I live in the suburbs of NYC. Out here it seems pretty mixed when it comes to people's weights, but I don't see too many morbidly obese people. Obese and overweight, yes.

Over in NYC most people seem to be fairly slender

Born in Wisconsin, but I've lived in North Carolina for many years (I've lived in 3 others states and overseas, too). I have to disagree with people being more overweight in the Midwest than in the South. I looked this up not too long ago because I was curious - you can see one of the chart of the "fattest states" HERE. In fact, the top 9 are Southern states. :(

1. Mississippi
2. Alabama
3. West Virginia
4. Tennessee
5. Kentucky
6. Louisiana
7. Oklahoma
8. South Carolina
9. Arkansas
10. Michigan

The outlook is bleak everywhere in the US. It's truly depressing.

Anyway, I live in a major Southern city and I think it's more socio-economic than straight up regional.

Midwest; nice and round :D

When I go "home"...Europe that is; most are fit and trim. I felt like a :moo: I hope my next visit I will look like the rest of my European friends :D

I have to say, anytime I've visited Montreal, I've thought to myself 'do they only let the beautiful, fit, fashionable people out on the street?' :devil: because it was so very noticeable to me. My kudos to your region!!

Haha!

Well, the flip side is that fat women here in particular are treated quite harshly. Plus size stores are rare, petite stores common. In the US, people tend to "diet" (ie. slim fast, lean cuisine). Here, girls stop eating if they hit a 25 BMI. Working out is certainly optional too, "skinny fat" is the norm. High rate of smoking too! Lots of pressure, much moreso than in the US.

I know a lot of girls here will say they experience a lot of pressure to be thin in the US but... it's a lot worse for Quebec girls and European girls. There is really no place here where you could feel "normal" if overweight or obese.

Gosh, I miss that too!!! My typical day in Japan was walking the kids to their respective schools, walking to work, walking/riding the train for my errands. I only ever took the car if I needed to go to IKEA :^: or somewhere too far from a train station. *sigh* Here I drive the kids to school, drive to school, drive to the store. I feel like I'm in the car all day! I could go days without getting into my car, in Japan.

I live in a suburb of Phoenix Arizona. Most people are overweight, if not obese. I'm noticing a LOT of overweight kids. I never got flack for my kids' weights from the Japanese doctors, but the doctors here comment that they could stand to gain some weight. Both are on the low end of the BMI but are healthy and eat well. I am not concerned about them. In America, there is fast food everywhere... It's a VERY different food/activity climate.

I'm moving back to Hawaii in August. People seem to run the gammut there. A lot of very fit active healthy people and also a lot of the opposite.

This is just based on what I have seen. I live in BK for a few yrs, lived in Harlem, work in Manhattan.
BK-I live in a trendy yuppie borough. Very granola skinny, people are in skinny jeans and loose tops. Messy hair. But go deep into the "family" boroughs (less trendy/not yet so gentrified) and people are more overweight-the lower and more east you go into BK. ***
Manhattan-
Upper West Side-tall blonde moms with rock hard abs, and their overweight non-blonde nannies. I've seen TWO rock hard ab women not being allowed into starbucks till they put a shirt over their sports bras. I've seen very old women with the bums of 20 year olds. Most seem to be focused more on fitness than wrinkles? Unless those people happen to just age naturally that way. ***
Upper East Side-Not as many moms, intimdating very tiny old women who prob wake up in Chanel dress robes. All remind me of my Talbots grandmother-shes not very milk and cookies.***
Union Square/Soho-runway models, esp at Whole Foods, young thin teenagers prob visiting NYC ***
=***But these are the people I see walking around, shopping all day-the people I worked with in various places in Manhattan and BK were usually overweight. The ones who aren't are in their 30s or younger.

Harlem-Men range from average+muscular to overweight. Women tend to be quite overweight or heavier.
Hong Kong-a lot of skinny fat-very small boned, and higher in fat in proportion to muscle (I think thats why my fam tends to not look siweny/super duper skinny despite the low weight). But that was years ago and based on my aunt's pics, yoga has been big there and shes posted a lot of pics of more sculpted women.

Sounds a lot like Asia, except there girls stop eating if they hit a 20 BMI. :dizzy: I did notice plus size clothing stores targeting young women where I lived in Japan - a very poor industrial-rural area with more heavy young people than the wealthier cities and suburbs.

