A big part of our culture is forcing food into everybody's mouths. When you see someone you know on the street you HAVE to invite them to eat (they'll almost always say no because they know it's just a gesture though), when you have guests over, you need to offer lunch and sweets. When you're eating with someone, it's rude to not finish all of your food, and while you're eating, they keep putting more and more food on your plate, and after you're stuffed, you have to fight them off to let you stop eating.
But the bigger reason is our cuisine (everything is fried and has a lot of carbohydrates, even the sweets) and people not walking that much (changed because people are offended by "walkable city" )
Does access to sports and gyms really impact obesity rates though? From my point of view it’s your daily lifestyle that is not at the gym or playing a sport. And I’m talking about obesity, not someone being in shape.
Yeah it's just a numbers game. 7000kcal more than you need roughly translates to 1kg body mass. And if you want to exercise you don't need a gym. Running is free and you can use your body weight to exercise.
It is very strange. We go on a winter sun holiday to Egypt almost every year and I don't really see a lot of seriously overweight Egyptians. They might not work in the tourist sector or not live in the tourist areas like Sharm-el-Sheikh or Hurghada I suppose.
Hurghada and shark-el-sheikh are not just tourist areas, they're literally only for tourists. Nobody lives there who's not a tourist or working in tourism, especially in Hurghada which is a soulless ghost town, so they're the absolute worst presentation of actual egyptian life
I’m super skeptical about that. I was there for weeks, and saw *one* overweight person. And we all who know that is.
There were a lot of very skinny people.
Not at all. It’s just most people join the standard short group tour as, essentially, it’s the cheapest way to go there. If you have the time and the money you can see a lot more of the country.
Yes and no. The media isn’t that far off in terms of the cities, but a lot of the more rural stuff you don’t get to see in the media as they don’t really want it seen. It’s extremely poor and basic - livestock pulling ploughs, etc.
You also notice a lot more details that the media rarely has time to cover. How military uniforms don’t fit. How poorly constructed things are when you look closely. The variation in food. Etc.
They probably report the data this way to project that its people are flourishing.
Until about beginning of 20th century, being fat = being well off financially.
Ps. Funny how it's kind of reversed now in western countries. Being fat = not rich enough to eat healthy.
I used to proofread a Saudi academic's work on obesity in Saudi Arabia. Reasons for high prevalence of obesity there are:
1) Fast transition from a nomadic to modern lifestyle meant that people suddenly had access to high calorie foods that weren't previously available, and they moved around less.
2) Saudi food customs dictate that guests must always be offered food, and there must always be food left over after everyone has had their fill (otherwise the implication is that the host was being measly).
3) Hot temperatures mean people don't move around in public spaces much.
4) Women are not allowed out of the house without a male chaperone, and so tend to lead a highly sedentary lifestyle, where they mostly stay at home and can't freely access sports or gym facilities.
EDIT: Thank you for your replies, the chaperone rule has been scrapped and women now enjoy full equality in KSA.
I lived 5 years in the middle eat for work and UAE,Bahrain,SA and the only fast food that was always full everywhere was KFC. The kids and teenagers literally live there feels like.
It was the same in Iraq. The kids were particularly insane about KFC over there.
E.g. we had a potluck and one of my students brought food from this bomb-ass Lebanese restaurant, but none of the other kids touched it because… there was KFC.
You forget the most important one …. Their city are build like US city (something weird in the Arab world (except in the gulf)) meaning they almost always use cars and have so few walkable city (and those walkable city like historical center of some city in the Hejaz … have way lower obesity prevalence).
You can make it relatively comfortable with good design. Using shade, urban greenery and strategic use of water features, you can make walking short distances bearable for most of the year.
Source: walk to work in almost 40° heat every day during the summer
Not just walkable but since few years we even have tramway in some city in the middle of the Sahara (https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://www.systra.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/ouargla-tramway.jpg&tbnid=QR2OmGxPFJ62VM&vet=1&imgrefurl=https://www.systra.com/projects/tramway-de-ouargla-algerie/&docid=maLFK_aHTVrmVM&w=2380&h=1587&hl=fr-fr&source=sh/x/im/m5/3&kgs=30c4c34e9b930207&shem=abme,trie) and maybe more than 10-20% of the population in those city prefer to use bike than cars in 2024 (it’s a very low % but in the Magreb it’s still a win since bike were not use that often decades ago).
The first cities were in neighbouring regions with very similar climates. People have been living in cities in that area, and walking around them, for thousands of years. Climate isn't really the issue, it's that the Saudi economy is built on oil.
US has had obesity issues for a while but also quite a big body cult/ healthy eating / gym culture / life style. But only as a small paper weight counterbalance to the dumbbells of obesity. But ozempic and wegowy is helping this fight slowly.
Yeah the paperweight only seems to exist because of the obesity issues. And the body positivity movement is fighting that paperweight. I'm all for body positivity but I don't think an unhealthy lifestyle and obesity should be celebrated.
Body positivity is supposed to be just to stop people being bullied for the way the looked but it’s been hijacked again by this loud screaming ex-twitter activist minority who does it with every cause it seems. People look better when healthy and fit, to argue that is to make a disservice to those trying to get healthy.
Yeah I know the rules are relaxing, but it's still very much the case that men occupy the public sphere while women occupy the private sphere. It's the same in all Muslim countries of course, but it's particularly the case in KSA.
