Post: #1

Quote:CORVALLIS, Ore. – Only 2.7 percent of the U.S. adult population achieves all four of some basic behavioral characteristics that researchers say would constitute a “healthy lifestyle” and help protect against cardiovascular disease, a recent study concluded.

In this study, researchers from Oregon State University and the University of Mississippi examined how many adults succeed in four general barometers that could help define healthy behavior: a good diet, moderate exercise, a recommended body fat percentage and being a non-smoker. It’s the basic health advice, in other words, that doctors often give to millions of patients all over the world.

Such characteristics are associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease as well as many other health problems, such as cancer and type 2 diabetes.

“The behavior standards we were measuring for were pretty reasonable, not super high,” said Ellen Smit, senior author on the study and an associate professor in the OSU College of Public Health and Human Sciences. “We weren’t looking for marathon runners.”

From the perspective of public health, the findings of the research were not encouraging, Smit said.

“This is pretty low, to have so few people maintaining what we would consider a healthy lifestyle,” she said. “This is sort of mind boggling. There’s clearly a lot of room for improvement.”

Part of the value of this study, the researchers said, is that the results are based on a large study group, 4,745 people from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. It also included several measured behaviors, rather than just relying on self-reported information.

Measurements of activity were done with an accelerometer, a device people wore to determine their actual level of movement, with a goal of 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity a week. Blood samples were done to verify a person was a non-smoker. Body fat was measured with sophisticated X-ray absorptiometry, not just a crude measurement based on weight and height. A healthy diet was defined in this study as being in about the top 40 percent of people who ate foods recommended by the USDA.

The lifestyle characteristics were then compared to “biomarkers” of cardiovascular health. Some are familiar, such as blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels. Others are more sophisticated, such as C-reactive protein, fasting triglycerides, homocysteine and other data that can provide evidence of cardiovascular risk.

Many people, of course, accomplished one or more of the four basic lifestyle goals, such as not smoking or being adequately active. The most striking finding was how few people accomplished all the goals.

“I would expect that the more healthy lifestyles you have, the better your cardiovascular biomarkers will look,” Smit said.

Indeed, the researchers found that having three or four healthy lifestyles, compared to none, generally was associated with better cardiovascular risk biomarkers, such as lower serum cholesterol and homocysteine levels. Having at least one or two healthy lifestyle characteristics, compared to none, was also associated with better levels of some cardiovascular risk biomarkers.

Among the other findings of the research:

Although having more than one healthy lifestyle behavior is important, specific health characteristics may be most important for particular cardiovascular disease risk factors.
For healthy levels of HDL and total cholesterol, the strongest correlation was with normal body fat percentage.
A total of 71 percent of adults did not smoke, 38 percent ate a healthy diet, 10 percent had a normal body fat percentage, and 46 percent were sufficiently active.
Only 2.7 percent of all adults had all four healthy lifestyle characteristics, while16 percent had three, 37 percent had two, 34 percent had one, and 11 percent had none.
Women were more likely to not smoke and eat a healthy diet, but less likely to be sufficiently active.
Mexican American adults were more likely to eat a healthy diet than non-Hispanic white or black adults.
Adults 60 years and older had fewer healthy characteristics than adults ages 20-39, yet were more likely to not smoke and consume a healthy diet, and less likely to be sufficiently active.
More research is needed, experts say, to identify ways to increase the adoption of multiple healthy lifestyle characteristics among adults.

This study was published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings and was done in collaboration with researchers from the University of Mississippi and the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. The lead author was Paul Loprinzi, who graduated from OSU and who’s now at the University of Mississippi.

Link

Interesting results. What exactly is a normal body fat percentage?[/quote]

Post: #2

Are you asking what is considered a normal BF%?

I reckon anything up to 30 for a man is considered normal these days.

Post: #3

From the corresponding ScienceDaily article:

Let me footnote these too.

For each of the four 'markers'
* 71 percent of adults did not smoke
* 38 percent ate a healthy diet
(the researchers defined "ate a healthy diet" as "be in the top 40 percent of Americans". No wonder it's about 38 percent!)
* 10 percent had a normal body fat percentage
(the researchers used absorptiometry, which isn't just BMI)
* 46 percent were sufficiently active.
(defined as 150 minutes of "moderate" exercise per week)

And so in total:
* 2.7 percent of all adults had all four healthy lifestyle characteristics
* 16 percent had three
* 37 percent had two
* 34 percent had one
* 11 percent had none

Post: #4

(03-22-2016 02:08 PM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  Are you asking what is considered a normal BF%?

