unable to walk 6 blocks or 2 flights of stairs without thinking “whew, there’s my exercise for the day”. I don’t want to be average if average means I’m likely to have health issues that are wholey avoidable and controllable through healthy diet and exercise. I don’t want to be average if average means I sit on the sidelines instead of participating (except when it comes to volleyball. That sport is DANGEROUS. I’ll watch)

    As an outsider to the North american way of life, I see the huge portions of food that are normal and when people are served normal sizes, they complain. I see a culture (and I say a culture because it’s not only an AMERICAN thing) that embraces extremes – either people seem unhealthily overweight or the media loves those unhealthily underweight. This is where we find our average and I think that needs to change.

    IMO, those who refuse to realise this are too comfortable in what they want to be their average. Those who defend the average will never change it.

  42. Average is in the eye of the beholder. No wait, that’s beauty. So sad that there is now a concept of “American” average! That there is the average of “reality” and the “average” of how it should be. Kind of reminds me of flossing. What we are “suppose” to do and what we “do” do are two different things. er. wait. Did I just admit something?

    I’m off to floss, see-ya!

  43. RUN up two flights of stairs?? You tryin’ to kill me?

    Yeah, I know I need to get into better shape 🙂
    Working on that!

  44. Ok, first I wanna say I’m fat but I’m at least in average shape, according to Dr. Oz’s test. That’s good news. Just wanted to make that point to say we are talking about two different types of average. Average weight and average fitness. You can be average in both, neither, or one or the other. The two things aren’t exclusive.

    And if I can answer for non-americans… yeah… they think we are all fat and bowing to the super size meals. At least that was the impression I got when I lived abroad as a bigger girl. It was an interesting experience to be judged purely on my weight. They knew immediately that I was an “unhealthy American” before I even opened my mouth to confirm it. Totally strange experience that is in complete contrast from my life at home in Memphis where 30% of us are obese and almost everyone else is overweight. I am the average at home, so I definitely know what the “American average means.”

    May I be so BOLD as to beg you to post about that, Mary? the being judged as an unhealthy american even before you opened your mouth….

    I lost weight when I lived abroad in Austria because my diet was 98% unprocessed. The only processed stuff I ate was stuff I bought on my own. It’s not that they don’t have that stuff it just isn’t a big part of their diet like it is here.

    I hope we eventually get past being a culture of extremes. It would be nice to go to most restaurants and not have 1500 calories thrown down on my plate. I feel like we are starting to change, in small ways, but it’s not so widespread. We can be healthy here, it just takes a little more effort on our parts. (Which is why most of us don’t… omg I’m talking in circles. Must quit before my head explodes.)

  46. RUN up two flights of stairs?? You tryin’ to kill me?

    you know, I had that same thought as well, Lyn.

    its not easy running up two flights of stairs.

    I need video confirmation Dr OZ isnt waaaay breathless after that as well.

    or just confirmation.

    or video.

    or Dr OZ to come to my house.

    either way.

  48. Our jobs are mostly sitting jobs. We still eat like we are working on the line or running farms. Our communities are so big and spread out that our kids ride the bus to school, and friends don’t live close enough to walk or bike. And still we eat like nothing has changed.

    I need a donut.

  49. First off, why would somebody care if they are average or not? Especially “American Average”? That bar is set so low.

    The only real comparison that matters is am I healthy? As healthy as I was 10 years ago? More so? Less so?

    For the bar to be set at simply not “experiencing EXTREME SHORTNESS OF BREATH” after walking up just 2 flights of stairs? TOO LOW.

    For a bar to set at “hopefully doing what I need to do today without experiencing severe pain? Too low. Yet most friends my age have come to accept pain as part of their days. Pain that could be helped by proper exercise.

    Gah. This post has me seeing red and thinking black and wanting to find/create/join some organization that gets people to not settle for so little. We are all worth so much more.

  50. I rarely comment and felt called to today.
    I read your post this morning and have been thinking about it ever since.

    I am definitely bigger than the american average and I the more I thought about the concept of american average the more I came to realize that I loathe the notion of being just average at anything.

    I think my being over weight is almost a rebelling against wanting to be average.

    I am struggling to convey this in a clear manner so I will just thank you for helping me to realize something about myself even if I can not make it clear yet to others.

