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Average American is 1 inch taller, 25 pounds heavier than 40 years ago

No major surprise here:

LINKY

Quote:

Average American is 1 inch taller, 25 pounds heavier than 40 years ago

WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans are getting a little taller and a lot fatter.

Adults are roughly an inch taller than they were in the early 1960s, on average, and nearly 25 pounds heavier, the government reported Wednesday. The country's expanding waistline has been well documented, though Wednesday's report is the first to quantify it based on how many pounds the average person is carrying.

The reasons are no surprise: more fast food, more television and less walking around the neighbourhood, to name a few. Earlier this year, researchers reported that obesity fuelled by poor diet and lack of activity threatens to overtake tobacco use as the leading preventable cause of death.

In 1960-62, the average man weighed 166.3 pounds. By 1999-2002, the average had reached 191 pounds, according to the National Center for Health Statistics - part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - which issued the report. Similarly, the report said, the average woman's weight rose from 140.2 pounds to 164.3 pounds.

The trends are the same for children, the report said: Average 10-year-olds weighed about 11 pounds more in 1999-2002 than they did 40 years ago. So expect the next generation of adults to be even heavier than they are today, said Dr. Samuel Klein, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

"All the kids who are obese now will become obese adults," Klein said. "What will happen with the next generation of adults is really scary."

Obesity can increase the likelihood of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other health problems.

The report also documented an increase in weight when measured by body mass index, a scale that takes into account both height and weight. Average BMI for adults, ages 20 to 74, has increased from about 25 to 28 over the 40-year span.

Anyone with a BMI of 25 and up is considered overweight, and those with BMIs of 30 or more are considered obese.

At same time, though much less dramatically, Americans are getting a little bit taller.

Men's average height increased from 5 feet 8 inches in the early 1960s to 5 feet 9½ inches in 1999-2002.

The average height of a woman, meanwhile, went from just over 5 feet 3 inches to 5 feet 4 inches.

The height trends begin in childhood and are evident through adolescence and into adulthood, said the report's author, Cynthia Ogden, an epidemiologist at the National Center for Health Statistics. Taller children grow up to be taller adults.

Height, while determined largely by genetics, is also influenced by childhood nutrition. Adults in the early 1960s grew up during tougher times when they may not have had enough to eat, Klein said.

"Things were not so plentiful here," he said. In recent years, there have been "very few starving kids." On the contrary, many are being overfed.

The weight gain trend is typically reported as what portion of all children or all adults are overweight. Those numbers are also alarming. In 1999-2002, 31 per cent of adults had a BMI of 30 or over, considered obese. That's more than double the rate in the early '60s.

About two in three adults in 1999-2002 were considered overweight.

The explanations are numerous. Among them:

-Portions have grown bigger, and people go out to eat more.

-Junk food that stays fresh for a long time is more readily available. It's much easier to find a bag of cookies or potato chips in the cupboard than an orange, which may go bad in a few days.

-Adults and children watch more television and spend more hours in front of a computer than ever before, sitting around rather than burning more calories in some physical activity.

-At work, people are more likely to stare at a computer screen than do something physical. And it's easier to send an e-mail than get up and walk over to see someone in person.

-Even if someone wants to walk to a store, it's not always possible since many communities lack sidewalks and sometimes crossing a street means dodging six lanes of traffic.

-Fear of crime in some neighbourhoods keeps both children and adults inside.

Wednesday's report also found:

-Among men, the increase in weight was most dramatic among older men: Those 60 to 74 were nearly 33 pounds heavier in 1999-2002 than men that age in the early 1960s.

-Among women, the difference was starkest among the young. Women ages 20 to 29 were nearly 29 pounds heavier.

-For children, the average weight for a 10-year-old boy went from 74.2 pounds in 1963 to nearly 85 pounds by 2002. The average girl's weight went from 77.4 pounds to nearly 88 pounds.

-It was the same for teens. An average 15-year-old boy weighed 135.5 pounds in 1966, which rose to 150.3 pounds by 2002. The average teen girl's weight went from 124.2 pounds to 134.4 pounds.

The report, Mean Body Weight, Height and Body Mass Index, United States, 1960-2002, was based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which uses actual body measurements.

