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A comment on Rising rural BMI is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults. Parent comment

Re:Rising rural BMI is the main driver of the global obesity... by idoubtit on Tuesday August 20, 2019 @01:37PM (#20749659)
The demographics is worse than what is seen in the streets, because of the correlation between overweight and outdoor activities. The CDC facts are that 39% of the American adults are obese and 75% are overweight (including obesity). So overweight is the norm, and thin people are the exception. As the tendency is stable, I wonder if a "hidden minority" lobby will emerge in a few years, claiming that TV speakers and movie actors are too thin to represent the average citizen.
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Re:Rising rural BMI is the main driver of the global obesity... by Retric on Tuesday August 20, 2019 @01:50PM (#20749778)
Young people still tend to be significantly less overweight. https://www.stateofobesity.org/obesity-by-age/

However, you do see more overweight people on modern films than in the 50’s. What’s really odd some characters where supposed to be noticeably overweight, but they don’t seem that way to modern eyes.

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Re:Rising rural BMI is the main driver of the global obesity... by lostapathy on Tuesday August 20, 2019 @02:22PM (#20750223)
Curious - do you have examples handy of characters like you described who were "overweight for the time" but don't seem so today?
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Re:Rising rural BMI is the main driver of the global obesity... by krustyburger on Tuesday August 20, 2019 @03:09PM (#20750774)
Even going back just to the 90s, characters like George Costanza were meant to look noticeably overweight but look fairly typical by 2019 standards. And Homer Simpson weighed a very specific 239 pounds, a weight that seems much less extreme now.
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Re:Rising rural BMI is the main driver of the global obesity... by flukus on Tuesday August 20, 2019 @08:51PM (#20753739)
On the extreme end there was John Candy (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001006/mediaindex?ref_=nm_phs_m...), he used to be "the funny fat guy" but if he were to cameo (and be alive) today I don't think he'd stand out like he used to.
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Re:Rising rural BMI is the main driver of the global obesity... by Mountain_Skies on Tuesday August 20, 2019 @09:08PM (#20753801)
Lumpy in Leave It to Beaver. Augustus Gloop in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). This one is really interesting when you compare the 1971 character to that from the 2005 version. If there was a new version made today, the might need to make him even bigger.
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Re:Rising rural BMI is the main driver of the global obesity... by masonic on Wednesday August 21, 2019 @05:47AM (#20755800)
In the film, "To Sir, With Love", the boy called "Fats" would be probably average nowadays, even in the U.K.
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Re:Rising rural BMI is the main driver of the global obesity... by tomjen3 on Tuesday August 20, 2019 @03:40PM (#20751104)
I haven't seen Friends, but supposedly Fat Monica had to be made fatter and fatter as she appeared over the years.
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Re:Rising rural BMI is the main driver of the global obesity... by qserasera on Tuesday August 20, 2019 @05:19PM (#20752294)
They even changed the baseline overweigh and obesity metrics to have less people designated as a problem.
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Re:Rising rural BMI is the main driver of the global obesity... by Buttons840 on Wednesday August 21, 2019 @07:56AM (#20756462)
Source? Was 24.9 not always considered healthy? I've read studies where 20 to 22 BMI has the lowest mortality rate, and it seems reasonable to add a little padding on either side for such a roughly measured metric.
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