Yup.

The Federal Government loves you.

Just because you personally didn't tell them you wanted it doesn't mean others did not. They don't just put something in the marketplace and start advertising and selling it without someone telling them they want it.

Well, some people are fairly open to suggestion and can be swayed easily.

Indeed, just look at the 2008 election.

See, even for guys that go to the gym regularly, BMI isn't TOO far off. It's not totally accurate, but hardly anything that's generalizable is. For instance, if I let my diet go a bit and don't stay shredded, my BMI creeps up into overweight. But if I stay at a very low body fat, I can keep all my muscle mass and still be considered "normal" bodyweight, albeit at the higher end.

Part of the problem for guys who work out is that they think they need to weigh more than they actually do to maintain muscle mass or be "big." As for what that means for BMI, if the gov't is going to use it in some calculations, then there needs to be an exemption for people who teeter on the normal/overweight boundary pending a doctor's exam.

So you're telling me 50 years ago Americans only wanted healthy food, and then they just suddenly started wanting unhealthy food?

Bull ****ing shit.

Unhealthy food became more plentiful, easier to get and was promoted more.

Exactly. Enough people order Extra Cheese and the folks over at pizza hut got to thinking "you know people love cheese, how can this help us increase sales?" Then after a bunch of crap ideas that no one would like, someone says "what if we put cheese IN the crust?"

If you like pizza and you like cheese, simple addition would assume that you'll like pizza with cheese baked into the crust. Just because you never thought of having it doesn't mean you don't already have a desire for it.

I agree with GoChiefs on this. It's still up to the individual to resist temptation.

There's nothing much to sway. Your appetite already exists. They just have to make you feel good about your decision to indulge your desire.

You really don't understand this?

Like I said, I had no desire for popcorn when I sat down in that movie theater. I was thinking about the movie.

Suddenly I wanted popcorn.

BMI is wildly off for those of certain body types, as a host of professional athletes can tell you.

He gets it.

http://irishcalvinist.com/files/2006...mind-trick.jpg

You will buy cheese stuffed pizza

You will buy popcorn

You will eat fast food

You will attend the government mandated fat camp

Move along

I'm just more afraid they'll take BMI into account for raising premiums under a government plan. I work out and while I don't eat exceptionally well I don't eat awful either. Why should I be listed as overweight in some government database?

50 years ago, your mother was at home cooking and cleaning. Dad was out working. When dad came home, dinner was on the table. This used to be the way it worked for the majority of Americans.

Today, your mother and father (assuming they are together) are both out working. Neither has time to make meals at home, because neither is home.

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=9305

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I agree, but professional athletes are also in the EXTREME minority. And many bodybuilders that would be classified as obese are also on steroids, which isn't taken into account by BMI for obvious reasons.

I agree, which is why I think if they're going to include it in anything, there should be an exception pending a physical examination by a doctor.

I'm not arguing that the American lifestyle hasn't changed.

I'm only arguing that the change in the food industry is the reason we're fat.

Maybe the change in the lifestyle prompted the change in the food industry, but the change in the lifestyle isn't to blame. The food industry didn't HAVE to start being a bastion of giant portion sizes and processed crap. We didn't ASK it to become that.

It would be interesting to see obesity statistics in a few years for France. France used to be full of small bistros and corner markets, but have been slowly replaced more and more by McDonald's and large chain markets. I can almost guarantee there will be a corresponding increase in the obesity rate.

You don't have to be a professional athlete to have those body types. I was just using the Pros to point out that even those who are quite fit can fall under the "obese" category when BMI is being used.

It's a very poor method of analysis.

McDonald's existed before the obesity epidemic. Frozen foods existed then, too, as did advertising.

Your argument is lousy because you've flipped cause and effect.

Of course "we" did, through our purchasing their product. I suppose you could argue that the first crappy fast food joint was a roll of the dice, but no one forced all the people to shoe up and eat their product.

So your saying this whole Women's Rights Movement thing is to blame?

Bullshit. It enables people who choose to eat that way get fat.