I reckon anything up to 30 for a man is considered normal these days.

Yeh percentage.

I think you're a bit off. That's something you would see in a movie like Wall-E.

Maybe 15-20% for men?

Post: #5

Post: #6

(03-22-2016 03:03 PM)Mentavious Wrote:  

(03-22-2016 02:08 PM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  Are you asking what is considered a normal BF%?

I reckon anything up to 30 for a man is considered normal these days.

Yeh percentage.

I think you're a bit off. That's something you would see in a movie like Wall-E.

Maybe 15-20% for men?

From the original source:

Quote:Normal weight was defined as 5% to 20% for men and as 8% to 30% for women.

http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/art...0043-4/pdf

I bet the main reason hardly anybody meets all four factors is that their measure of a healthy diet is based off of USDA standards.
http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/sites/default/f...tsheet.pdf
There's no calorie count aspect of the measure they used, so someone eating 6000 calories a day of bread and drinking a ton of fruit juice would score better than someone following the lean gains diet.

Post: #7

Delete

Post: #8

^^ Well there we go.

I didn't read the article, I just picked a number based on what I thought the average man on the street would consider "normal".

I'm alway shocked at how fat people consider "normal" to be.

Post: #9

(03-22-2016 03:21 PM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  I'm alway shocked at how fat people consider "normal" to be.

obese is basically considered normal nowadays in the US. you have to veer into true morbid obesity now to be considered "fat."

every time i see a feminist screed on the MSM about how terrible men are for wanting thin women and how "unrealistic" those body types are, i think how i've been with women who basically have those victoria's-secret-model body types. it's not that difficult to find, if you're in EE or certain latin american countries. wouldn't be that hard to find in the US either, if we could get gringas to put down the starbucks, lift weights and eat real food.

Post: #10

I call shenanigans on the methodology of this "study". While I will not disagree that most of america are fat as phuck, Ensam highlighted some dubious research methodology.

What is "moderate" exercise? What is healthy eating?

I eat 3 hard boiled eggs a day. I've been told this is unhealthy yet my blood tests conclude otherwise. I also eat upwards of 3000 calories.

I hate it when reporters post bull crap like this and not outline what the researchers did to derive their results. There's a special place in hell for people who do this.

Post: #11

It's bunk, if the scientists were using the 'healthy diet' we all learned in school then it's ni wonder. That's like saying "only 3% of Americans who eat McDonalds everyday are healthy."

Even though I disagree with their method, I do however suspect the actual percentage is not far off. I'd rank health on mental capability(test for brain fog), ease of fatiguing, hormonal levels, and then bmi. Well beyond what was studied here.

Post: #12

(03-22-2016 02:08 PM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  Are you asking what is considered a normal BF%?

I reckon anything up to 30 for a man is considered normal these days.

I remember at the time Elvis died people were shocked, SHOCKED!!, that he was tipping the scales at a massive, whopping, morbidly obese, 260 lbs.

I have a feeling that's pretty close to median weight for the average N American male these days...

Post: #13

(03-22-2016 03:21 PM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  ^^ Well there we go.

I didn't read the article, I just picked a number based on what I thought the average man on the street would consider "normal".

I'm alway shocked at how fat people consider "normal" to be.

I agree here, it's pretty sad; reminds me of public schools dumbing down the passing standards simply because not enough students are graduating with basic skills.

The other day I heard a person say 125 lbs for a 5'7'' guy is "extremely thin" even though this is perfectly within the normal BMI rage (about 19.5).

(Turned out the person who said this was a woman who weighed 215 lbs; go figure).

(03-26-2016 08:19 AM)ed pluribus unum Wrote:  

(03-22-2016 02:08 PM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  Are you asking what is considered a normal BF%?

I reckon anything up to 30 for a man is considered normal these days.

I remember at the time Elvis died people were shocked, SHOCKED!!, that he was tipping the scales at a massive, whopping, morbidly obese, 260 lbs.

I have a feeling that's pretty close to median weight for the average N American male these days...

This why people should go by what doctors and nutritionists say, rather than what fatties on Yahoo answers or Tumblr say is "normal".

Post: #14

I am one of them.

Post: #15

Quote:Normal weight was defined as 5% to 20% for men and as 8% to 30% for women.

Quote:10 percent had a normal body fat percentage

Holy goddamn, fuck. That's even worse than I would have expected.