When it comes to birthday cake etiquette, there are two
types of people: those that scrape off the frosting in disgust and
those that strategically cut a corner piece for double the sugary
surface area. According to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
a lot of us are going for the corners. About 217 million Americans are
considered overweight or obese, which is roughly two-thirds of the
country.But fear not, the picture of a bloated America could easily change if
we all dropped 20 pounds. Yes, we’re mindful that not everyone could or
even should lose 20 - those that are underweight, children and the
elderly – but we’re talking about the masses.
And full disclosure, as a kid that was forced to shop in the husky
section of Sears, I know all too well the emotional and psychological
toll weight can have on someone’s confidence. This is not fat shaming,
this is simply a hypothetical situation.
So, what if everyone lost 20 pounds?
First, the average American male weighs a little more than 195
pounds, the average American female, weighs about 166 pounds. Based on
these averages, and the CDC’s table for
Body Mass Index
if average American Joe’s and Jane’s dropped 20 pounds, they would no
longer border obesity, but rather border what is considered normal
weight.
Ever tried dropping a few pounds? Then you know that 20 can seem like
a ton. It’s not, actually. It’s about the weight of a spare tire or a
case of beer; interesting to note that one is the namesake for a belly,
while the other is often the cause of its existence.
If we did lose 20, white women might find themselves with a little
extra cash, according to Dr. John Cawley, economics professor at Cornell
University. He examined
30 years of data,
collected on a cross-section of the U.S. population. About 70,000
people were observed from different economic situations, educational
levels, and races. As the subjects were monitored over three decades,
Cawley noticed a pattern among white women; those that were heavier,
tended to earn less money. In most cases, the wage difference was
between 2.8 percent and 5.6 percent.
Keep in mind, this study did not come to the conclusion that weight
gain automatically causes a drop in wages, or that lower wages causes
weight gain. However, the observation is worth attention, considering
that changing your figure, could change some figures.
But even without pay raise, if we lost 20 pounds, we’d have more
money to spend, thanks to saving billions on healthcare costs. According
the
Cawley’s number crunching,
those Americans considered obese spend about $2,700 a year on
healthcare, over someone classified as normal weight. If we eliminated
these bills by losing 20 pounds, the country as a whole, would save
about $190 Billion dollars in healthcare costs associated with obesity.
Now that we’ve dropped a few and saved a bunch, it’s time to shop for some smaller clothes.
For the average American woman, losing 20 pounds is the difference of
two sizes. Because designers pull this little trick called, ‘vanity
sizing,’ there’s no measurable standard among clothing. What one label
considers to be a size 14, another may consider that a 12.
Cathlin Argiro, a designer and professor at New York’s Fashion
Institute of Technology, shared that little tidbit when I asked how big a
difference could 20 pounds make for the fashion world. Basically, a lot
of designers have been telling us that we’re smaller than we are in
actuality, boosting our confidence, pushing us to the register.
With that in mind, the average American woman is either a size 12 or
14. A 20-pound drop, and she suddenly finds herself reaching for an 8 or
possibly a 10. Which opens the door for American manufacturers to
satisfy this new demand for smaller clothing, beating foreign
competition.
Argiro explained that from design sketch to store rack, an American
manufacturer can produce a new piece of clothing in about two weeks. It
takes twice as long, nearly a month, for a manufacturer overseas to
bring something into the stores. Losing 20 pounds could mean a surge in,
‘Made In the U.S.A,’ labels as we rush to fill our closets with
slimmer, trimmer duds.
That is, if we can ever leave our bedrooms.
According to Dr. Deepak Chopra, author of
‘Timeless You,’
and the guy that Oprah made famous by introducing his holistic approach
to medicine, explained that losing 20 pounds would mean a change in
hormone levels. Those changing hormone levels would increase our sexual
vitality.
Chopra explained that our bodies are comprised of feedback loops,
like thermostats that regulate functions like metabolism and hormone
levels.
“When you’re overweight, it disrupts these feedback loops…you’re out of tune with the essence, the fundamental basics of life.”