Korea is probably the worst place in the world to be overweight, they made this movie:

http://www.kmculture.com/images/200p...20beauty_2.jpg (200 LB Beauty)

OMG are the differences noticable! I grew up in Chicago wealthy suburb and now I live in the upper north part of Wisconsin. The difference is huge and I think it may be a socio-economic reason.

Group exercise class at the posh Pilates studio in the 'burbs is filled with women who look like the ones in Shape magazine.

There is no Pilates studio where I live in WI. Our group exercise classes maybe have 6-10 people who are in great shape. The same 6-10 people are in every class almost. The rest of the town is in crap shape. Forget about weight, I'm talking alcoholism and smoking and general inactivity.

When the tourists come, i.e. those with money from bigger cities, the activity level sky rockets.

I guess what I'm saying is up north, we have our handful of local athletic over achievers. But in the city, there is a greater percentage of the population that holds fitness near and dear.

It's changed a lot in the past two or three decades. I was from a middle class area of southern California originally and I'd say much of the population was healthy weight to overweight, with maybe ten percent being visibly obese. That has shifted more toward the obese end of the spectrum since I moved.

Alaska is quite obese in general, except for certain wealthier enclaves. My town, for example, is one of the slimmer ones. But we have the highest mean salary and education of any town in the state and leisure activities are high. The more rural, the worse the food quality and oftentimes it is visible in people's habits and appearance. Also, many of the natives are less suited to grain and sugar-heavy diets than those of us from different ancestry and are, as a whole, a fair bit heavier than the other ethnicities in the state.

It's complex, and depends on so many factors, but it does depend on the region and moreso the economics that dictate that particular region's demographics.

Interestingly, when I lived in the UK we were pretty average, being a somewhat overweight family. And for the Midwest we're on the slim side, at least compared to suburban Illinois and Michigan, but we'd be average to heavy for some parts of Ann Arbor. So variable!

Around where I live, most of the people are pretty thin. We have a couple teeny tiny people, and a couple obese people, but nothing too extreme on either end. They're mostly in the middle of a healthy BMI range. I stick out as a fatter person. -sigh-

One thing that bugs me no matter where I am is people discriminating against anyone for their size. Even if being overweight/obese is unhealthy, so is smoking and most recreational drugs. I don't glare at smokers or anything, and I've never smoked. And skinny people do not have to have eating disorders to look like that. (rant over)

But yeah, in the USA the car culture SUCKS. Most places I want to go don't even have sidewalks! So that limits bike transportation (Which I prefer in place of a car a lot of times). And yes, it is discouraged for women especially to walk around alone.

Also, where I live, local businesses actively keep away anyone who offers to bring in public transportation. I live in a college town and they want us stuck here. The owners have literally said that. I can't wait until I'm out.

This is a very interesting thread! I live in Maryland, grew up in Howard County which is one of the richest areas in the state. Everyone was relatively fit and around a normal weight. I moved to Baltimore and every other person is overweight or very obese. I agree that socioeconomic status has a lot to do with weight. The food that is available through programs like WIC is not always nutritious. It is cheaper to go to McDonald's than a health food store. That's the unfortunate truth.

I also spent a lot of time in the Middle East/North Africa. I noticed in Egypt that there were a good deal of overweight men and women. In Turkey, most people were relatively fit looking with the older women (probably those who tended to stay at home) were heavier.

Always interesting to compare countries and regions as far as weight goes. I think the U.S. is having a nutritional/health crisis and I am hoping that more people will open their eyes and start to live a healthier lifestyle.

I know what you mean! What I think is crazy is that there is no active policy by the government to make walking/cycling safer and to somehow lower the cost of healthy food. But then I know how everybody freaks out when the government might try to do something good for people. Atleast, the Republicans. Hihi. Oh well, I am glad I live in such a "communist" country. Hahaha. Everybody has acces to healthcare and wont go bankrupt. There's rules about the food at schools. Towns HAVE to have safe bicycle lanes and pedestrian sides.

So apart from the social-economic that everybody mentions, which I do agree with, because the first group that's turning into obese here in the Netherlands are the people with less to spend, puplic policy has a lot to do with it. As does the food-culture. Food culture is not something you can do much about but government could work on rules to keep their citizens healthy. And no, I'm not saying we should have food-police that will keep hardworking citizens from buying what they want. ;)

I live in the South and I'd say most people are overweight here.