i was reading something earlier that claimed the WHO stated there were 1bil people overweight in the world and 800mil underwieght.   it also said that even in africa 33% of people were overweight

In my Country when i go to poll i see ALOT OF FAT PEOPLE ! ALL EUROPEAN! Everyone asks me what i do for my body , i have ripped 4pack abs and nice chest , arms and legs... yes im bodubuilder not a BEAST just ripped of and trained... im very Athletic but in time i was a little overwieght like 4-5 years ago. But yes europe is getting FATTER at Least in Spain and Portugal and France! Special Portugal... i know alot of Portuguese and they are becoming really FAT!

Cool because my main point was to show that its not just Americas proplem anymore. Its a problem of all western culture with modernization. I would also knoo know as I have lost about 45 lbs in 2 years. Cool to see others gamers still kicking ass with weightlifting and cardio.

americans are just extremists there are extremes to both ends of the stick in most cases compared to other countries

Holy crap is this heaven?

Now I absolutely have to go to the USA. And buy a new kwyboard, drooled all over this one. Damn.

yes!!! us americans are huge giants!!!

How are the percentages of fat people even calculated? Is there a study done on a group of people and it's assumed to work on all 300 million people here? Anyways, I think I've actually seen less fat people lately...

Yes, believe every stereotype you ever hear.  All of them.

Ignorant blanket statements are always a good thing!

One problem with those numbers is the questionable definition of being overweight.

The most popular definition, as used by the WHO, Wii Fit and others, is that a person is overweight or obese if his Body Mass Index is 25.0 or greater, no matter his gender or body stature.

But this definition has a number of shortcomings. For example athletes, bodybuilders etc. generally tend to have a high BMI even though nobody would consider them fat. When Arnold Schwarzenegger won the title of being "Mister Universe" in 1969, his Body Mass Index was greater than 30, making him officially "obese". Ronnie Coleman, who won the the Mr. Olympia contest 8 years in a row, even had a BMI of 41.

Definitions that much better correlate with the common definition of "being fat" would be bodyfat percentage or waist-to-height ratio.

Generally speaking, people from the South tend to be fatter while people from the North-East an West are a bit leaner. However, I think that American obesity is overrated. Sure, we're not thin, but the rest of the world isn't exactly svelte either. According to the links below, even the fattest parts of America are no match for various Mediteranian nations.

http://calorielab.com/news/wp-images/post-images/fattest-states-2008-big.gif

http://www.danoneinstitute.org/objective_nutrition_newsletter/img/ON73/Figure2_ON73.gif