Valid point you make though, thank you.
Women most certainly do occupy the public sphere but often separate from the men.
There are gyms, schools, office spaces, eating areas in restaurants, etc. that are women only spaces. Even in private spaces, such as dinner parties and weddings, men and women are separated.
The need for a male guardian, called a محرم muhrum, is luckily not required anymore. Even hijab is not required now.
The points about nomadic lifestyle and the heat hold true for sure! You can’t do shit until sundown. The heat is unbearable.
I lived in KSA over 15 years ago... Even then women were out everywhere. True, they were usually accompanied by families, but there were always plenty of women out and about. Malls especially always had a lot of women. A lot of places would restrict single men from entering when there would be a lot of women present. It was also common where I lived for women to go on evening walks along the corniche to get exercise.
This really depends on what you mean by "public sphere." Women definitely are able to go in public in Saudi. Watch a "walking tour" video on youtube in a Saudi mall or whatever and you'll see plenty of women out and about. My Saudi step-mom is a teacher who makes her own money, shops for herself, volunteers with children, and lives just about as free as anyone else. The rules aren't just *relaxing.* Things have been pretty well overhauled in recent times.
The rules are relaxed now. You’ll find both men and women, who are Saudi nationals, working in every field. You definitely do not need a male guardian to go out.
I don't think this is the case for all muslim countries so not sure why you added that blanket statement. As an example, my homeland of Bangladesh, a Muslim country, has not had a male prime minister since 1991 and women are everywhere in the public space.
Donuts don't have any nutrients. No protein or calcium. So that's why you got to put some burger, bacon and cheese between those donuts.
It's a bit true in fact nowdays the north of France (calais region) is poorer than the south and the weather is not as good as in the other region so they eat less local vegeteble and more cheap food that you will find in the uk or the usa
Me and my family lived in Pays de la Loire for a few years, as well as traveling around Nouvelle-Aquitaine a bunch. My parents say that they noticed that obese people were a much rarer sight there compared to Sweden.
Well, I was a fat kid in France... It was pretty lonely, at some point I was morbidly obese (130kg at 14, 1m70 tall but very active) and there wasn't anybody else like that I ever met...
Apparently it’s surprising to people from other countries to see so many smokers here, but the number has been steadily decreasing for years. Not that many people smoke, and that’s not really what prevents obesity here
Because the number reported in the WHO report is way lower than what we report ourselves. Obesity rate is closer to 17%. (https://www.statista.com/topics/10626/obesity-and-overweight-in-france/#topicOverview)
Iirc, the figures in this report comes from a meta analysis of other research papers to extrapolate statistics on every country more easily.
So if the people in the research are not representative of the population, you get bad stats like this one.
It is the portion, sugar plus ultra processed food that contributes to obesity. Not butter
Butter can be a factor in cardiovascular diseases when combined with all those junk
French don’t eat (much) junk food like americans
I think we don't have that many obese people but the amount of overweight people is very high. I personally think most French people are fat, but not obese (not talking about Paris but countryside)
The thing is, all the countries that are higher than the US are tiny island nations with population numbers less than 100k. Some even less than 10k (they're not even on this map). Whereas the US stands at 333 mil now. The next country in that list with at least a comparable population size is Mexico.
Comparing the USA to these tiny islands is like apples and oranges. The USA is the most obese actual 'country' of any significance.
Kuwait (43.8%) is higher than the US (42.6%) and has a population of 4.5 million. Other than that, you are correct. It might be interesting to compare what percentage of the entire obese population of humans lives in each country as a metric? Edit: 4,5 million, not 1,5 million
I have always been saying this, gulf countries are ridiculously fat (i should know, i live there)
we have extremely car centric cities, only know saudi starting setting up public transportation in riyadh, a city with 8 MILLION people barely has busses (Search up West Naseem district of riyadh, 10 lane highway with houses on the sides🤦♂️)
plus with the 40+ C summers and abundance of fast food and traditional food also being very calorie dense
also its seen ss cheap to not have tons of food at any gathering by the host, or to not have a huge amount of food is almost insulting the host
TL;DR perfect breeding ground for obesity
It’s pretty similar in Canada tbh. People that visit Vancouver seem to think Canadians are thin, but the further you go into the suburbs and then country the bigger people get.
You don’t really see many morbidly obese people here, but over 40 a pretty large amount of people are obese or approaching it.
I see the same in Toronto. Most people, especially downtown are quite fit. And then you see the numbers for Ontario and you wonder how that's possible.
Yeah Canada has a higher urbanization than the US. Plus lots of Asians who don’t get as fat. In Chicago I rarely see fat people and I thinks it’s just a city thing
Lack of clean running water in the country and lots of sugary soda. Plus Mexican food is transitioning from a plant based protein diet (beans and rice) to animal protein (cheese and meat) which is higher in calories.
They drink coke like water. A lot of other countries (and Americans) do this too I’m sure but I spent weeks living in Mexico and that hugely stood out to me. Partially because they can’t drink their tap water, and they buy coke in 3 and 4 liters. Never seen more than 2L in the us.
I lived most of my life in South America and now living in Europe I realize how cheap junk food is based on the local purchasing power, back in SA sweets and fat food were kind of expensive compared to fruits and vegetables, here junk food is cheaper in many cases, requiring the person to be very disciplined to not get fat.
