Who are you calling fat?
The first step to beating obesity is admitting you have a problem.
Houston, we have a problem.
In a 2012 study by TNS/BMRB, only 7% of obese men selected the term “obese” to describe their body weight.
And the 2017 Consumer Health Mindset survey found that about one-third of obese American adults self-report their health as being excellent or really good.
Maybe there’s a shortage of full-length mirrors in today’s homes, but most obese men just don’t see themselves as being obese.
Key to this self-delusion is what passes for “normal” today in terms of body shape and weight.
What is average or typical is quickly accepted as normal.
The average British man is five foot ten (1.77m) and weighs 13st 3lbs (83.9kg). That gives him a body mass index (BMI) of 26.5 and means he is overweight (a BMI of 25-30 is overweight, 30 or more is obese).
This distortion increases further once you reach middle age. According to the Health Survey for England (2016), only 22% of English men aged 45-54 are a healthy weight. 46% are overweight, 29% are obese, and 2% are very obese (a BMI of 40 plus).
We inhabit a world in which being overweight is now the norm. For middle-aged men, being obese is more normal than being a healthy weight.
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.
According to the 2018 The State of Obesity report by the Trust for America’s Health, 37.9% of American men are now obese. Figures from two years earlier put age-adjusted mean BMI at 29.1, meaning the average American male is now knocking on the door of obesity. So Stateside, what now passes for normal verges on obesity.
And given that so many of us are overweight, it’s never been easier to get away with carrying those extra pounds. A man standing five foot ten and weighing 15 stone doesn’t look obese to most eyes. He looks, well, normal. Out of shape maybe, but not obese. He might have been considered obese 20 years ago, and would have been 30 years ago, but not today. Today he’s surrounded by so many other men carrying extra weight that he looks normal.
Overweight has become the norm, and obese has become the new overweight.
"I'm not overweight. I'm just big-boned."
Few of us fully appreciate what obesity even looks like today. In most people’s eyes, you’ve got to be very fat to be obese, as in sumo wrestler very fat. My 600lb Life fat. When I had a BMI of 28.5, I didn’t see myself as anywhere near obese. Carrying a bit of extra weight, yes, but nowhere near obese. I even fooled myself into thinking the extra weight made me look more of a geezer. I saw myself as Phil Mitchell in Eastenders when in reality I was morphing into Peter Griffiths from Family Guy.
Back in 2006, the BBC stopped men in the street, weighed them, and then told them what weight category they fell into according to their BMI. Some of those who were told they were obese didn’t believe it.
“No way. I don’t agree with that - it’s crazy,” said one man. “I know I’m carrying a few extra pounds, and I am having a cheeseburger for breakfast, but obese? I’m just eating this to kill a bit of time before an appointment. I don’t usually have a burger for breakfast.”
A cheeseburger for breakfast and shocked he’s obese.
You couldn’t make that shit up.
Another man said: “Obese! Not even just overweight? That is a bit of a shock. I think it’s ridiculous, I’m six foot four inches so I’m never going to be as light as a feather. I think my weight is fine for my height.”
Then there was the guy who played the “big-boned” card. “I know I am packing a few extra pounds, but I don’t consider myself obese. I’m big-boned, but the index doesn’t take that into account and it should. I do drive a cab which means I’m sitting on my bum all day but I wouldn’t say I was unhealthy.”
Yet another man wasn’t having any of it either. “I know I’m carrying a little bit of extra weight but I’m not obese. I think I am a fair weight for my height and build. The BMI doesn’t take into account things like muscle, which is important.”
Going on about muscle and looking like he hadn’t seen the inside of a gym since leaving school and now the wrong side of forty.
Houston, we have a bigger problem: nobody thinks we have a problem.
More recently, I came across a video, again on the BBC’s website (I need to get out more), featuring a young man who was sharing his experiences of going to a gym. “Just a few months ago, I was at my biggest, weighing over 19 stone. Since I’m only five foot five inches, this meant I was quite overweight.”
Fair play to the lad for plucking up the courage to do something about his weight problem, but he wasn’t “quite overweight”. He was morbidly obese. In 2014, research funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research found that a man in his twenties or thirties with a BMI of 35 or more would live seven to ten years less than a man of similar age with a BMI in the healthy weight range. At his biggest, our friend had a BMI of 44.6.
Collectively, we need to man up and smell the fat.
The first step to beating any problem is to admit you have a problem. And that's true of obesity and it's true of being overweight.
By making your way to Belly, it looks like you've taken that first step.
Welcome to the Battle of the Bulge.
REFERENCES
- The 2018 State of Obesity Report pdf (Trust for America’s Health (TFAH))
Article last updated: 29th January 2021
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