September 24, 2024 Share Obesity is high and holding steady in the U.S., but the proportion of those with severe obesity — especially women — has climbed since a decade ago, according to new government research.
The U.S. obesity rate is about 40%, according to a 2021-2023 survey of about 6,000 people. Nearly 1 in 10 of those surveyed reported severe obesity, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. Women were nearly twice as likely as men to report severe obesity.
The overall obesity rate appeared to tick down vs. the 2017-2020 survey, but the change wasn’t considered statistically significant; the numbers are small enough that there’s mathematical chance they didn’t truly decline.
I always think about how obesity creates a negative chain reaction in health outcomes, and then I think about how America's healthcare system is nothing but a network of negative chain reactions. It doesn't take much political theory to understand it's unsustainable.
The thing I find must upsetting about obesity in America is that it's a considered a failure on the Indvidual (like everything is) and because of that they don't deserve help. The popular response and institutional response to obesity is literally just "Go on a diet Fat-ass!". That's it.
It's an iron-clad thought-terminating cliche 
. They're fat, they're fat because they ate too much, it's their problem, go the gym loser. I don't need to empathize with them at all because they did it to themselves. Boom! Done!
You don't have to do any more investigation or thought on why a nation-wide issue exists. It's their fault because they are bad people. Of course, the same applies to just about every major public social issue in America. Especially Poverty and Addiction. It's the same logic chain for people. It's a "you" problem, and it won't happen to them because "I'm special, I'm built different, I'm uniquely blessed to overcome the hardships of my fellow man" (NOTE: You are in fact not built different.)
It's so stupid that Amerikkka cannot even parse the idea of public health. It's truly one of the most vile morally bankrupt nations in history.
One of the most horrid misuses of scientific concepts by Redditors is chanting "Calories In Calories Out" at people struggling to lose weight. It's the health equivalent of this.
It's like telling an alcoholic to stop drinking
Just have more willpower it's easy
Exactly dude! It's horrible and really just reduces a person to math and that's the most dehumanizing thing ever. I hate the word "just". "'Just' go on a diet", "'Just' get a better", "'Just' do X", "'Just' stop doing Y". I hate it so much. It's so reductive and erases all the friction that comes along with being an existing person. I hate that shit bro.
Same, as a personal story I've been trying to build muscle and eventually bench 225 so I can say with full confidence that there is a conspiracy to make fitness a luxury for the idle rich.
Let's look at some of the most basic lifestyle traits. Walkable cities are for rich people and some people are stuck in car-dependent podunk 'towns'. This means a good chunk of the population might as well be barred from getting enough steps in. It's literally a thing where if someone is ever lucky enough to go on vacation, they will get told "practice your walking".
If you're poor but lucky enough to have a job, porky will do everything in his power to make sure you're too busy to even think about the gym. You wake up in the ass crack of dawn, have to battle busy traffic (some people even commute an hour both ways daily) get worked to the bone and have to battle busy traffic again only to have enough time to prepare yourself for the next day. Try getting any exercise in, let alone time for hobbies, reading, or anything that makes life worth living. But many people also have to deal with having two full-time minimum wage jobs because employers collectively refuse to pay more than minimum wage. I'm mooching off my parent's family plan to the gym right now as I'm struggling with underemployment, so thankfully I have that privilege, but many people don't have that luxury. Also, why WOULD a capitalist country without universal healthcare want a healthy workforce? That's "leaving money on the table", a healthy population might pay less in insurance and rely less on pharmaceuticals among other things, a healthy population is bad for the economy.
"Just ________, simple"
is a cultural 
and it may take decades for it to wither and die, if ever.