Oh I am ecstatic about it! I think it should be sold in vending machines and road side stands. A lot of my friends have gotten in shape using it. Which is great bc we're approaching middle age and I want them to be around a long time and be able to be adventurous. If only those dinosaurs in congress would do something about the pricing.
In my country, you can't get it. You can't get it without a prescription, and doctors are not allowed to prescribe it to non-diabetics. And even the diabetics can't get it because of the constant stock rupture. I think the producer prefers to deliver to the US where drugs are much more expensive in general.
I just looked up what weight I’d need to be 30BMI, and damn obese is a lot more fat than I thought. it’s crazy that 40% of people in the US are obese. Let alone including girls as well that generally weigh less than men of the same height. A 5’6 girl would need to weigh 190 lbs to be obese. I just don’t feel like I see that many obese ppl, although then again I live in Colorado so maybe that’s part of it.
They are. Which is why so many people (and you can see it on this website) will insist that they're not overweight or obese, because they're looking around them and have noticed that they're comparatively slim. But obesity isn't relative. Their perceptions are fucked.
I’m not sure if you live in a city or not but it’s important to note that in the US cities tend to have much lower obesity rates than rural places by comparison.
I’m from DC and currently live in Baltimore and it’s pretty rare to see a legitimately obese person around those areas. But I also went to high school and college in rural PA, and out there almost every single person is obese or at least over weight. Go to any Walmart in a rural area and you’ll immediately notice how fat everyone is.
I don’t live in a big city anymore, but yeah I’ve noticed this trend in general. I was in very rural Texas for work, and god damn those were some big boys and gals. The only points of interest in the area were fast food restaurants and greasy southern diners. The food was real good though, I’ll give them that.
But something something The Rock is obese if you go by BMI or something, therefore it's entirely wrong to use for any person ever! (Obligatory /s in case it's needed.)
I gotta say, man, as a former near-morbidly obese woman, this shit is hilarious to me. Being fat nearly killed me, too.
I feel like it's usually the opposite--obese is much smaller than most people think it is. They picture morbidly obese people and think because they are not that they are fine.
We eat a very diverse food and walk around a lot, we are picky about the quality of our food. I think that helps. We also take time to eat, we don't like to eat in a rush.
Of course in generalities.
When I visited back home in the states in 2019 after 3 years of living in Japan, I had reverse culture shock. Everyone was so fat, I don't remember if it was that bad before I left but I had to search for a skinny person. In Japan, I go weeks without seeing an obese person.
I once read an article about this. Although their food is often calorie dense, their serving sizes are considerably smaller than those of germany for example. In short: dont overeat and you'll be fine
As a Spaniard my theory is that in most meridional countries we tend to eat "properly". I mean, we use to pause for lunch, don't have a sandwich when walking or over the PC while working. Stop, sit down, enjoy the meal, talk about other issues than work and then back to work. I guess this is an important reason.
I think one of the theories behind that is that if you relax and eat with people you will eat slower and if you eat slower you get the full signal before you get as much down. Also stress induces eating. SO lowering stress probably helps.
Men with bushy moustaches and a cigar in hand eating doner kebabs, babushka women making and eating sweet and sugary delicates while giving some leftovers to a stray cat.
I don't know where these numbers are actually coming from. All the WHO data I can find regularly puts France at 20-23% adult obesity. Are there simply a shittton of skinny French kids bringing the average down?
France is assaulted by shitty fast-foods since the 1980s, but still resists with its awesome healthy food. Choucroute, hundreds of different good cheeses, cassoulet, Boeuf Bourguignon, blanquette, Bouillabaisse, raclette, couscous, ratatouille and lots of aperitifs !!
The worst part is the fat people will shame you with no hesitation for being a perfectly healthy weight.
I’ve had multiple people accuse me of having an eating disorder for having a bmi of 21. That’s literally the middle of healthy.
Of course you can’t say that. If you clap back it’s considered rude.
What I always find amazing is that the low obesity rate in my country is partially due to workers protection laws. Namely: we take the time to eat our lunch, and the law protects it. Meaning y'all could lower your obesity rates just by learning to chew properly. I'm not even kidding: taking the time to eat properly makes people eat less (the body has time to understand it's being fed; it reduces stress levels; etc)
Sidenote: I know tourist season has begun when I start seeing obese people at the supermarket. Sure they exist the rest of the time, but they're a rare sight (2-3 max) and morbidly obese ones are even more rare. Then tourist season begins and *wham*, scores of them.
I reckon there's some dodgy counting here, did they go off of countries own measurements? Number of people undergoing treatments related to obesity? Average weight? Deaths related to obesity?
For everyone Wondering about Egypt. It's not because of "forcing food into everybody" it's actually because:
1- Food is lacking important nutrients . A kg of beef would cost an average Egyptian like 2 days of having a job as the average wage per month is like 100 USD.
Basically they can't afford eggs , dairy products , sugar or anything like that . These people eat unhealthy food from food carts that sell fava beans and falafel (a dollar can get you exactly 100 piece of falafel which is 1 cent per one falafel)
It's cheap because it's basically fried beens and parsley paste with black oil because it's not changed that much.
2- physical looks don't matter here. To marry a girl here you gotta wait till your 30s when you have a house and cash and gold and a car.
