According to the CDC, I weigh 6% less than the average American woman. My waist is 13% smaller.

March 2, 2022 by Joshua
in Fitness

I stumbled across some CDC statistics on American averages:

  • Men:
    Height in inches: 69.0
    Weight in pounds: 199.8
    Waist circumference in inches: 40.5
  • Women:
    Height in inches: 63.5
    Weight in pounds: 170.8
    Waist circumference in inches: 38.7

I was born with three genetic conditions on weight. One is that if I eat more calories than I use or excrete, I put on weight immediately, mostly fat if I don’t do muscle-building exercise. Another is that I have tremendous difficulty stopping eating until I feel full. A third is that I love the tastes of salt, sugar, and fat and find it hard to resist convenience. If something I find tasty is within reach or view, I generally think about it and want to put it in my mouth.

By contrast, I believe the science that being overfat is unhealthy, lowers mood, and lowers life expectancy, so I prefer to keep myself fit. Given my conditions, I’ve developed ways to live to achieve fitness. Mainly, I keep only healthy foods around me and I categorize doof as different from food. Developing feelings of disgust for doof makes it easy not to put it in my mouth.

I can’t afford to spend what the average American can on food and doof, nor do I have extra time, so I can’t pay extra for food, programs, gyms, etc. I’ve shared my food budget and it’s below the average American’s, even without economies of scale I’d get if I weren’t living alone. My largest single food expense doesn’t even have a category on the chart: dried beans and legumes.

Someone is paying for all that doof, apparently with time and money to burn that I don’t have. Other Americans choose to live differently. Perhaps as a result, according to the CDC I weigh 6% less than the average American woman. My waist is 13% smaller. Apparently the average American man in 1960 would weigh less than the average woman today, so maybe I’m a dinosaur, living an outdated lifestyle. Maybe I should earn more money to be able to afford doof and catch up in weight to American women and men.

Apparently, those numbers for women mean over 45% body fat, the bottom row on the right below.

Read my weekly newsletter

On initiative, leadership, the environment, and burpees

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by Kit

2 responses on “According to the CDC, I weigh 6% less than the average American woman. My waist is 13% smaller.

Leave a Reply

Sign up for my weekly newsletter