Why so many Americans are overweight

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by Abe Sanz

According to the American Heart Association and the American Obesity Association over sixty-five percent of Americans are classified as overweight. This leaves thirty-five percent of American who are weight proportional to their height and age. Did you also know that being ten pounds over your ideal weight limit is considered to be overweight by most medical practitioners. Perhaps, we should reconsider what we put into our mouths and eat. The truth is statistically that 125 million adults are overweight, 60 million adults are obese and 10 million are severely obese and that's not counting overweight tourist who enter this country on a daily basis. The number of overweight individuals continue to add up onto the 300 million people that are already in the United States as of the 2006 census. This is a serious topic we should all address and discuss since we can not determine what are our normal weights are when it comes to body mass. The bottom line is that being over weight is hazardous to our health and can lead to other known diseases such as diabetes, skin disorders, heart failure, but it can even limit your mobility to move around and walk since your carrying excess body weight. That is why it is good to limit what your eating and eat healthier since we can not always follow what our doctor tells us from their weight and height proportion charts. It is so difficult to attempt to meet the guidelines of this chart that we will do almost anything that is possible to be at this ideal weight. Truthfully speaking, even though we all stop growing in height after a certain age, our food intake does not and as we grow with appetite so does our age and its ability to burn calories.

Do you know what weight is proportional to your height and age, perhaps your doctor can tell you or the latest medical journals might provide you with a more elaborate detail of your ideal body weight. As for myself I believe your ideal weight size is basically the size which your body is limited to before you begin having a pot belly, double chin, love handles and even those dreaded thunder thighs which we all don't desire. Yes, we all can use a pair of those if we don't monitor our calorie intake and body mass growth. Your probably asking yourself how do we reach this size and prevent our bodies from exceeding in body mass. Well its simple, eat in moderation, monitor your body mass and substitute cravings for a healthier source of nutrition. Here are three tip for all you dieters out there;

factors contribute to overweight

Well, there isn't just one thing that contributes to the amount of overweight people.

1. Lifestyle: Many people have a fast paced lifestyle and have no time to cook anything healthy. They resort to fast food to satisfy hunger. Eating that stuff once in a while, as a treat, is fine but not on a daily basis. It can make you unhealthy one way or another

2. Prices: Do you notice the price trends of unhealthy foods to those healthy? A bix box of Captain Crunch could cost around $3.00 but when you get around a small box of All-Fiber cereal, the price tag reads $5.00. It's alot cheaper to make the artificial sweeteners in foods, and they are able to price it low.

3. Awareness: Alot of people are just not aware of what they consume on a day to day basis. Some just see food and eat. You need to take the time to look on the back of the box or something. It might make you cringe as to what is in some of the stuff most eat.

4. Technology: With the internet as popular as ever, I know from personal experience that I love to spend time on myspace. I'm a teen so i just like to talk to friends on there. Also, television sucks you in. It prevents you from really wanting to go outside and just play.Sure it might sound childish to play outside, but at least you'll be burning calories.

5. Growing Families: This ties in to the money problem. You won't be able to keep giving your children All Fiber cereal and other healthy stuff if you are just scraping by. The healthy stuff is too overpriced and it somehow needs to be lowered.