In a rather shocking new study, it seems Americans aren’t getting any fatter. Four years ago, one in three Americans was obese. Today, one in four Americans is still obese. 25% of the country being forty or more pounds overweight is nothing to brag about for sure, but to have only 25% is at least a bit of breathing room for those in the medical community who felt strongly the United States was headed toward almost complete obesity.

Obesity
Currently, 72 million adults in the United States are obese. To be considered obese, your body metric index must be 30 or higher. The body metric index, or BMI, is a calculation that considers your height and weight. There are many resources available to help compute your BMI, if you don’t already know it.

To be overweight, your BMI must be higher than 25, and to be considered morbidly obese, you’re looking at a BMI of more than 40. Many who are technically considered obese have been told by their doctors that they are only “overweight.” Overweight has much less stigma attached to it. It’s not too bad to be overweight; after all, more than two thirds of Americans are already overweight (or obese). Being overweight makes you “normal.” (more…)

Competitive eating is a sport that used to be reserved for county fairs and high school cafeterias. Now, the contests are beginning to become more mainstream and competitive eaters train in anticipation of events and actually travel to compete.

ESPN airs competitive eating contests and helps give the sport legitimacy. Recently one gentleman ate sixty-six hot dogs in twelve minutes. At first glance that isn’t too impressive, but once you think about exactly what sixty-six hot dogs looks like, it’s rather impressive. Not to mention, it’s also somewhat disgusting.

Training for Competitive Eating

There are tricks and training for competitive eating. Professional eaters train their stomachs to handle the amount of food they consume at contests. They gouge themselves on anything from eggs to celery in an attempt to stretch their stomachs and overcome any gag reflex or nausea.

The day of competition, the eaters use a myriad of techniques to help get the food down. Water is one of the biggest helpers during a contest. Eaters drink a great deal of water and often dunk the food they are consuming in water. This is supposed to help the food settle at the bottom of the stomach.

While eating many of the contestants move around. This also moves the food into a more comfortable position. Finally, the eaters pace themselves to ensure everything has time to settle –although I’m not sure if any time is enough for sixty-six hot dogs to settle. (more…)

Obesity is rampart in the United States and very little is improving over time. For years researchers have pointed out that Americans are getting fatter and unhealthier, and during that time diet plans and drugs have come with the solution to the problem then fallen away. We are getting fatter, and we aren’t doing anything about it.

What is Obesity?
The clinical definition of obesity is a body mass index over 30. Body Mass Index, or BMI, is a formula that compares height and weight. It is measured in ranges – a healthy BMI falls between 19 and 26. Overweight BMI numbers are between 26 and 30, and numbers over 30 are considered obese.

Currently 127 million individuals in the United States are considered overweight. 60 million are obese and 9 million are severely obese. This means over half of the population in the US weighs more than they should and their health is suffering. (more…)

An unprotected sneeze during flu season can give you a cold. Now, apparently, it can give you a few extra pounds, too. There is scientific proof that a virus known as adenovirus 36, or AD36, is making people fat.

The virus was first found in India where it was shown to be making chickens fat. Then, they began to study the virus in greater depth and realized that it has possibly spread to humans. To test the theory a small sample of 500 individuals was pulled together. Thirty percent of the obese individuals in the group tested positive for the virus cells.

Research is still being performed on animals, and the researchers have deliberately infected animals with the virus to study its effects. In those animals subjected to the virus over eighty percent did begin to gain weight. It is not clear how contagious the virus might be, and scientists are doing stem cell research to try and develop a cure.

In the meantime, individuals are starting to think about the possibilities of a fat virus. Could an unhygienic neighbor make you fat? Could you deliberately infect someone else with your fat virus cells? (more…)