[BraveSirRobin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('frankthetank', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '(')AP / CBS)
"The time when obesity was thought to be a problem on the other side of the Atlantic has gone by."
Mars Di Bartolomeo, Luxembourg
(AP) The proportion of overweight or obese men is higher in some European countries than it is in the United States, experts said Tuesday in a major analysis of Europeans' expanding girth.

The International Obesity Task Force estimated that Finland, Germany, Greece, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Malta have all now exceeded the United States' 67 percent in overweight or obese males. ... In Greece, 38 percent of women are obese, compared with 34 percent in the United States.

[Leanan]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he skinny guys were the first ones to drop in Ranger school where we got little food and little sleep..

[BraveSirRobin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kochevnik', ':')!:Most of you who are doing the worst thrashing of fat people and braggin your ass off about it are probably under 40.
At 5'8" and a solid 205, I live in an area is very isolated and almost no fast food restaurants. I walk or ride my bike to work better than 70 percent of the time, winter and summer. A few years ago (at 40+) I rode my bicycle 3000 miles in 5 weeks going across Canada. The point I am making is weight is NOT health, and it is NOT fitness, it's just weight.
It's very VERY easy to get on your high horse about weight issues and all it does is prop up a false sense of esteem. When I was in my twenties I weighed under 140. Yes, you read that right. I also had the same resting pulse, and could eat a 2 lb bag of M&M's in one sitting. Age changes a lot of things, more than you youngsters would like to accept or believe.
And yes, I'd like to lose weight, but the amount of work it would take would destroy my life. I have a job, a wife, kids, and I'm trying to prepare for PO. There are only 24 hours in a day. I'm happy with the choices I have made.
Incidentally, the recent CDC studied showed that all those 'obesity' studies were mostly wrong. After controlling for factors such as smoking etc, the truth is that being slightly overweight is MORE HEALTHY than being underweight. Anecdotally, I know at my present weight I never get sick, whereas in my younger years at a lower weight I would get laid up for a week or two every single year.
Overall, I would have to say that for PO, being a little overweight is probably a good thing ... it means you need less food to survive on than a skinny person. You also have reserves in case of illness (sure to be a big problem in the future).
I wouldn't be patting myself on the back too much about your weight if I were you, some of it is lifestyle but most of it is just the luck of the genetic lottery.

[The_Toecutter]

I'm 5'11'', 135-ish. I've tried to gain more weight, but every attempt has failed.

The food in America is crap. If you're genetically prone to obesity, even eating 1,000 calories of processed foods a day in this country will keep you fat. Sadly, most Americans cannot aford to eat well. I'm one of them, but I'm also fortunate to still be healthy. I could use a little meat on them bones though...

[DesertBear2]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cornholio', 'W')hile this thread singles out America I would point out that as any country develops greater prosperity people will seek more TV time, avoid exertion and seek fattier and sweeter foods... And waistlines will grow. America is ahead on this curve, but Asia and Europe are showing the same trends.

[KevO]

in the UK now as well
More than 65% of men and 55% of women in the UK are overweight or obese - the largest cause of type 2 after genetic disposition. BBC

[knoppix2004]

Guzzling Resale Value
Owners Finding Used SUVs Worth Less As Gasoline Prices Soar
September 16, 2005 By SARA KEHAULANI GOO, And DAN MORSE Washington Post
Courant
WASHINGTON -- Terry and Sherri Ward bought a brand-new Chevrolet Tahoe for $32,000 last year. It is jet black, 6 feet tall and 16 feet long, with leather seats and power everything. Great for hauling the kids. Great for Sherri Ward's job as a real estate agent.
"You can sum it up in a word," she says of pulling up in a Tahoe. "Image."
That image is starting to lose some of its sheen, thanks to rising gas prices. On a recent stop at the pump, Terry Ward got some sympathy. "I know it hurts," a fellow motorist told him.
The Wards are trying to sell their Tahoe, hoping to buy something more fuel-efficient, perhaps a Chrysler Pacifica, a vehicle that's a cross between a sport utility and a station wagon.

With gas prices in the $3 range, many drivers of the least fuel-efficient cars are especially feeling the pain, and are looking to downsize to a vehicle that gets more than 15 miles to the gallon.
But selling an SUV may also be a pain. Sales of the largest General Motors and Ford SUVs have plummeted in the past year. Car dealerships around the country are flooded with used SUVs they find difficult to unload.