  51. I was listening to a podcast the other night (forget what it was called, sorry) and the speaker said its pretty said that we may be a generation that actually doesn’t live as long as the generation before us!! Not good huh?? Apparentely 3/4 of all Americans are overweight… that’s a pretty high statistic and scary. I’m Canadian and our stas are probably pretty close… i’ll have to look it up! lol!

  52. Heh… I know I can walk 6 blocks without being short of breath (heck, I walk 24 MILES without being short of breath) but I’m unsure about the stairs. Give me a few minutes to put my sneaks on, and I’ll go annoy my neighbors by running up and down the stairs a few times. It’s only one flight, tho, which is the longest staircase I can find anywhere in the immediate area… (I live in a swamp, hi nothing above 3 floors around here…)

    Still. Will run up and down and up and down.

    Watch this space for results 😀

  53. Ok. 1) I can run up and down 2 flights of stairs, no problem. 2) my heart rate after doing so was 100, which, for my age rate, was listed as being “Good”.

    Great!

  56. So many thoughts…

    One is, you really can’t judge whether someone is “American average” fitness-wise by the exterior. People would consider me “American average,” if basing on looks alone. I’m overweight. I know this, not just from the scale number, but because I can pinch at least and inch or two of body fat around my stomach. But I also work out 4-5 days per week, have run a few 5K races during the past year (one when I was still clinically obese), and am training for my first sprint triathlon in a few weeks. So yes, it’s possible to be fat AND fit: my blood pressure is excellent, blood glucose levels are good (considering I have type 2 diabetes), and I’m still honing the cholesterol numbers (overall + triglycerides great, HDL a skosh too low, LDL a skosh too high). And yep, I passed the stair test. Do alarming statistics make me want to lose that last 20 pounds, so I can achieve the optimal BMI scale number? Not particularly. Do I want to become the healthiest person I can be? Yes.

    I’m not sure what the answer is to getting people to change. Like giving up an addiction, I think people have to feel the *need* to change, and that has to come from within, and I don’t think the answer is the same for everyone. I know that it’s not easy, but it is possible…and for so long I thought it was impossible. (Media messages that “diets don’t work”–when people often confuse “sensible eating plan” in their mind with “diet”–and “exercise doesn’t make you lose weight” are so incredibly helpful, no?) I still have to make an effort every day to choose healthy foods and portions and to make time for working out. It’s not as hard as at first, but it would be way too easy to slide.

    Part of it might be one’s tribal norms, too. I’ve been following a number of fitness/athletic/health/weigh loss maintaining blogs for over a year now, and my mindset has undergone many shifts. I feel below average when I compare myself to those people, but rather than feel discouraged, I see the possibility, because many of them had a similar starting point to mine.

    And regarding kids, right on, Gigi (comment #27)! School is doing a fine job preparing children to have sedentary work lives. I don’t know what a better alternative would be to benching kids, but it seems kind of ironic to me that some teachers take *away* recess and PE time as punishment for the kids who probably would do better if they didn’t have to sit for so long?

  57. First, thank you so much for that fitness test link! I can’t wait until I get home this evening to give it a shot! (Since I’m sure everyone in the library at school would stare if I hopped up right now and tried!) I’ve been looking for a good way to judge myself as I work towards becoming more fit.

    My best friend is a German, she was an exchange student here in high school and we’ve remained close ever since. Her outlook on American’s is that they have fallen into a trap of Supersizing. She can’t believe how big portions are EVERYWHERE in the states; there’s no restaurant that you can find an “average” meal as she calls it. And she swears (and I think she’s right) that this causes us to have larger portions at home because we feel deprived if we get a bigger portion at an expensive restaurant than we do at our own home.

  58. Oh, and I can’t resist chiming in again: It’s not just restaurants that supersize. I remember my dad & step-mom’s new dinner dishes they bought: huge platters for dinner plates, and cereal bowls that you could wear as a hat. (I think an entire pint of ice cream could fit in one!) Of course you’d feel deprived if you put a reasonable portion of food one one of those behemoths.

  59. I spent a year last July( ok it was really only 3 weeks, felt like a year!) in South Korea. There are no fat Koreans. none. zero. When I returned to the US our first stop was DFW. I never noticed so many obese people before. They seemed to be everywhere.
    They have Outback Steakhouse, McDonalds and many other American restaurants in So. Korea the difference is they order 1 entree and put it in the center of the table and the everyone at the table shares that 1 entree. We order 1 entree per person and eat the whole thing. They walk or ride bikes everywhere, we don’t. They also eat a lot of disgusting stuff! but I won’t get into that! We don’t! Thank goodness!
    We have done it to ourselves.
    And last week I watched parents walking to school with their kids and the parents were carrying or pulling the backpacks! What’s up with that?!