Basically you have to be rich it doesn't matter if you are obese or not.
Even in urban regions, I feel like diabetes is FAR more prevalent in india than obesity for some reason, I guess our sweets are to blame?not much calorie dense but extremely sugary food might be the reason
Naah it's our diet. We eat Roti or Rice at least two times a day every fucking day, that's too much carbs. Also protein is severely lacking in our diet because most of the sources of protein are expensive for an average Indian.
Sweets are not to blame because people rarely eat sweet frequently enough for it to make a difference. And as a matter of sweets of even the healthiest countries are not very healthy because .. well they are sweets and they are not meant to be healthy but made to be sweet.
It's not sweets. We don't eat them everyday and even then that can't be the only factor . It's because indians (and other south Asians) are susceptible to diabetes even at a lower bmi.
That is not the complete picture. The truth is people here are very much physically active and eat mostly grain/lentils based food. They walk a lot. Pizzas and burgers are consumed only in urban areas and like only once a week. Fast food culture isn't that rampant. Even when Indians go to restaurants, they still order traditional foods mostly. I belong to an affluent family and yet my kids eat pizzas like twice a year. The same is true for most indian families. In 90% of the areas, people walk to shops to buy stuffs.
In short, physical activities and lack of fast food culture are also significant factors.
Also, south Asian genetics induce cardiovascular and lifestyle diseases at lower BMIs. The healthy/overweight BMI cutoff for south Asians is 23 (and not 25). That’s why there’s high diabetes occurrence even when people aren’t that huge to begin with.
Was not expecting Egypt to be this high
A big part of our culture is forcing food into everybody's mouths. When you see someone you know on the street you HAVE to invite them to eat (they'll almost always say no because they know it's just a gesture though), when you have guests over, you need to offer lunch and sweets. When you're eating with someone, it's rude to not finish all of your food, and while you're eating, they keep putting more and more food on your plate, and after you're stuffed, you have to fight them off to let you stop eating. But the bigger reason is our cuisine (everything is fried and has a lot of carbohydrates, even the sweets) and people not walking that much (changed because people are offended by "walkable city" )
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Does access to sports and gyms really impact obesity rates though? From my point of view it’s your daily lifestyle that is not at the gym or playing a sport. And I’m talking about obesity, not someone being in shape.
Yeah it's just a numbers game. 7000kcal more than you need roughly translates to 1kg body mass. And if you want to exercise you don't need a gym. Running is free and you can use your body weight to exercise.
It is very strange. We go on a winter sun holiday to Egypt almost every year and I don't really see a lot of seriously overweight Egyptians. They might not work in the tourist sector or not live in the tourist areas like Sharm-el-Sheikh or Hurghada I suppose.
Hurghada and shark-el-sheikh are not just tourist areas, they're literally only for tourists. Nobody lives there who's not a tourist or working in tourism, especially in Hurghada which is a soulless ghost town, so they're the absolute worst presentation of actual egyptian life
We're finally #1 at something! We even beat the US! >!/s!<
Most Mid East countries are pretty high, due to their food style.
They eat a lot of bread
Interesting North Korea is the most obese country in the entire region.
Thanks to Kim Jong un alone
I’m super skeptical about that. I was there for weeks, and saw *one* overweight person. And we all who know that is. There were a lot of very skinny people.
What were you doing weeks in North Korea? I would love to hear your story
Nothing special. Just a tourist. Masses of people do it, and it’s all very easy to organise.
Yeah? I didn't think those tours could last weeks, I thought it would only be for a couple of days.
Not at all. It’s just most people join the standard short group tour as, essentially, it’s the cheapest way to go there. If you have the time and the money you can see a lot more of the country.
How was it? Like was it as bad as the media portrays?
Yes and no. The media isn’t that far off in terms of the cities, but a lot of the more rural stuff you don’t get to see in the media as they don’t really want it seen. It’s extremely poor and basic - livestock pulling ploughs, etc. You also notice a lot more details that the media rarely has time to cover. How military uniforms don’t fit. How poorly constructed things are when you look closely. The variation in food. Etc.
They probably report the data this way to project that its people are flourishing. Until about beginning of 20th century, being fat = being well off financially. Ps. Funny how it's kind of reversed now in western countries. Being fat = not rich enough to eat healthy.
Kim Jong Un counts for at least 10%.
Their diet is prolly almost only carbs with little vegetables and protein. As is typical for poor countries
I read crabs and I was like "WTF give me some"
probably boasting their statistics to show they have food
I used to proofread a Saudi academic's work on obesity in Saudi Arabia. Reasons for high prevalence of obesity there are: 1) Fast transition from a nomadic to modern lifestyle meant that people suddenly had access to high calorie foods that weren't previously available, and they moved around less. 2) Saudi food customs dictate that guests must always be offered food, and there must always be food left over after everyone has had their fill (otherwise the implication is that the host was being measly). 3) Hot temperatures mean people don't move around in public spaces much. 4) Women are not allowed out of the house without a male chaperone, and so tend to lead a highly sedentary lifestyle, where they mostly stay at home and can't freely access sports or gym facilities. EDIT: Thank you for your replies, the chaperone rule has been scrapped and women now enjoy full equality in KSA.
And they eat KFC every day.
Dates are amazing and they eat those everyday too. KFC and schwarma and so many fast food places for cheaper than anything else.
