I think the problem America has is excess. Whether it’s the crazy diet fads or overeating, it’s always an extreme state of being. Americans are still too hung up on weight – our models and celebrities have to be almost skin and bones or they’re mocked for being fat. The key to any healthy lifestyle is moderation… it makes for much less stressful life!

A new study co-authored by the State Health Commissioner suggests the obesity rate in the United States is higher than previously thought. Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses the Body Mass Index to calculate how overweight Americans are. The report finds the BMI to be inaccurate, resulting in false negatives, especially for older women.

The CDC estimates a 20% obesity rate in the country, with 12 states having rates higher than 30%. But the study found the BMI misclassifies 39% of Americans as "overweight" rather than "obese." Doctors suggest lowering the parameters of the BMI and using scans to more effectively determine body fat. What do you say?

What's your reaction to the news that more Americans may be obese than previously thought? What do you think are the main contributors to weight problems in America? Should the CDC use a different formula to calculate obesity rates?

Send your thoughts using the link above.

No proper food education.how many people hav any idea how many calories they NEED+wat kind of food not to be clinically undernourished+overweight. Agro biz geared 2 junk food.organic+local farmers need support.

So what are they going to do about it?
What do these people and their families eat?

Why is this such a high priority with all of the problems we have?
Do they not have anymore responsibilities to be taken care of.

EXAMPLE: DON'T THEY HAVE TOXIC PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOLS THAT NEED TO BE TAKEN CARE OF? I HAVE MANY MORE BUT YOU GET MY DRIFT. HEY YOU ALL DON’T FORGET THE BED BUG PROBLEMS.

maxxiee
mp

Study after study indicates that the main culprit for developing fat is eating high caloric foods and sipping on sugary drinks, cutting back on these and exercising more would greatly improve people's waistlines and health.

Felix
Bay Ridge

My scientific opinion is that people eat too much of the wrong food and exercise too little, not that I’m endorsing mindless exercise like you get in the gym. I’m talking about normal exercise in connection with the day’s activity.

One factor might be television. You can see the correlation: the more television programs that are available, the more obese people get. This is exacerbated by the ready availability of takeout food of all kinds. Cooking at home is becoming more and more a thing of the past.

Joe
Port Richmond

THE WORD NO IS THE SINGLE MOST REASON FOR OBESITY. IT IS NOT UTTERED ENOUGH BY THE OBESE PERSON AND THE PEOPLE THEY LIVE WITH.

SAY NO TO THE INSANE CALORIC INTAKE AND YOU WILL CAST A VOTE OF NO TO DIABETES, HEART PROBLEMS AND EARLY DEATH.

JOE
BAY TERRACE

This is not a surprise, nor is it a surprise how many people get all kinds of cancers and illnesses.

The supermarket is one toxic wasteland of chemical concoctions called Food.

Look whats in bread, what is in a healthy choice like soup, frozen food, any food, if its not modified, engineered, then its concoted in a lab of some sort. BPA, BHT, BHA, MSG, Nitrates, Nitrites, Zeranol, Phytoestrogen, etc etc etc

Start giving little kids juice, yogurt, bread with high fructose corn syrup and see what becomes of them in 10, 20 years.

Generic drugs also contain some sort of junk and some cause weight gain.

So much for health.

In order to afford good healthy real food and medication, one needs real money.

Esmerelda
East Village

The rising rate of obesity and related diseases should come as no surprise, given the toxic culture of food in which we're complacently entrenched. Until we make better eating choices for ourselves and our children (e.g., even the American Cancer Society now advises eating less meat), we won't be able to reverse the trend -- the government can't do this for us! Hippocrates once said, "He who does not know food, how can he understand the diseases of man?"

Jennifer
Midtown

There are so many issues dealing with the cause of this epidemic that it doesn't do justice to the solution if you simplify it as such.

Our food is less nutritious than it was a generation ago and our brains are designed to realize this lack of micronutrients. We eat more calories to get the same nourishment, hence the weight gain.

On average, per Marion Nestle of NYU, our country imports, manufactures, and grows over 3900 calories per person. Food not sold will go to waste. What do you think the food industry does to increase our consumption? They make food more calorie dense with fat and sugar, (HFCS for one), so that even if we think we're eating better, without understanding food labels, we're actually consuming more calories than we should need.

Marty
Manhattan

I can't count the number of times I've seen parents feed fast-food chain French fries and other vile things to children in strollers. They are setting the children up to crave the taste of salt and fatty food. So then you see the elementary-school children with 2 or 3 chins etc. etc. Parents need to think about the patterns they are starting when they feed that garbage to their young children.

Faye
Brooklyn

Being a student, I know a few people who are known as 'obese', but that doesn't mean you should treat them differently. They are people like us, after all, and they just have issues. But I think not only the amount of food eaten or the sugar or calories in the food affect obesity, but also the rate at which you eat something. If you're binging, you might gain more weight as your body is getting more calories at a faster rate. I think the best way to stop obesity is slowly cut down on the junk food and inch closer toward a healthy lifestyle. Remember your veggies!
Sneeha

The gov't plays a huge role in the obesity epidemic.

Why? Well, let's start with profits. Why is anyone surprised by the declining health of our nation??

The food we eat is unnatural, although, we are led to believe otherwise.

Why is McDonald's even permitted to sell their product and actually label it as food is entirely unethical. One may say, well, there are healthy options, and, yes, there is. But, the healthy options are limited and a salad is not to satisfy a hungry kid.

