Congratulations, America! Over the past few decades, our citizens have gone from tipping the scales to outright bending them. The percentage of American adults who are considered obese is a whopping 36.5 percent. That’s more than one out of three people who are shopping for elastic waistbands. And, while life expectancy in America has gone up 10 years since the 1950s, the average person is now 26 pounds heavier, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Imagine what the increase in life expectancy would be without our unhealthy weight gain.
How did we get here? The unfortunate truth: It’s far more complicated than just exercising too little or eating too many Baconators. Many factors contribute to how much we weigh, and they’re not always easy to suss out. You may think you know why you’re packing on the pounds, but the truth may surprise you. Here are a few less obvious reasons why America is now the land of the fat.
Even our salads are crazy fattening
A McDonald’s Big Mac has 540 calories and 28 grams of fat, but there are dozens of chain restaurant salads that are far unhealthier. Applebee’s has a 1,420-calorie Oriental chicken salad — a mix of fried chicken, greens and heavy vinaigrette — that has a hefty 99 grams of fat. Not to be outdone, Chili’s 1,440-calorie Quesadilla Salad Explosion has 96 grams of fat and a cheese quesadilla on the side. Even the make-your-own places, such as Chopt, can deliver a belly bomb if you choose ingredients such as fried chicken, bacon or a creamy dressing.
We drink our calories
“Sugary dessert-like coffee drinks and smoothies have become the new normal,” says Kira Stokes, an NYC- and Westchester-based personal trainer. “Psychologically, people may feel that, because they are drinking their meals instead of actually chewing, they are not ingesting calorie-dense offerings.”
Wrong. Take the pumpkin-spice-latte boom. Since 2003, Starbucks has served more than 200 million PSLs and is estimated to earn more than $100 million a year from the sugary beverage. That’s nothing to celebrate. A 16-ounce PSL with whole milk and whipped cream has 420 calories.
We don’t get enough sleep
Start tucking yourself in a bit earlier. One in three Americans don’t get the proper amount of rest (seven or more hours per day), according to a 2016 report by the CDC.
“Sleep-deprived people skip workouts and rely on sugary foods as energy boosters,” says Stokes. “When you lack sleep, you increase your appetite for high-calorie-dense foods, which, over time, can lead to weight gain.”
Sugar is in damn near everything
It’s not just for desserts. Manufacturers sneak the sweet stuff into most everything on store shelves and restaurant tables. Ragu tomato sauce has as much as 10 grams of sugar per serving — the same as a cookie — and many of its competitors are similarly sweet. It’s also in salad dressings, peanut butter, protein bars, crackers, flavored booze, bread and even sushi, where the rice is often mixed with a vinegar-sugar solution.
“Americans on average consume about 88 grams of added sugars per day,” says David Zinczenko, author of “Eat This, Not That!” and the forthcoming “Zero Sugar Diet.” The World Health Organization recommends adults get no more than 10 percent of their total caloric intake from sugar — roughly 52 grams a day.
We love fad ingredients
Instead of eating a balanced diet, some put their faith in the trendy food of the minute, from chia to coconut oil. Too bad some of those healthy foods aren’t so healthy. Coconut oil, for example, is extremely high in saturated fat. It’s “worse than lard,” according to Alona Pulde and Matthew Lederman, doctors and authors of “The Forks Over Knives Plan.”
We’re fooled by labels
Just because it says “organic” or “natural” on the label doesn’t mean it’s healthier. “Natural” potato chips are still potato chips.
“Calories matter, period,” says Maik Wiedenbach, a Midtown-based personal trainer and former Musclemania bodybuilding champion. “If you have two people, one eats under his caloric threshold at McDonald’s, the other overeats with organic foods, the Mickey D’s guy will be leaner.”
We put too much faith in exercise
“The main culprit are the LCD displays on the cardio machines, giving the calories burned per hour,” says Wiedenbach. “Not only are they inaccurate, they also do not take into account that the human body is great at adapting. The first time you run a mile, it may cost you 400 calories, but then your body gets more efficient [during later runs], so you are only burning 200 calories or less.”
We’re disregarding the calorie counts on menus
Remember when then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg helped pass a law mandating that chain restaurants post the calorie counts of their dishes on the menu? He claimed it would lead to diners making healthier choices. But the opposite has happened. A 2012 study in the American Journal of Public Health found that menu labeling seemed to lead to customers choosing higher-calorie options.
We think diet soda is healthy
Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center monitored 475 adults for 10 years, and in 2015 found that the participants who drank diet soda saw a 70 percent increase in waist circumference compared with those who didn’t drink any. Those who drank more than two per day suffered a 500 percent waist expansion.
“That’s because aspartame raises blood glucose levels to a point where the liver cannot handle it all, and the excess is converted into fat,” says Zinczenko.
We’re too medicated
Certain prescription medications lead to overeating, says Maria Bella, a dietitian and nutritionist based in Midtown. Beta blockers slow down heart rate and blood pressure, leading to fewer calories burned during exercise, for example. Antidepressants may increase appetite. Antibiotics also lead to weight gain. Danish researchers concluded that babies given antibiotics within six months of birth were more likely to be overweight by age 7. The medicine can also be found in our food, especially meat and dairy. Many suppliers are now trying to lessen their use, but from 2009 to 2014, sales of antibiotics for animals used in food production jumped 22 percent, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