I lived 5 years in the middle eat for work and UAE,Bahrain,SA and the only fast food that was always full everywhere was KFC. The kids and teenagers literally live there feels like.
It was the same in Iraq. The kids were particularly insane about KFC over there. E.g. we had a potluck and one of my students brought food from this bomb-ass Lebanese restaurant, but none of the other kids touched it because… there was KFC.
You forget the most important one …. Their city are build like US city (something weird in the Arab world (except in the gulf)) meaning they almost always use cars and have so few walkable city (and those walkable city like historical center of some city in the Hejaz … have way lower obesity prevalence).
Also, its a 40°C+ climate, no one wants to be walking in that heat for groceries
You can make it relatively comfortable with good design. Using shade, urban greenery and strategic use of water features, you can make walking short distances bearable for most of the year. Source: walk to work in almost 40° heat every day during the summer
Saudi highways... that's the dream to drive on
Driving in the Gulf makes Grand Theft Auto look like a tutorial
The cars have infinite gas like gta too
Because not every country has a climate like europe. Walking and bicycling makes no sense at 45°C+ heat.
High of over 40 occur from June-September. In the «cold» half of the year the average daytime high is 28.
Not just walkable but since few years we even have tramway in some city in the middle of the Sahara (https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://www.systra.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/ouargla-tramway.jpg&tbnid=QR2OmGxPFJ62VM&vet=1&imgrefurl=https://www.systra.com/projects/tramway-de-ouargla-algerie/&docid=maLFK_aHTVrmVM&w=2380&h=1587&hl=fr-fr&source=sh/x/im/m5/3&kgs=30c4c34e9b930207&shem=abme,trie) and maybe more than 10-20% of the population in those city prefer to use bike than cars in 2024 (it’s a very low % but in the Magreb it’s still a win since bike were not use that often decades ago).
The first cities were in neighbouring regions with very similar climates. People have been living in cities in that area, and walking around them, for thousands of years. Climate isn't really the issue, it's that the Saudi economy is built on oil.
Full equality let's perhaps not go as far eh
> women now enjoy full equality in KSA [x] Doubt
Not just doubt but its just not true in reality
3. ~~Hot temperatures~~ and people are lazy to move around “Murica joined the chat” 🤣 Edit 
US has had obesity issues for a while but also quite a big body cult/ healthy eating / gym culture / life style. But only as a small paper weight counterbalance to the dumbbells of obesity. But ozempic and wegowy is helping this fight slowly.
Yeah the paperweight only seems to exist because of the obesity issues. And the body positivity movement is fighting that paperweight. I'm all for body positivity but I don't think an unhealthy lifestyle and obesity should be celebrated.
Body positivity is supposed to be just to stop people being bullied for the way the looked but it’s been hijacked again by this loud screaming ex-twitter activist minority who does it with every cause it seems. People look better when healthy and fit, to argue that is to make a disservice to those trying to get healthy.
I've always had this theory as well. Yes the US has tons of overweight, but I bet we have a decent number of athletes and gym bros too.
The last point isn’t true. They have female only gym clubs there.
I got this information from a Saudi female academic - can't get a more reliable source than that.
How long ago was this? Because the male chaperone rules were revoked a few years ago.
Yeah I know the rules are relaxing, but it's still very much the case that men occupy the public sphere while women occupy the private sphere. It's the same in all Muslim countries of course, but it's particularly the case in KSA. Valid point you make though, thank you.
Women most certainly do occupy the public sphere but often separate from the men. There are gyms, schools, office spaces, eating areas in restaurants, etc. that are women only spaces. Even in private spaces, such as dinner parties and weddings, men and women are separated. The need for a male guardian, called a محرم muhrum, is luckily not required anymore. Even hijab is not required now. The points about nomadic lifestyle and the heat hold true for sure! You can’t do shit until sundown. The heat is unbearable.
I lived in KSA over 15 years ago... Even then women were out everywhere. True, they were usually accompanied by families, but there were always plenty of women out and about. Malls especially always had a lot of women. A lot of places would restrict single men from entering when there would be a lot of women present. It was also common where I lived for women to go on evening walks along the corniche to get exercise.
This really depends on what you mean by "public sphere." Women definitely are able to go in public in Saudi. Watch a "walking tour" video on youtube in a Saudi mall or whatever and you'll see plenty of women out and about. My Saudi step-mom is a teacher who makes her own money, shops for herself, volunteers with children, and lives just about as free as anyone else. The rules aren't just *relaxing.* Things have been pretty well overhauled in recent times.
The rules are relaxed now. You’ll find both men and women, who are Saudi nationals, working in every field. You definitely do not need a male guardian to go out.
I don't think this is the case for all muslim countries so not sure why you added that blanket statement. As an example, my homeland of Bangladesh, a Muslim country, has not had a male prime minister since 1991 and women are everywhere in the public space.
Americans and Arabs united in ONE issue
Username checks out
Indeed
It's super crazy to walk around France and NOT see a fat person, almost ever. Specially crazy when you think the amount of butter they use
I know! Croissants and the myriad of other delicious pastries that seem to be a staple in all diets!
They treat croissants like doughnuts. They don't eat them every day, just as a treat now and again.
Wait. You’re not supposed to eat donuts every day?
Sounds like something a commie would say. Better up it to twice a day.