So, what do we need? We need better regulation over what we eat, more stringent scrutiny as to what is legally allowed to be considered or called food. So, am I surprised NO, of course.

Healthy food is expensive, and the bad food is cheap, and is addictive, just the way the money makers want it!!!

Linda
Chelsea

The Government should make sure that the food we eat is clean and safe, but should NOT tell us what of clean, safe foods we should or should not eat "for own good." We don't need a Nanny State, thank you.

Frances
East Village

My fiance is 5'7 and weighs 205lbs. According to the BMI, he is overweight, and has been told this by doctors. But if you ever look at him, he is built like a boxer. Big boned and very muscular aside a small beer belly.

I know women always complain and nag that they're fat. You ever deal with a man getting upset because doctors tell him he's overweight, yet is in near perfect health, just because he has muscle mass? It isn't fun. The current BMI standards should be changed.

Anne
Fresh Meadows

1) We should stop being politically correct on everything, and tell it like it is so that people wake up. It shouldn’t be called obesity, it should be called what it is: Horribly FAT!!!

2) As every shopper probably knows, healthy food in any supermarket costs a lot more than the bad sugary, salty stuff. Prices have to change to make healthy food more affordable.

3) We need a $5 per gallon “walking tax” on gas so that people will stop driving 2 or 3 blocks to pick up their 6-pack of beer or sugary soda and fattening chips.

4) Since about 20 to 25 million people converge on Manhattan during the regular workweek, cars should be totally banned from Manhattan Monday through Friday to force walking.

5) If people aren’t going to be forced to lose weight via penalizing their wallets (the only thing they understand), then the MTA definitely needs to hire new companies to build their buses and trains with much, much wider seats. Everyday, when I ride the subway or bus, I get crushed by the horribly FAT people who try to squeeze their gigantic bodies into seats that are one-third their size.

6) Start taxing fattening foods to make them more expensive than healthy foods, and get restaurants to stop serving those GIGANTIC three person portions. I haven’t been able to finish one single meal I’ve ordered in any restaurant in the last decade; when I was a kid, people were usually embarrassed to ask for a “doggie bag” for your leftovers, if any, but nowadays, it’s so common for people to NOT finish their meal, that the waiter almost has your “doggie bag” ready without even asking you.

7) Who’s the genius who knocked off so many of the exercise periods in schools, we always had a gym class that EVERY STUDENT had to pass, and I understand that they have all but disappeared. Right off the bat, this starts kids off to a sedentary lifestyle.

8) The MTA should charge fares based on a person’s weight. Start building scales into the turnstiles, so that your MetroCard is charged based on the amount of FAT you’re dragging around; if you’re going to take up two seats, then pay for them.

There’s plenty more, but that’s enough for now.

Walter
New Dorp

Blame the FDA. Blame the government that because big corporations subsidize their campaign, allow to poison the population with food that are highly toxic.

The reality is the government know peoples with low income can not afford to buy healthy foods. What the government do is in stead of prohibiting those poisonous food in the market, it focus in adding labels that even with a Ph D in medical sciences you can understand what it means.

Pablo

I'm with Pablo!!! What is disgusting is that they feed the kids "pink slime" in our schools! If we were really concerned about what we eat, we need to cut out the pink slime!

Christopher
Hell's Kitchen

The simple fact is with people today...we have become lazy because of our technology. We allow our text messaging gadgets to think for us and people still drive while doing it or walk down the sidewalk bumping and crashing into each other. We don't want do things by hand so we allow the tools to do the work of the person which puts us out of work. We buy fast food because it is easy and convenient so we don't have to slave over the oven. Maybe the Japanese were right by saying we are fat and lazy and given these results...people will jsutify their irresponsibility by saying that's the way it is.

Walter
Jackson Heights

I believe Mrs Obama has been trying to talk to all of us about healthy eating (plant a garden), exercise (walk-it is free)......we are going to end paying for the hospital care of the gentleman caller who said he is 350lbs.

Diane

Food proportions are gigantic! Order out and one order serves 2-3 people. To eat healthy is expensive as well.

Barbara
Flushing

It's a rising problem. I work in the medical field (23 years) and majority of health care representatives are obese.

It's a choice to eat poorly and/or not exercise.

Parents have control what there kids eat and they don't do their job to make sure kids eat healthy.

James
Astoria

The reason why there are so many obese people is because they don't respect portions. If they all have discipline and eat in small amounts then that can be controlled. I eat everything! Junk food, hamburgers, everything, and I am not fat.

Secondly, stop blaming the fast food restaurants, it's just that there are too many glutton
people out there.

Saveeta

I am a trainer. Its really sad what people EAT its so true the SAD Diet is the Standard American diet! You have to eat organic healthy whole real foods nothing artificial especially splenda equal diet soda. They are all dangerous and you have to exercise. Trust me I am a trainer I put my clients on my diet and they lose weight. If you just workout you will see results in the beginning but if you don't ultimately change your diet you will gain back.

Danielle

It contributes to all three factors listed. Not eating right and not knowing how (being knowledgeable) to eat it will make u gain weight Exercise is the most important factor of living longer even if we are lazy. Again knowledge

Economy. People need to learn where to spend their money. If ur poor. Then spend the ebt card on healthy food. U can afford to eat bad on ebt. A lot of people have ebt. Some spend it healthy wise.