SUV owners are finding that their cars are depreciating quickly, mostly because manufacturers offered steep discounts on new models, causing the older ones to fall in price.
The resale values of the biggest and most expensive SUVs are dropping the fastest. A 2004 Ford Expedition, a monstrous vehicle with three rows of seats, has dropped nearly 10 percent in value, or $2,400, since the beginning of the year, to $22,200, according to Kelley Blue Book.

The company said a 2004 Hummer H2, a smaller version of the wide, four-wheel-drive military vehicle, was worth $41,700 in January. Its current value is $39,000, a loss of 6.5 percent.
"Used SUVs are down more than normal" in value, Kelley spokeswoman Robyn Eckard said. "You can get a really good deal on a 2003 or 2004 SUV right now because prices have dropped so much."

Nearly 60 percent of shoppers said that gas prices have either changed their minds or strongly influenced their purchase decisions, according to Kelley Blue Book, which reports a 13 percentage-point increase from a month ago, the highest increase on record.

Similarly, car shoppers now rank fuel efficiency as the 23rd-most-important factor in what kind of car they will buy, up from the traditional ranking of about 35th, said Art Spinella, who tracks car-buying trends at CNW Marketing Research.
The shift away from SUVs, which has been happening gradually during the past seven years, is now permanent for certain kinds of buyers, Spinella said.
"This gas price run-up has effectively cooled any desire for buying an SUV for a fashion statement," he said. "A good two-thirds of people were buying them not to carry people or things around."

[SeasonOfPain]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('knoppix2004', 'G')uzzling Resale Value
Owners Finding Used SUVs Worth Less As Gasoline Prices Soar
September 16, 2005
By SARA KEHAULANI GOO, And DAN MORSE Washington Post
<snip>
"You can sum it up in a word," she says of pulling up in a Tahoe. "Image."

[I_Like_Plants]

The dealers are selling new SUVs for what they used to get for a plain sedan. This area (SF bay area) like the rest of the US is crawling with SUVs, plus we have tons of empty real estate, houses and gobs of industrial buildings so people won't have to live in their SUVs around here but most of the US does not have all this extra living space to squat in. So, yeah, hope they're OK to live in, ppl may end up doing so - I along with quite a few others feel another 1930s type depression is on the way.

[OZ_DOC]

Isnt the problem here that the further they drop the more attractive they become as second hand cars. People will look at them and say "hey, it'll probably cost me more long term but ill save a few grand now", this scares me a little. One of the best thing i think the government could do to cut fuel use is run a scrap and replace program, where anyone who replaces a gas guzzler with a vehicle that gets above a certain mpg limit gets an additional 3,000 tax credit or rebate on their new vehicle. Then the guzzlers get scrapped.

would this work?

[JeeBoomba]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('knoppix2004', '"')You can sum it up in a word," she says of pulling up in a Tahoe. "Image."

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JeeBoomba', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('knoppix2004', '"')You can sum it up in a word," she says of pulling up in a Tahoe. "Image."

[glug_glug]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BabyPeanut', 'S')UV owner image =

[cornholio]

animated song "I can't afford my gasoline" link : ) Can't Afford

PS- Im trying to switch from a 22mpg car to a VW beetle diesel... almost 50mpg highway : )...

[BabyPeanut]

As SUV prices drop more poor people are buying them.

P.T. Barnum was right, there really is a sucker born every minute.

[aahala]

"car shoppers now rank fuel efficiency as the 23rd-most-important factor in what kind of car they will buy"

Lordy, lordy. What do you suppose is number 22? The rim color of the
back seat vanity mirror?

[shakespear1]

When you are poor you do not have a choice whether to buy a MINI Cooper or a HONDA INSIGHT.

[oiless]

I drive a 20 year old jeep that gets pretty lousy mileage. (18-20 mpg US)
I have so far felt little desire to upgrade to a newer more fuel efficient vehicle. The one I have was used and cheap when I bought it, it's built like a brick shithouse, it's simple enough that I can easily fix the occasional small problem that crops up, and parts are cheap and readily available. Also I find that I need four wheel drive quite often.
I can buy a lot of fuel for the price of a newer vehicle. (Vehicles are more expensive in Canada, relative to the US, I believe.)
I feel for any poor shmuck that has a gas guzzler that they are also making $900+ a month payments on. Shed that dead weight while it's still worth something and follow my example: ignore the Jones's, no need to keep up, drive something that is worth nearly nothing.

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('oiless', 'A')lso I find that I need four wheel drive quite often.

[fossil_fuel]

unless they are used for towing things.