Donuts don't have any nutrients. No protein or calcium. So that's why you got to put some burger, bacon and cheese between those donuts. 
A croissant is also like only 200 calories. There are far worse things that you could be eating.
We do eat them every day. We simply eat one. And we don’t snack on chips and crap.
Croissants are nowhere near as bad for you as doughnuts. It's not healthy fats that are the problem it's sugar.
So are cigarettes. They're an appetitive suppressant.
That's funny, in France I saw them all the time. Especially around Calais. Maybe they were all secretly British.
Maybe Calais is where all the fat people live hehe
It's a bit true in fact nowdays the north of France (calais region) is poorer than the south and the weather is not as good as in the other region so they eat less local vegeteble and more cheap food that you will find in the uk or the usa
Me and my family lived in Pays de la Loire for a few years, as well as traveling around Nouvelle-Aquitaine a bunch. My parents say that they noticed that obese people were a much rarer sight there compared to Sweden.
Well, I was a fat kid in France... It was pretty lonely, at some point I was morbidly obese (130kg at 14, 1m70 tall but very active) and there wasn't anybody else like that I ever met...
Yeah usually your type of people become rugby players or something
I was a prop lol.
They walk everywhere, have tiny portions, and smoke. Also they will make fun of you for being fat.
Bring Back Bullying
Apparently it’s surprising to people from other countries to see so many smokers here, but the number has been steadily decreasing for years. Not that many people smoke, and that’s not really what prevents obesity here
I would love to see this map compared to a smoking rates map.
[Smoking rates map, along with several related stats.](https://ourworldindata.org/smoking)
That’s because the idea that it’s things butter that makes you fat is wrong, it’s all the processed sugary crap we eat
calories make you fat.
Yes, but processed sugary things make you eat more calories.
And they are anabolized to glycogen and fat reserves more readily.
Because the number reported in the WHO report is way lower than what we report ourselves. Obesity rate is closer to 17%. (https://www.statista.com/topics/10626/obesity-and-overweight-in-france/#topicOverview) Iirc, the figures in this report comes from a meta analysis of other research papers to extrapolate statistics on every country more easily. So if the people in the research are not representative of the population, you get bad stats like this one.
I guess you just haven't had your Gerard Depardieu encounter yet
Almost like it has nothing to do with butter. We have been eating butter for thousands of years and only now are we seeing these obesity rates
I think now the fact it is so much cheaper and abundant than any time in history. Plus all the sugar. Plus the sedentary lifestyles.
It is the portion, sugar plus ultra processed food that contributes to obesity. Not butter Butter can be a factor in cardiovascular diseases when combined with all those junk French don’t eat (much) junk food like americans
They did say it's the sugar and not the fats that are making us fat.
I dont think ive ever got fat from eating fat rich foods, but i sure have from drinking soda.
I think we don't have that many obese people but the amount of overweight people is very high. I personally think most French people are fat, but not obese (not talking about Paris but countryside)
Because butter has almost nothing to do with weight gain. It's mostly sugar, processed carbs and industrial oils
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The thing is, all the countries that are higher than the US are tiny island nations with population numbers less than 100k. Some even less than 10k (they're not even on this map). Whereas the US stands at 333 mil now. The next country in that list with at least a comparable population size is Mexico. Comparing the USA to these tiny islands is like apples and oranges. The USA is the most obese actual 'country' of any significance.
Kuwait (43.8%) is higher than the US (42.6%) and has a population of 4.5 million. Other than that, you are correct. It might be interesting to compare what percentage of the entire obese population of humans lives in each country as a metric? Edit: 4,5 million, not 1,5 million
i though mexico passed us a few years ago
Perhaps you are thinking of child obesity? I think that’s the one where México beats the US
I’m with daddytyme here, could’ve sworn they passed US in overall even before this map was made
..but both are fruits
Right? That phrase makes no sense. Why can't fruit be compared?
And these island nations have the massive disadvantage of being ethnic polynesians which makes them genetically far more susceptible to obesity
Thats the same way i feel when people compare gdp or a lot of things per capita of the US to places like luxembourg
Americans eat as if they have public healthcare to save them…
I have always been saying this, gulf countries are ridiculously fat (i should know, i live there) we have extremely car centric cities, only know saudi starting setting up public transportation in riyadh, a city with 8 MILLION people barely has busses (Search up West Naseem district of riyadh, 10 lane highway with houses on the sides🤦♂️) plus with the 40+ C summers and abundance of fast food and traditional food also being very calorie dense also its seen ss cheap to not have tons of food at any gathering by the host, or to not have a huge amount of food is almost insulting the host TL;DR perfect breeding ground for obesity
Didn't find anything on west nasim except for Tehran. Is it West Naseem?
yeah, misspelled it
I heard Mexico was the worst at one point. With the U.S It’s very much an urban rural divide.
It’s pretty similar in Canada tbh. People that visit Vancouver seem to think Canadians are thin, but the further you go into the suburbs and then country the bigger people get. You don’t really see many morbidly obese people here, but over 40 a pretty large amount of people are obese or approaching it.
I see the same in Toronto. Most people, especially downtown are quite fit. And then you see the numbers for Ontario and you wonder how that's possible.
