CDC obesity mapping

I think BMI is a poor indicator of obesity. Last year while trainin for my HIM and working out ~10ish hours/week I weighed in around 225. At 6'0, that makes me obese. Yet I was in the best shape of my post swimming life. 

Having said that, I think I'm the exception and the majority of people with a BMI over 30 probably are overweight/obese.

I agree.  At IMCdA I was 6'4" and 200lbs.  That's 24.3.  24.9 is considered overweight.  I was no where near close to "overweight".

I also agree that most people over a BMI of 30 probably have a few pounds to lose.

BMI, as it is defined now, is only a good metric for those who lead a sedentary life.   That, unfortunately, is most people in US.  Those of us who lead an active life are a too small minority and the BMI does not describe us with any amount of accuracy.     We need a different metric.   Seems most people no longer are taught to take care of themselves physically.  What ever happened to recess and physical education in the public schools?  Sloth and gluttony seems to be the accepted course of action for most.   Once upon a time these qualities were deemed sinful.   Now they are deemed unhealthy.   Sinful or not, they are bad habits to have.  Being a libertarian I feel people can do as they like, even if it shortens life and/or decreases the quality of one's life.  But on the other hand I can see the social cost in the bigger picture.  Having a healthy body is a two front fight.    All one has to do is to eat and exercise in moderation.   Alas, moderation seems to be another concept that our society has flushed down the toilet.

Be a gourmet, not a gourmand. Be epicurean and not a glutton.  Get active.  

/soap box

Budget cuts.  My cousin substitute teaches elementary school and creates spelling and vocabulary games that involve lots of running and jumping because the school district she teaches at can't afford to keep a PE teacher/insurance.

Moon Pies, Pork Skins and Country Fairs?

Education probably plays a big part.

1lb of bacon smothered w/ onions.  "DON'T DRAIN THAT!!!"  quote my mother as I went to get rid of the drippings before adding in the 8 ears of corn and rotel tomato.

Yeah, last I knew La also had the highest rating in diabetes. 

Minnesota! Less fat than the rest of the middle of the country

Now I can enjoy those three cartons of fried cheese at the fair this year without feeling guilty :-)

Wasn't it the Texas State Fair that introduced us to deep fried Coke, deep fried butter, and deep fried beer.

I'd agree with this too.  Fast food is cheap.  You CAN eat healthy cheaply but it takes a lot of research and a commitment to working for it.

For a single mom holding down 2 job it's a whole lot easier to stop by McDonald's.

Another factor is parents not caring enough to tell children "no".  Coke and candy and cake all tastes good.  Broccoli cannot compare.  But we all remember our parents telling us to finish our vegetables.  I think that is lacking today.

Case in point: Honey Boo Boo Child's Go-Go Juice. (how's that for tying in 2 threads?)

That's carbo loading!

I ballooned up to 240 this year due to winter/having a baby and I just felt fat and lazy. I decided I needed somethign to train for so I'm now training for my first marathon. I knew I couldn't run a marathon at 240 so I needed to lose some weight. I started off by just running a little bit and trying to cut my meals down from 3-4 hot dogs to 1-2 hto dogs (I rarely eat hot dogs, just an example). I lost 12 pounds in 2 weeks. Now that I'm running a lot (to me) my appetite is back and it's hard not to eat 3-4 hot dogs. I do splurge on Fridays and pig out before my long run on Saturday (15 miles this weekend, I'm going to die).

For me the hardest thing is controlling my appetite. I plateaued around 225 for 2-3 weeks because I was starting to get hungry from all of my training. I tried to reel my appetite back in the last 2 weeks and I've dropped down to 222. I think most people can't make themselves do this (myself included when I ballooned up to 240).

Yes!

I think there are a lot of factors at play here.  Starting with parents that have poor diets.  Even if schools are doing a better job of teaching nutrition, it is very difficult to get the parents on the same page. You can get a sense of this by the reaction to making public school lunches more healthy.  

Add the difference between the amount of time it takes to serve/heat fast food versus a healthy meal. Lets face it, people are lazy and if they can have dinner ready in 10 minutes and be in front of the tv watching their favorite show versus 30 minutes and missing their show. The 10 minute fast meal will win out.

I think those in impoverished areas face another challenge as it becomes more difficult to find they typically stocked grocery store.  A report last year about Philadelphia showed that the only available places to shop was the local corner store.  So their options were pretty limited unless they wanted to take a bus ride to a different neighborhood. I don't know if this issue spans the country, but I would expect it would. 

Top it off with the change in available technology, IE video games.  Kids play video games instead of playing outside and parents are letting it happen.  How often do you see kids inside at a bbq playing on their portable what ever, instead of being outside?

Peer pressure is another factor.  I find parents fall in this category and have found myself in this situation.  We typically do not give our daughter (2 1/2) junk food.  Trying to stick to that at a BBQ or a birthday party is hard.  We find other parents are willing to shove crackers, chips, pretzels and what have you in our daughters face and we have to jump and say no.  Ever try taking a chip away from a 2year old.  We have formed better defense and prep for the situation.  We try to steer our daughter to the healthier veggie platter, which she is more than content with. 

Sorry for the long winded post. 

Population migrations would be my vote.

And I'd agree with your poverty statement also.

There are two things that I notice.

1.  Specifically from the comments on the article and even here on this site, people don't want to admit they are over weight or have weight to lose.  (It's the first thing I look at each year when I set my goals for the next Tri Season)

2.  Our society has made it taboo to be open about people being fat.  We're told that it's ok, that we shouldn't stare, don't point.  You don't want to hurt their feelings.  I understand that we don't want to be mean, but sometimes the truth hurts.  It is not o.k. to be morbidly obese.  When people pretend that those around them are not obese, they are doing more harm than good.  Sometimes it's not the person's fault.  Those are the people who we need to help the most.

I agree.  I think there has been SO much knocking BMI on this site that it has slanted the other way now - it's not COMPLETE rubish.  Of course if you ask a bunch of athletes what they think of BMI, it's flawed.  People that tend to have higher muscle mass (athletes) it may not apply.

As for a quick and dirty estimator of obesity for your average person (MOST of this country is not a dedicated athlete) it's not a bad indicator, IMO.

I think a good test would be to compair our numbers with a "thin" nation.  To see if they fall more within the BMI healthy range than the US.

It SORT OF seems to me, that instead of saying, yeah, we are fat as a nation based on the BMI, we blame the "test" and say it's not valid.

I think by just traveling, you can see these trends.

I have lived in the "skinny" states for almost 20 years now (Colorado, Nevada, Utah, California areas)...  I think people tend to be "heavy" here.  But when I visit family in Texas and Florida?  It's STRIKING who you see walking around and dining out.  Not just heavy but HUGE...  I sort of stood there and gawed when I went out to eat a couple times in Florida.  I suggest sticking to South Beach down there.