  60. I am bothered by the label of “overweight.” What is that even based on?
    BMI?
    Waist to hip ratio?
    Pounds?
    It seems to be a very vague term. I am 5’6 and I weigh 170 pounds. I run 8 miles a week, lift twice a week with a trainer and can leg press 370 pounds. Also, I got an excellent on that step test. Am I overweight? Seriously. I don’t even know.
    Maybe this is what’s at the root of our problem?
    Someone mentioned “skinny fat,” which is actually a very serious problem b/c people who are “skinny fat” usually have visceral fat stored around their internal organs, which is FAR more dangerous and hard to lose than fat stored near the skin. But they don’t LOOK fat, so there’s no outreach from the medical community or information geared toward the issue.
    I just can’t help but think that fact that no one can really agree on what overweight or healthy even IS, is why we can’t really seem to come up with any effective ways to address the issue long term.

  62. “yes. This is definitely a focus on the FIT and not the FAT.

    The fact that, when a few friends and I tried the test, the thinnest among us struggled the most.”

    You know, it would have been nice if you’d said that right up front.

    A person’s weight is not a reliable indicator of his or her level of fitness.

    I’m 5′ 4″, 165 pounds, and a size 10-14, depending on the jeans. So yeah, I suppose I’m what some people might call “American average” and what other less polite people might call “eww, fat.”

    I also haven’t driven a car in ten years; instead, I bike anywhere from 5 to 20 miles every single day depending on how many errands I have to run, usually with 10-30 pounds of stuff in a backpack and shopping bags and bungee-corded to the package carrier on the back of my bike. I can also run three miles without walking and will be running my first 5K race in about a month, and given my cycling history I plan on competing in some duathlons and maybe sprint/Olympic distance triathlons down the road.

    I can count on one hand the number of thin people I know who could or would attempt these things and still have three or four fingers left over, and yet if you lined up me and all the thin-but-unfit people I know next to each other, I’M the one the average person would name “most likely to sit on the couch watching TV all day.”

    And that absolutely disgusts me. How dare someone assume I’m just a lazy cow that spends my day shoveling bonbons into my face just because I’ve got a bit of belly flop and big thighs! What gives them the right to make snotty little comments about the size of my butt when they can’t even walk the two blocks to the grocery store and back?

    You cannot tell how fit someone is just by looking at them. You can’t even tell how fit someone is by looking at the number on her scale. No, you can’t. No, you CAN’T.

    If you think you can, you’re an idiot. If you assume a thin person is healthier than a chubby person just because she’s thin, you’re an idiot. If you think it’s impossible for a chubby person to be healthy, you are an idiot. People need to learn to worry about their own bodies and mind their own business about everyone else’s. I am so sick of this BS.

  64. BEA? Of course.

    Methinks that Chaobell is a new reader and I completely needed the reminder that I take for granted (unrealized) that people know OF COURSE I BELIEVE THIS:

    You cannot tell how fit someone is just by looking at them. You can’t even tell how fit someone is by looking at the number on her scale. No, you can’t. No, you CAN’T.

    In fact, it’s pretty much the premise of this entire blog.

    you know, second to this:

    People need to learn to worry about their own bodies and mind their own business about everyone else’s.

    oh and this:

    A person’s weight is not a reliable indicator of his or her level of fitness.

    I completely and totally agree Chaobell.

  65. Size does not matter if one is engaging in healthy behavior. I completely agree with that. Some medicines and illnesses lend to packing on weight and it’s not really the person’s fault.

    I’m anti-judgmental. So, I don’t ever want to judge someone solely by their outside.

    Healthy has been so frowned upon – the faces I get when I mention tofu, vegetarian or organic are something sometimes – and it still is even though it’s become more mainstream and is more readily available. Still some places still sneer at those who adopt healthier ways of eating. They perpetuate that old stereotype.

  67. Mizfit, this is a great post and one that makes you ponder the state of things. I don’t think we consciously lowered the bar, I think it happened over time and we just got used to it. It is time for a reversal of that trend.