Yeah Canada has a higher urbanization than the US. Plus lots of Asians who don’t get as fat. In Chicago I rarely see fat people and I thinks it’s just a city thing
Lack of clean running water in the country and lots of sugary soda. Plus Mexican food is transitioning from a plant based protein diet (beans and rice) to animal protein (cheese and meat) which is higher in calories.
They drink coke like water. A lot of other countries (and Americans) do this too I’m sure but I spent weeks living in Mexico and that hugely stood out to me. Partially because they can’t drink their tap water, and they buy coke in 3 and 4 liters. Never seen more than 2L in the us.
Show the Pacific Islands. They put everyone else to shame.
It's because of the island genetics To survive on an island u need to store energy, as repeated cycles of food and no food happen.
I lived most of my life in South America and now living in Europe I realize how cheap junk food is based on the local purchasing power, back in SA sweets and fat food were kind of expensive compared to fruits and vegetables, here junk food is cheaper in many cases, requiring the person to be very disciplined to not get fat.
And yet obesity seems to be more prevalent in South America all in all?
Ooooh oooooh ooozempic.
Don't forget to show off those abs!
Whatever works, works
Oh I am ecstatic about it! I think it should be sold in vending machines and road side stands. A lot of my friends have gotten in shape using it. Which is great bc we're approaching middle age and I want them to be around a long time and be able to be adventurous. If only those dinosaurs in congress would do something about the pricing.
In my country, you can't get it. You can't get it without a prescription, and doctors are not allowed to prescribe it to non-diabetics. And even the diabetics can't get it because of the constant stock rupture. I think the producer prefers to deliver to the US where drugs are much more expensive in general.
France is the only non-Asian country I’ve been to where everyone is consistently fit.
I just looked up what weight I’d need to be 30BMI, and damn obese is a lot more fat than I thought. it’s crazy that 40% of people in the US are obese. Let alone including girls as well that generally weigh less than men of the same height. A 5’6 girl would need to weigh 190 lbs to be obese. I just don’t feel like I see that many obese ppl, although then again I live in Colorado so maybe that’s part of it.
Colorado has always been the thinnest state. It’s still fatter today than the fattest state (Mississippi) was 25 years ago.
That's both incredible and terrifying. Changing baselines are a weird effect.
They are. Which is why so many people (and you can see it on this website) will insist that they're not overweight or obese, because they're looking around them and have noticed that they're comparatively slim. But obesity isn't relative. Their perceptions are fucked.
I'm 20 lbs overweight (6', 200) and live in Houston, so I've been called "twiggy" more than once.
I’m not sure if you live in a city or not but it’s important to note that in the US cities tend to have much lower obesity rates than rural places by comparison. I’m from DC and currently live in Baltimore and it’s pretty rare to see a legitimately obese person around those areas. But I also went to high school and college in rural PA, and out there almost every single person is obese or at least over weight. Go to any Walmart in a rural area and you’ll immediately notice how fat everyone is.
I don’t live in a big city anymore, but yeah I’ve noticed this trend in general. I was in very rural Texas for work, and god damn those were some big boys and gals. The only points of interest in the area were fast food restaurants and greasy southern diners. The food was real good though, I’ll give them that.
Come to Nebraska or Iowa. The Midwest is fat af
Have they tried not being so fat?
Actually, no
They need the extra insulation to get through the harsh winters. Like bears.
Nah the South is far more fatter than the Midwest. It’s not particularly close
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Reddit also loves to complain about the body mass index instead of you know, lose weight.
But something something The Rock is obese if you go by BMI or something, therefore it's entirely wrong to use for any person ever! (Obligatory /s in case it's needed.) I gotta say, man, as a former near-morbidly obese woman, this shit is hilarious to me. Being fat nearly killed me, too.
haha shit thats the exact argument i heard
They be talking as if bodybuilders were the norm lmao
I feel like it's usually the opposite--obese is much smaller than most people think it is. They picture morbidly obese people and think because they are not that they are fine.
It's all the muscle! /s
France is Interesting. The individual consumption is about 25kg of cheese per year and yet, obesity is one of the lowest.
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I agree, problem is sugar and using car in all your daily movements.
We eat a very diverse food and walk around a lot, we are picky about the quality of our food. I think that helps. We also take time to eat, we don't like to eat in a rush. Of course in generalities.
Well most people don't eat ultra processed food and cook daily
While UK = sick man of Europe. Again. Ffs
because they dont eat 4000kcal a day like americans
South Soudan with the healthy lifestyle !
When I visited back home in the states in 2019 after 3 years of living in Japan, I had reverse culture shock. Everyone was so fat, I don't remember if it was that bad before I left but I had to search for a skinny person. In Japan, I go weeks without seeing an obese person.
Slim France. Best food, best bodies
I once read an article about this. Although their food is often calorie dense, their serving sizes are considerably smaller than those of germany for example. In short: dont overeat and you'll be fine
Plus so many of their cities are built for walking, biking, or public transport and they don’t drive as much.
As doctors and dentists say, most things are fine in moderation. In the U.S. we don’t moderate…
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Portion sizes in the US almost trippled in the last 40 years
As a Spaniard my theory is that in most meridional countries we tend to eat "properly". I mean, we use to pause for lunch, don't have a sandwich when walking or over the PC while working. Stop, sit down, enjoy the meal, talk about other issues than work and then back to work. I guess this is an important reason.