Well shit, America didn't get fat in a year. The Bacon Ultimate Cheeseburger wasn't even around. Progress from normal burgers to disgustingly fattening greaseballs takes time.

As soon as McDonalds became successful, the ball started rolling. And slowly people became fatter and fatter and fatter.....

Rome wasn't built in a day and neither was the fattest country on earth.

People didn't sit in their houses and grill up three burger patties and six slices of bacon and four slices of cheese and put it on a toasted bun and serve it with 32 ounces of coke and a side of deep-fried potatoes before the fast food industry blew up.

And they DAMN sure didn't do it three times a week. Or worse, every day.

So no, people did not CHOOSE to eat that way. The option was presented to them, and the option was made extremely accessible.

What everyone desires most is to satisfy an emotional need. You've come to associate popcorn and other food with emotional satisfaction. They're selling you your own emotional emptiness and the desire to fill that emotional emptiness with popcorn.

Food advertising doesn't work on some of us because we have other lusts that advertising takes advantage of.

Show me popcorn all day long, and I just don't get it.

I wonder what my bmi is? Not that it is any business of our government.
I welcome measures such as this, they push us one step closer to realizing the very real threats we as a free people are facing and hopefully will wake us up in time.

The Bacon Ultimate Cheeseburger wasn't around and people still gained weight. McDonald's has been around for about 70 years, yet the obesity "epidemic" didn't really begin until about 10-15 years ago, and a fair part of the increase is due to the changes in how the classifications are determined. Try to wrap your mind around that.

I wish I could tell all my advertising clients that everyone is like GoChiefs, whatever I say in the ad he wants to go eat it.

Again, unless they were forced to eat it, they did choose to devour such meals.

Please note that I've no doubt that fast food has quite a bit to do with our obesity problem. But, I also acknowledge that there would be no supply without demand.

This may be the stupidest thing posted in the history of the internet.

I just checked my BMI. I'm ****ed.

By the way, it's not JUST about fast food. The portion sizes at sit down restaurants are ABSURD.

THEN DON'T ****ING EAT EVERYTHING IN FRONT OF YOU. Or, better yet, don't go out to eat as much.

Gochiefs is making me hungry.

Ed Hardy is entirely built on this concept.

Ed Hardy beer! Its Ed Hardy, so I must have it!

It's like those Krispy Kreme burgers. Probably just about nobody was eating Krispy Kreme burgers until places started advertising and selling them. Nobody was going to Krispy Kreme, buying donuts, taking them home, and putting beef and cheese between them.

Then some sadistic **** running that minor league team's concessions started doing it and now every fatass in America has to try it and you can buy it all over the place. And of COURSE it's tasty. What's not to like?

If people did not have the option to eat that much, or if it was harder to find such places, we would not have these problems.

The ultimate irony of this thread is that I'm fasting.

You sound like a dry alcoholic complaining that he's helpless because of the number of liquor stores and bars in town.

Possibly, but I find it stunning that you apparently assign NO blame to the fatties who are shoveling said food down their OWN throats.

They're definitely to blame. They have a problem. Just like drug addicts have problems. But if the drug dealers weren't out to make a buck...

http://humantestsubjects.com/wp-cont...3/facepalm.jpg

Good point. If we'd just ration the food, people would have less to eat. But you don't want government controls or anything.

But you are overlooking the point that no one is FORCING them to eat out, let alone eat fast food. They COULD just go to the grocery store and get a healthy meal (for less money). They don't.

If eating out and fast food was the only choice, I would be in 100% agreement with you.

It isn't.

You don't need the government in order to overcome your problems, GoChiefs.

I don't want the government to control the food industry. I'd like Quizno's to stop presenting Americans with the option to eat 2,000 calorie subs.

This and the fact that it's not a secret that fast food and that other crap isn't healthy, yet people still choose to eat it because they are want it. So since it's already not a secret that fast food/shitty food is bad for your health, whose to say the people that fit the profile would choose to take advantage of a government run weightloss program?

