Trimming the Fat

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, not a single state in the United States had an obesity rate (obesity is defined as 30% body fat or greater) over 15% in 1990. According to the 2009 statistics, less than 20 years later, only Colorado (18.6%) and Washington D.C. (19.7%) have an obesity rate less than 20%. There is even a neat slideshow you can watch on the website where you can watch all the states in the country change from white/light blue to orange/red (http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html#State).

Where else can you go to find skinny people besides Colorado and Washington D.C? Connecticut (20.6%) came in third place, Massachusetts (21.4%) came in fourth place, and Hawaii (22.3%) came in 5th place.

If you like more cushion for the pushin', the places to go are Mississippi (34.4%), Louisiana (33.0%), Tennessee (32.3%), Kentucky (31.5%), and Oklahoma (31.4%).

Wisconsin, which according to my memory was ranked in the low to mid 20s of the skinniest states in 2008, fell to the 36th skinniest state (including Washington D.C.) in 2009. Way to go, Wisconsin. I know we like our cheese, beer, and bratwurst, but come on, have some pride!

We know where the fattest and skinniest people live within the United States, but what about the whole world? I found 2009 data from the World Health Organization, and apparently, more people care how many women are fat than men because there is data for women in 130 countries, but only data for men in 88 countries. I will list the countries on the extremes, and then also list the US, Germany, and Switzerland, since most of my readers are from these countries. If you are interested in another country, let me know and I will tell you where it ranks.

So where can you find the skinniest women? The top 10 countries are:

1. Vietnam (0.6%)
2. Ethiopia (0.7%)
3. Nepal (0.9%)
4. Madagascar (1.0%)
5. Rwanda (1.1%)
6. Chad, Cambodia (1.5%)
7. Bangladesh (1.7%)
8. Malawi, Congo, Cameroon, Burkina Faso (2.4%)

The Asian and African countries are no surprise. Have you ever seen a fat Asian or a fat black person outside of America? Probably not.

Where are the fattest women? The top 10 countries are:

1. Tonga (74.9%)
2. Tuvalu (67.6%)
3. Samoa (66.3%)
4. Cook Islands (65.7%)
5. Kiribati (58.9%)
6. Nauru (56.0%)
7. Kuwait (47.9%)
8. Saudi Arabia (43.8%)
9. Egypt (39.5%)
10. Iraq (38.2%)

The Pacific Island countries are expected, but the Middle Eastern countries are interesting. I do remember seeing a lot of fat women in Iraq though. It was like the moment they got married, their weight quadrupled. They also seemed to skip from age 15 to age 70, which is probably because they seem to do all of the manual labor, which you would think they would keep them skinny, but apparently not. The United States ranks number 14 on the list at 33.2%. Germany is number 36 on the list at 21.1%. Switzerland is number 91 on the list at 7.8%.

How do the countries with the skinniest men compare to the skinniest women?

1. Vietnam (0.3%)
2. Laos (0.7%)
3. Indonesia (1.1%)
4. India (1.3%)
5. Eritrea (2.3%)
6. China (2.4%)
7. South Korea (2.8%)
8. Japan (2.9%)
9. Philippines (3.0%)
10. Thailand (3.3%)

Again, Asians are the skinniest people. What about the fat men?

1. Cook Islands (57.4%)
2. Tonga (56.1%)
3. Nauru (50.3%)
4. Tuvalu (46.6%)
5. Samoa (44.9%)
6. Kiribati (41.7%)
7. Kuwait (36.4%)
8. Nicaragua (33.1%)
9. United States of America (31.1%)
10. Saudi Arabia (28.3%)

Again, similar to the women, but with the US breaking the top 10. Germany is number 23 at 20.5%, and Switzerland is number 64 at 8.7%.

I had a discussion about this with my dad a few days ago, and he commented on how many more fat people, not just overweight, but obese people, there are than there were when he was younger. He seemed to think that it has to do with a lack of pride, which I can definitely see.

You definitely still see plenty of people who are proud to be American, but their reasons for being proud of American are lacking. Once upon a time, America was a nobody and had a chip on its shoulder. Being American meant you had to work your ass off because you had something to prove to the rest of the world. Americans have inherited the fruits of our ancestors' labor and just take for granted that that's just how it is. There's a saying, "If you don't use it, you lose it." I'm pretty sure it is meant for foreign languages, but it can be applied to anything, including greatness. If you want America to be great, make it great, don't just let it be great, because it won't make itself great.

The moral of the story is, the US is in the top 10 fattest countries for men, and not far behind for women. I could get into our ranking in education and other areas too, but those are for a different post. Get your lazy ass up and work. Not just to get it done, but like you have something invested in it. Take pride in yourself and all that you do.