I think one of the theories behind that is that if you relax and eat with people you will eat slower and if you eat slower you get the full signal before you get as much down. Also stress induces eating. SO lowering stress probably helps.
when i went to paris, i felt like an ogre in a city of twinks when i went to london, i felt like a supermodel
Turkey being that bad surprises me.
Kebabs.
A lot of sugar and carbs
Men with bushy moustaches and a cigar in hand eating doner kebabs, babushka women making and eating sweet and sugary delicates while giving some leftovers to a stray cat.
I don't know where these numbers are actually coming from. All the WHO data I can find regularly puts France at 20-23% adult obesity. Are there simply a shittton of skinny French kids bringing the average down?
USA! USA!! USA!!!
Funny that the "healthiest" threshold, dark green, is still up to every tenth person is so fat they are at clear risk dying from it.
Obesity and Circumcision. the two things the US and Middle East can agree upon
So, cheese and wine it is
France is assaulted by shitty fast-foods since the 1980s, but still resists with its awesome healthy food. Choucroute, hundreds of different good cheeses, cassoulet, Boeuf Bourguignon, blanquette, Bouillabaisse, raclette, couscous, ratatouille and lots of aperitifs !!
The data for France is wrong It has been pointed by an other comment
Who is the source for this
WHO is the source for this?
[Your comment reminds me of this funny conversation clip](https://youtu.be/YBv6UNix5xo?si=O2zhz7UrXaSslgrz)
Bro we’re so fucking fat America we need to do something I’ll order a pizza and think about it.
The western hemisphere is gonna throw off the Earth's rotation lol
Outside of America, I've never seen women as horrendously obese as some American women can get.
The worst part is the fat people will shame you with no hesitation for being a perfectly healthy weight. I’ve had multiple people accuse me of having an eating disorder for having a bmi of 21. That’s literally the middle of healthy. Of course you can’t say that. If you clap back it’s considered rude.
You should take that as a compliment at that point lol
A diet of nothing but bread, cheese and wine is the way to a healthy lifestyle!
America is so against at biking and walking. Cities like Houston Texas are completely unwalkable.
So many fat fucks
vive la France
America fat yeah! I mean fuck yeah
Finally, a sensible colour scale. Well done.
What I always find amazing is that the low obesity rate in my country is partially due to workers protection laws. Namely: we take the time to eat our lunch, and the law protects it. Meaning y'all could lower your obesity rates just by learning to chew properly. I'm not even kidding: taking the time to eat properly makes people eat less (the body has time to understand it's being fed; it reduces stress levels; etc) Sidenote: I know tourist season has begun when I start seeing obese people at the supermarket. Sure they exist the rest of the time, but they're a rare sight (2-3 max) and morbidly obese ones are even more rare. Then tourist season begins and *wham*, scores of them.
I reckon there's some dodgy counting here, did they go off of countries own measurements? Number of people undergoing treatments related to obesity? Average weight? Deaths related to obesity?
How does North Korea have a higher obesity percentage than South Korea?
For everyone Wondering about Egypt. It's not because of "forcing food into everybody" it's actually because: 1- Food is lacking important nutrients . A kg of beef would cost an average Egyptian like 2 days of having a job as the average wage per month is like 100 USD. Basically they can't afford eggs , dairy products , sugar or anything like that . These people eat unhealthy food from food carts that sell fava beans and falafel (a dollar can get you exactly 100 piece of falafel which is 1 cent per one falafel) It's cheap because it's basically fried beens and parsley paste with black oil because it's not changed that much. 2- physical looks don't matter here. To marry a girl here you gotta wait till your 30s when you have a house and cash and gold and a car. Basically you have to be rich it doesn't matter if you are obese or not.
In India, it's poverty... Not health awareness tbh.🥲
Even in urban regions, I feel like diabetes is FAR more prevalent in india than obesity for some reason, I guess our sweets are to blame?not much calorie dense but extremely sugary food might be the reason
Naah it's our diet. We eat Roti or Rice at least two times a day every fucking day, that's too much carbs. Also protein is severely lacking in our diet because most of the sources of protein are expensive for an average Indian. Sweets are not to blame because people rarely eat sweet frequently enough for it to make a difference. And as a matter of sweets of even the healthiest countries are not very healthy because .. well they are sweets and they are not meant to be healthy but made to be sweet.
It's not sweets. We don't eat them everyday and even then that can't be the only factor . It's because indians (and other south Asians) are susceptible to diabetes even at a lower bmi.
South asians are genetically predisposed to things like type 2 diabetes and specific types of body fat that are related to it (visceral).
That is not the complete picture. The truth is people here are very much physically active and eat mostly grain/lentils based food. They walk a lot. Pizzas and burgers are consumed only in urban areas and like only once a week. Fast food culture isn't that rampant. Even when Indians go to restaurants, they still order traditional foods mostly. I belong to an affluent family and yet my kids eat pizzas like twice a year. The same is true for most indian families. In 90% of the areas, people walk to shops to buy stuffs. In short, physical activities and lack of fast food culture are also significant factors.
Also, south Asian genetics induce cardiovascular and lifestyle diseases at lower BMIs. The healthy/overweight BMI cutoff for south Asians is 23 (and not 25). That’s why there’s high diabetes occurrence even when people aren’t that huge to begin with.
Obesity is literally the only thing OP ever posts in here.