"America You're Fat." There I said it.

I think the rise in obesity has several factors, as you mentioned.

• There's the replacement of active play for children by computer gaming, Internet usage, and television watching. Compare the level of activity for a child of ten today to one fifty years ago. "Let's go play ball!" has been replaced by "Let's play Xbox!"
• Eating out. Again, decades ago it was a rare treat to go to a restaurant. Today it's often the norm. You get heavier sauces and higher caloric content out than at home.
• High-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. If you had a soda thirty years ago, it was probably sweetened with sugar. Good luck finding such a soda today. The development of high-fructose corn syrup transformed the soft-drink industry. Wildly cheaper than sugar, soft-drink companies switched in a stampede. One problem: Corn syrup tends to increase the appetite and may even cause the body to bond more readily with fat. Ergo, drink up, you're getting fatter!
• Portion sizes: When I eat out now, I routinely expect to take half or more of it home with me. It's too much! The plates are now the size of an entire serving platter! We are conditioned from childhood onward to clean our plates. Don't do it! Leave half, or take the rest home.

People would be amazed if they knew a) how few calories they need per day to maintain their weight; and b) how many calories most of them actually eat. The average guy can thrive on, oh, 2300-2400 calories or so, and the average woman on 1800-1900 per day. The rule of thumb is that if you increase your daily caloric intake by 500 calories per day, at the end of the week you will gain 1 pound. That's not much, right? But after one year, that's 52 pounds if you keep it up.

The good news is that it works in reverse. If you decrease your daily caloric intake by 500 calories, you will drop about 1 pound per week. For as long as you need to lose weight. So for a guy, instead of 2400 calories, go with 1900 calories. The pounds will go off. And how can you drop 500 calories a day? Take a look at what you are drinking, and switch to diet (or water), and you'll be amazed at what that one little difference can make. Other things to watch for are snack foods high in calories -- temporarily switch to fruit or vegetables. The good news is that after you lose the weight, you get to increase you daily caloric count by 500 per day! And that's just to get to a maintenance level! After being on a diet, it'll feel like a luxurious amount of food. Just something to think about during those lean days. :)

The weight is just one symptom of poor diet and lack of exercise. Look at the rate that diabetes has risen in the US.

I don't mind people who are overweight. Its the people who complain that they are overweight and do not do anything about that really piss me off. A change of diet and exercise is a simple change that at first can be hard but in the long run will have the best effects ever. These people and the fat people who think they are hot just bring down the world.

Obesity does not bother me as much as eating disorders.

Meh, overweight people have their own problems. I have friends who are overweight, and I do tell them they need to loose weight, but in the end it's their choice. Even if they are my friends though if just don't take care of themselves, that pisses me off. Especially when they claim they are exersizing, (when they really aren't doing enough to count it as exersizing) and complain that they are still overweight and that exersizing doesn't work.

Just a minor quibble, Loren: The average height of the American male may have flatlined, but it would be tough to link that to poor nutrition yet. The percentage of Caucasians in America is dropping, and Asian-Americans and Latina/os are growing groups. Since Asian-Americans and Latina/os are on average shorter than Caucasians, more of these groups means a shorter average. We'd need stats broken down by race in order to determine the influence of nutrition, and even that would be pretty dicey.

But in general, I agree. I'd plug vegetarianism for healthy living, except for that kid who just died eating only bread. So, uh, moderation.

Wukong, obesity IS an eating disorder.

If America is fat, does that make me un-American? Excuse me. I need to go call Senator McCarthy and turn myself in.

I like NebulaClash's point about high-fructose corn syrup. I have recently have limited myself to only 1 soft drink a day. I don't have any weight to lose seeing as how I am a pretty small guy, but there is a difference in how much I might sweat in the gym after that change. I also would like to add that in my opinion the rise in obesity in the US might have something to do with being politically correct as mentioned above. I understand some people have a weight problem that is not under their control because of some illness or another. However, I feel we are too busy trying to make everyone feel ok for endangering their health by being overweight. For example, it is not uncommon to tell a smoker they are ruining their lungs by smoking and they should quit. On the other hand, we hold back from telling someone that is horribly overweight they are doing damage to their bodies as well. I feel we should stop trying to be nice and let people know the real dangers. Where are some provocative ads showing consequences from obesity like I saw in high school regarding smoking?

I'm considered obese. I am roughly 80lbs. overweight, but there's several people in my life that agree that I don't look bad because I carry my weight well. Obesity is a HUGE problem in America and I contribute to that problem. And to be honest I think people need to be more strict about it and look upon it as disgusting instead of just accepting it. It is disgusting and yes I find myself to be disgusting. I've been working on it and I've lost nearly 40 lbs. over the past year (ok, everyone applaud now lol) People that are overweight or obese don't pack on the weight because of video games or TV, or even because of family history. When it comes down to it, it's all about choices. If you make bad choices, then you will see the results in a highly negative way.

@Squatch, I really like your attitude, that you take responsibility for your weight (instead of blaming video games, TV etc) is really commendable. I think if more people thought like you then there would be a lot less overweight people out there.

I just don't believe it's something that should be glorified. Fat is a disease, even though it's not techically classified as one. I mean, no one walks around with cancer and feels comfortable as is. They're horrified and want to do everything they can to get rid of it. In my eyes, fat should be seen in the same light.