Posted on 06/15/2015 9:19:02 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I read the headline over at the Washington Post (via Newsalert) and I can’t say I was surprised:
The average American woman weighs 166.2 pounds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As reddit recently pointed out, that’s almost exactly as much as the average American man weighed in the early 1960s.
Men, you’re not looking too hot in this scenario either. Over the same time period you gained nearly 30 pounds, from 166.3 in the 60s to 195.5 today. Doing the same comparison as above, today’s American man weighs almost as much as 1.5 American women from the 1960s. At 195.5 pounds, put five American guys in a room and you’ve gathered roughly half a ton of manhood.
Overall weight gain since 1960 is slightly greater for women (18.5 percent) than for men (17.6 percent). And both sexes have gained roughly an inch in height over the same period, which accounts for some of that weight gain.
Maybe the weight is seen as unsightly by some, but on average, those who are overweight but not obese might be healthier. I imagine it matters how much one weighs in proportion to height and if the person is active and healthy vs. overweight and sedentary. I must admit that at five foot six, if I weighed 166, I would be a mess. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), I can’t carry that kind of weight but some women can.
Also read:
You’re a dedicated and disciplined role model. I, on the other hand, have not maintained my desired weight. Sigh.
I weighed less than that when I got out of high school.
Me too and I was a linebacker!
+All of the huge women are going to really bring up that average. There just weren’t a lot of 300 lb women in the 60s. Not uncommon today.+
So true
just hit walmart on ebt fillup day
Remember a story in women’s magazines a few years back, which indicated that women’s boyfriends and husbands made them fat? Something about having to cater to the men in their lives plus eating out made them fat, as I recall???
That's nothing. I can still wear the same socks. :)
I recently went through the Ronald Reagan Library. There are displays of the Reagan’s clothing. I thought...wow, Nancy was tiny!
I find that at most displays of anyone’s clothing they look really small to me. My Grandmother’s wedding dress looks like it was a child’s.
Yes.
Better nutrition leads to larger smarter people over all.
George Washington was 6' 2" which was a large man at the time. Now it is unremarkable.
And people in the Americas tended to be taller then people born and raised in Europe.
Some of that was genetics as American tended to have some American Indian in their background but a good deal of it was just that they ate a diet that was higher in calories and nutrients then the people in Europe.
Not just Americans, I think. We visited an 1850 Jesuit mission in Idaho that's still standing. The furniture was made for much smaller people…it almost felt like like a dollhouse -- and I'm only 5'3". The good French and Italian friars must have been about 4'8" tall.
http://www.visitidaho.org/attraction/parks/coeur-dalenes-old-mission-state-park/
Funny....when I took my kids to Disney World we toured through an exhibit that had the Ruby Slippers and Julia Roberts’ red gown from the movie. It was so, so small. You see her on TV and she looks tall and HUGE (besides looking like a mouth full of horse teeth)!!!!
I also went by Madam Trufaut’s in Vegas by the Venetian and saw Mel Gibson’s wax double....small dude too. Either that I’m just one huge SOB...haha.... I guess things just look bigger on the screen.
Where? Not on this planet. I wouldn't know where to find a woman over 6 feet tall, locally.
Who knew!
I’m not just talking about weight. I’m talking about total height and bone length and all that. Seems to me that’s changed and I don’t think I’d attribute it to nutrition.
Funny thing was: in the 1960s we heard how much women were seeking equality.
It looks like they achieved it.
“Men, you’re not looking too hot in this scenario either. Over the same time period you gained nearly 30 pounds, from 166.3 in the 60s to 195.5 today.”
Yeah, well, that’s all muscle!
It is ultimately a failure of character.
Yeah, there was a big jump in height as malnutrition was stamped out back in the early 20th century. Men are on average about 4-5 inches taller than men in the 1800s.
Maybe he lives in Hollywood. All the tall women from around the country migrate there.
My dad is 6' but had rickets as a child because of poor nutrition. If he had not he would have been somewhere around 6' 3" or taller. His brothers tended to run around 6' or slightly under with the older brothers, (who were born when things were very tight) being shorter then the brothers who were born later.
All of their sons are over 6' with some reaching 6' 6".
In Chile you could tell who was born when by their height. Those who were born before 1965 were quite short, those who were born between 1965 and 1975 were taller and those who were born after 1975 were quite a bit taller.
The reason?
In 1975 the government began giving each family with children under five a generous ration of whole powdered milk. More protein, more fat, more nutrients in the family's diet lead to taller children with greater bone mass.
Every time there is a change in diet whether greater nutrition and calories or less the average size of the people in that area either grows or shrinks.
Possibly nutrition; I won’t discount it. But something I’ve thought about too is the hardiness of the immigrants we received and those that flourished since our country’s beginning from the overall stock that originally settled here.
My best guess is that it’s a combination of hardiness, immigration and nutrition. My own personal belief from what I’ve seen in my lifetime is that there is definitely a difference in size between then and now, and I have seen differences in overall general size in parts of this country.
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