I think this is sad. It's sad to think that people just don't care about their health. Clearly, over the years, Americans have just let themselves go. Take the easy way out.... And in the long run we all pay. Sure, I'm in pretty good health. I eat pretty good and take care of myself, but even I pay. What I mean is I pay because of rising health costs. Most health problems can be easily avoided if people would just take care of themselves. You can't blame the government for people not eating right, smoking, drinking, doing drugs, and not getting off their asses. All of which destroys our health. Hell, we destroy our bodies so why shouldn't we have to pay high prices for health care? Someone please tell me that doesn't make sense.... It makes perfect sense. And I don't want to hear it's because of fast food resauraunts... That's just crazy. All businesses have to market their product, and if people want to be stupid and fall for that shit.. Well, it's their own fault. So please, get educated and beat the system.... Don't be on the bad side of this statistic.

Something else that is sad to me is my girlfriend is 6'2", and she doesn't even weigh as much as an average female. (5'2" 164lbs) I weigh a lot more than an average male(230lbs), but I'm also 6'8" and work out. So I have more muscle than the average male, and I think we all know muscle weighs a lot more than fat. Most people never believe I weigh as much as I do. I usually have to get on a scale to prove I do weigh that much.

If you're curious to see where you're at on the BMI scale go here: BMI

Six foot two?

Six foot eight?

You two are HUGE!

:)

But seriously... it's interesting if you ever see a street scene in Asia (Tokyo is a good example). The younger people tower over the elderly. This is due to the increased amount of sugar and protein in their diets since WWII. It's been called the "McDonald's Effect". :)

It's also worth noting that this is a common, global phenonmen. People all over the world were smaller 50 or a 100 years ago. Our diets have changed such that we now grow much larger than we used to. This has a negative impact upon some (massive increase in obesity) and has disasterous repercussions for some ethnic minorities; aborigines in Australia, native Americans in America etc), with even more dramatic increases in obesity and diebetes.

Mr Mephisto

I'm not sure that diet has much to do with height increase (except maybe the growth hormones in milk...). I believe that the average male has been getting taller for a millennia. I think it may have more to do with health/sanitation/medicine (which up to the last few decades has been improving). Obviously the new diet is largely to blame for obesity and it will be interesting to see if average height levels off or even drops.
:

But I'm a good 3 feet taller and 175 pounds heavier than I was 40 years ago. :confused:

Oh wait

:D

Quote:

Originally Posted by JJRousseau

Diet has a direct link to height. As does general "healthiness".

Feel free to read the lengthy, but rather dry, paper A History of the Standard of Living in the United States by Richard H. Steckel of Ohio State University at http://www.eh.net/encyclopedia/?arti...dard.living.us

Allow me to quote some relevant passages.

Quote:

Two measures of health are widely used in economic history: life expectancy at birth (or average length of life) and average height, which measures nutritional conditions during the growing years.

Quote:

n the past quarter century, historians have increasingly used average heights to assess health aspects of the standard of living. Average height is a good proxy for the nutritional status of a population because height at a particular age reflects an individual’s history of net nutrition, or diet minus claims on the diet made by work (or physical activity) and disease. The growth of poorly nourished children may cease, and repeated bouts of biological stress -- whether from food deprivation, hard work, or disease -- often leads to stunting or a reduction in adult height.

the average height of native born American citizens has risen from 171.5cm in 1710 to 177cm in 1990 (Source: Stekel 2002 - cited at the above website).

There's plenty of research out there that shows the link between diet and height. There's also at least one book (The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700–2100. Europe, America, and the Third World) that addresses this issue.

Mr Mephisto

People are taller because artifical selection dictates it, and fetter because they're lazy bastards.

You're right Mr Meph. I misused the word "diet".

The better diet (quality and availability of food) that has made us taller over the past thousand years is only one part of a general improvment in health and social conditions. Those conditions still exist today. But the diet (specific choices of food consumption) of the last 40 years has made us fatter. So...... wil we continue to grow in height?

It is very well known that in all countries the people grow one or two inches every 20 or 30 years...

Actually, I just finished reading an article from the New Yorker that said American heights had gone up AND down in the last 200 years and was currently flat.

Hmm, I'm 6'8" and overweight, and constantly trying to lose the extra. I'm in the mid to upper 99th percentile of height in the US, and around 95th in weight.

Not me. I haven't grown an inch in forty years. I have, though, collected a few pounds ;-)

i backpacked japan this summer for a month or so...

the first thing i noticed when i arrived in LAX airport was "damn, we're fat". as snobbish as it sounds, i fairly disgusted with everyone for a day or two. now, i've got my fat-american blinders back on... bliss. :)

im not really surprised about the 25 pounds heavier. Actually i thought it would be more considering, now over 60% of the US is obese. Aparently being obese is being 30 or more pounds overweight.

"Humm, yes...here it is...According to this health chart, I should be a lot taller."