  68. Urgh. You’ve hit the nail on the head with this one, Miz.

    I have a theory. And it parallels my beliefs about the socioeconomic progress of America. The rich are getting richer, I think. The poor are getting poorer. NPR will tell you on a weekly basis that middle-income workers have seen declines in wages (relative to inflation) over the last 15 years. And where is that money going? Why to the people who already have money, of course! Rich are getting richer, poor are getting poorer, and the middle class is disappearing as most of the suburbanites are split one way or the other.

    Same thing is happening with health.

    There is a significant contingent of Americans who are realizing the importance of fitness and health and are taking more drastic steps than ever to improve on their own personal well-being. I say it’s a significant contingent, but it’s certainly not the majority. More and more, it seems like people are going to extremes of either severe lack of fitness or intense fitness. Of course, this follows lines of social and economic class, as well.

    I don’t think it’s that Americans are giving up; I think that our culture has made it progressively more difficult to live a healthy lifestyle.

    And that’s certainly not helped any by the fact that our paragons of “fitness” (i.e. what most people want to look like–that is bone-thin female supermodels and impossibly muscled male stars) is not necessarily healthy.

    Oh goodness. I could go on for pages.

  69. Yes we’ve gone to far. I don’t think over weight people should be glamorized anymore than anorexic people. Everyone needs to be held responsible. We can justify all we want.

    We can also get into the big health care debate getting all bent out of shape or whatever…or we can take responsibility for our health and plan on NOT getting sick or dieseased early!

  70. Non-Americans: do you see us as the Great Surrendering to SuperSizing nation?

    America seems to lead the way in most things like music, TV shows, lifestyle and unfortunately overeating. In Australia we have always followed American trends and obesity is no exeption.

    Australians have had a national image of the muscled bronzed Aussie and fit stockman. The reality is becoming more of unfit and fat.

  71. I love you Miz! I was labeled as “skinny fat” on my first day of Kettlebells. Truthfully I’m not. I’m actually much lower body fat than I should be… yet what I have hangs out around my mid section. Ugh. I am also the friend of a Gastric Bypass Surgeon here in town. He does not do surgery on everyone who walks in his office. He wants them to be mentally prepared and gives them tools in which to lose weight themselves first. Many times this is counter productive to his practice yet these people change how they eat, how they live, how they see their selves in the mirror. He is working little miracles every day with that name on his door.

  72. I have to say, I’ve seen the exact opposite in my small section of the world. Most everyone I know in my life is trying to eat healthier and move more. My parents, my brother and his girlfriend, the moms I know, we’re all going to the gym or walking frequently, and eating better.

    I hope this trend extends further than my little circle!

  73. I do not think the true average bar is lower. Denial has been made easier and comfortable with the changing of sizes in clothes and such though. It still seems like people find it easy to let you know you are or are not *measuring up*. It is the ability to kid yourself that seems to be working (whether it is the last few pounds or more) for people in this boat. If you truly look at your body, what you are eating and how you are moving a label or the combination of who is standing around you is not what matters. The question of am I average seems like it should be am I healthy, truly healthy not just get by healthy or look good.

  74. Great post. I enjoy Dr. Oz’s advice because it’s practical and simple enough for the “average” person to follow. 🙂 Yes, unfortunately we Americans have managed to stretch the definition of average, haven’t we? Thank goodness we have inspiring people like you, Carla, to help us get lean, fit & healthy!

    –Susan

  75. I hate the word average- I just feel like when we let go of that word and realize that we each have our own unique needs and we need to find what’s healthy for us… within reason of course (none of that it’s “healthy to be morbidly obese stuff).

  77. LOVE me some docta oz!!! I may be guilty of watching RHOA whilst walking on the treadmill or ellipticizing- so I’ll pretend I’m above that lowered bar 😀

  78. I feel average looking if perhaps a bit bulky. I’m 3-5 lbs overweight depending on the day if you go by BMI. I don’t know my body fat % but I can pinch a bit on my belly and arms.

    I feel like I’m a bit above average fitness-wise, but maybe I’m a little off there. I workout about 8 hours a week and run races (most recently a half marathon). Right now I’m working on cutting my mile time to under 7 minutes and my 5k time to under 25.

    Personally, I think one should reflect the other if life was fair, but it just isn’t. Boo.

  79. My boyfriend and I were talking about the connotation of “average” earlier today! I think we used to think of “average” as “normal” and therefore healthy, but sadly “average” in America no longer means that.

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