Gallup Poll shows Americans still delusional about their weight

An opinion poll conducted by Gallup makes the claim that obesity levels in the United States have "stabilized" at 26.2% in 2010. Overweight (but not obese) levels have also stabilized at 36.3%, according to the poll. The telephone survey contacted 300,000 Americans to ask them about their weight. The survey goes to great lengths to categorize the respondents by age, race, ethnicity, sex, income levels, and regional locations. Gallup even goes so far as claiming "one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is 1 percentage point."

Sounds great, right? But the problem is that an opinion poll of this sort is based not only on "self-reporting" but also on the telephone, where the person doing the survey has no opportunity to look to see if the respondent is accurately reporting their height and weight.

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey is one in which results are based on actual physical measurements. Those survey results suggest that the adult obesity rate in the United States is actually close to 34% of the population. This means the actual obesity rate in the US is about 30% higher than what Americans think it is.

The definition of "opinion" is thoughts that are based on beliefs, feelings and emotions as well as facts. Indeed, for a great many people, those beliefs, feelings and emotions are more important than the facts. Another recent poll showed that the vast majority of American believe they consume a healthy diet. But how can that be when 2 out of 3 American adults are overweight or obese?

The point is that asking people on the telephone about their weight is like asking them how they rate their looks compared to everyone else, or asking if their kids are smarter than average. This is America, and the Lake Wobegon Effect is in full force.

The poll clearly shows that Americans believe they are thinner than they really are, but the one thing (besides obesity) we lead the world in is our evaluation of ourselves. A fat reducing overview can help you produce a clear outline of what you require to focus on to accomplish your fat burning objective if you're a novice; or serve as a reminder for the ones who are at an advanced or more enhance step of their weightloss program. Applying are seven steps that can serve as suggestions for your own weight loss plan. The first thing that one must understand is that losing weight and losing fat is not a similar thing. Many weight loss plans have tricked people into thinking that it is the same, but most diets and weight loss programs only work by causing a person's body to burn more muscle cells and water than actual body fat, more help please visit The Fat Loss Factor. We Americans think that Carly Simon is singing about US when she she sings "Nobody Does it Better." Or, as Fast Eddie (Paul Newman) said in the classic film "The Hustler" - "I'm the best you ever seen, Fats. I'm the best there is. And even if you beat me, I'm still the best."

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