That's because it's easier for them to run through the drive thru.

Take away the drive thru and you force them to eat healthier.

Yep, HIPPA doesn't apply to the government I see. What a crock of shit.

That won't happen because there are Americans that choose to eat 2000 calorie subs when they know there are other options.

Yes, but if there was no 2,000 calorie sub on the menu, they would choose something else that was healthier. They would not go to the grocery store and assemble their own 2,000 calorie sub.

You want to FORCE people to eat healthier?

Absolutely. It's not as if people look to alternative methods of getting highs, or anything. Shit, if people were doing things like abusing legal products, or cans containing legal products to get high or something, your point would be shot to hell. Fortunately, since that's not happening at all, we can blame it all on the drug dealers.

True story. People were never killed before guns were invented, either.

No, I'm just explaining why people are fat.

Because there are drive thrus dispensing absurdly high calorie foods.

If you took away that option, there would be fewer fat people.

Or they could just go crazy and order two 1,000 calorie subs.

It's less efficient to get fat on turkey sandwiches than it is a bacon ultimate cheeseburgers.

It's less efficient to kill people with a spear than it is with a gun.

So now you want government intervention to tell people which particular animals are acceptable to eat?

This is incorrect.

So your mad at Subway for having a footlong sandwich option instead of only serving 6" even though people know that the footlong has twice as many calories?

And if there weren't people willing to consume such food, there would be no fast food.

FYP.

If I stand 50 yards away from you, how many spear chucks do you think I would need to kill you?

I bet I could kill you with a gun a lot quicker.

GoChiefs, can I presume that you used to consume a lot of fast food and do not now?

If so, what was the impetus?

Take 100 obese americans who love bacon ultimate cheeseburgers.

Now take away the bacon ultimate cheeseburger source.

How many do you think would sit at home and construct their own bacon ultimate cheeseburger?

I'm guessing less than 20.

I don't believe that for a second.

NO shit there!!! I'm changing my eating habits as we speak and it pisses me off how much more I have to spend now. And that is after lowering my portion sizes to eat 6 times per day instead of just 3-4.

I wanted to have sex.

There's the answer. Obama should implement a healthy living stimulus. Whores for weight loss. Get ACORN involved.

Quizno's isn't your problem. You are your problem.

I would guess more than that. Of course, they could create exactly the same thing at home. It would probably taste better, too.

Well, if you can throw a spear accurately, it will take one throw.

But the efficiency of weapon argument is way off topic.

Looks like former fat people are worse than ex-smokers when it comes to telling other people what they need to do.

ROFL I like the stackers at Burger King so I started making a version of them at home. I use turkey as a substitute though.

You think that healthy food is less expensive than unhealthy food?

I'd love to hear your reasoning.

Fresh food is more expensive. That doesn't mean you have to spend a lot of money to eat healthy.

Take 100 obese americans who love bacon ultimate cheeseburgers.

Now tell them how many calories are in it.

How many still order the bacon ultimate cheeseburger?

The majority.

If you have access to alternative shopping options like Farmer's Markets, etc - then I would tend to agree.

If a supermarket is your only realistic option - then I completely disagree.

I read a study once for a sociology class where foods that are considered healthy averaged over $18 per 1000 calories, while foods that are considered unhealthy such as cookies, chips, etc cost just under $1.50 per 1000 calories.

I'm in the same position as Guru. My wife and I have started eating healthier and cutting out chips, soda, cookies, etc. Our grocery bill has gone up over 70%.

Let's say a meal at McDonald's (one of those Angus burger combos) costs, what, $7.00?

You don't think that you could make a salad for $7.00?

If you mean "Every single one of them", you're right.

I actually spend a whole lot less when I'm eating well. When I'm on a binge I'll spend 15-20 a day on restaurant food, which comes out to around 500/month. When I'm eating primarily fruits and vegetables I usually spend around 300/month. Fresh stuff does cost more, individually speaking, but I don't buy/consume nearly as much of it when I'm doing things the right way.