Obesity: Hidalgo County weighs in at No. 1 in U.S.

By Gregg Wendorf
Advance News Journal

For at least the fifth year in a row, Hidalgo County has been ranked the most obese area of the country.

In news stories published this month, McAllen is named the most obese city in the U.S., but the data is based on metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). In our case, it’s the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission MSA, which includes all of Hidalgo County.

Every year, WalletHub releases its list of the 100 Most Overweight and Obese Cities in the U.S.

WalletHub is a company that offers credit scores and reports via a finance website. It uses a wide assortment of metrics every year to gauge the girth of city residents from coast to coast.

We look around Texas and the U.S., watch the expanding waistlines walking by, and there’s little doubt that obesity has become a pandemic (Webster's definition of a pandemic: Occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population).

Why So Obese?

The reason why Hidalgo County is so obese is relatively simple to unpack: fast foods laden with excess sugars, fat and calories, and a population engaging in less and less physical activity each and every year. And the seeming lack of any sort of will power to remain slim. Plus, not to mock what is indeed a serious health issue, Mexican food just tastes so dang good.

If there’s anything that tastes better than a flour taco stuffed with mollejas, grilled onions, and bell peppers, I’ve yet to meet it. Make it two, por favor. When I was a kid, my mom, RIP, turned me onto them, although she called them sweet breads (a cow’s pancreas), which sounds a whole lot worse than sweet breads or mollejas.

Obesity is a sad reality, though, and it affects all age groups. Plus, to make matters worse, if a young child struggles with weight, it’s typically going to be a problem in his or her adult years as well.

When I drive thourhg the fast-food line at the local hamburger joint, in a hurry, and give my order, I’m always asked: Would you like to Super Size that? Or whatever term they use to pack more calories into you.

“No thanks,” I want to tell them. “I’m trying to keep from dying too early, thanks. But I will take your heart-attack hamburger packed with two meat patties and extra bacon.”

There’s now a local doctor advertising a new weight-loss program on the radio.

“You can lose weight without exercising,” he says, without cracking a smile.

And that’s the problem, I think. Too many people looking for a quick fix. Pop a pill, or get a shot, and watch the pounds melt off without any exertion on the patient’s part. Trouble is, this sort of weight-loss plan never works permanently, since permanent weight loss involves an entire lifestyle change that includes eating better foods, consuming less calories overall, and staying fit through regular exercise. In other words, a lifetime commitment to keeping off the weight, which no pill or shot can offer. In the Houston Chronicle several years ago, a story detailed how more than two-thirds of Texas schoolchildren flunked the state’s physical fitness test that year. And yet three years ago, the state legislature loosened the requirements for high school gym class — PE credits needed to graduate were reduced from three semesters to two.

There is a bright spot, though, according to the Chronicle story — the state data concerning elementary and middle-school kids showed they did better than they did four years ago when Texas became the first state to mandate annual fitness testing.

Here’s some irony — in spite of new work-out places springing up everywhere, we’re in worse shape than ever, go figure.

The sad part about the rate of obesity in this country, and in particular, South Texas, is the crushing effect it has on our quality of life, and on our longevity. I’ve been overweight, and I know how life is, dragging around an extra 70 to 100 pounds. And when I drove through the fast-food lane and they asked me if I wanted to Super Size everything, the drink laden with sugar calories, more fries, I said sure, why not. And throw in a milk shake just for fun.

How to Stay Slim

Losing weight isn’t easy. Keeping it off, even harder.

At the age of 44, I ran into a friend who was 20 years older, had been away for the entire summer, had lost weight, and now he looked younger than me. Can’t have that, so I went on a weight-loss diet. Walked two miles every night, limited my caloric intake to 1,200 per day, and within four months, had dropped 60 pounds. Then I lost 30 more.

Have kept off those 90 pounds for 24 years now, but it’s never easy. In fact, it’s a daily struggle, made more difficult the older I get, because as we age, our metabolism slows down with each passing year.

So, through sheer will power, and a strong desire to remain slim, I limit what I eat.

Not only that, but every morning, without fail, I get on the scales. If I gained a pound or two the previous day, I cut back to drop back down.

I now weigh what I weighed when I played high school football, 178 pounds. Twenty-four years ago, I weighed 272. Through my 20s and 30s, I ballooned up and down, drinking too much, eating too much, exercising little.

When I dropped the 90 pounds at the age of 44, I had no clue I would develop bad arthritis in my late 50s. If I hadn’t lost all that weight, by now, I’d be needing knee replacement surgery, hip replacement surgery. No doubt I’d be a diabetic.

Eating a lot is one of life’s pleasures, but so is staying slim, despite the effort it takes.

I only write this to incentivize people currently struggling with weight. If I can do it, a guy who used to have no willpower in my younger days, you can do it too.

Walk outside your front door eveiy evening, walk two miles, use five-pound increments as your goal, because it’s easier to lose five than tell yourself you have to lose 90. When you’ve lost the five, move on to the next five.

YOU CAN DO IT. YOU JUST NEED TO WANT TO DO IT. Where one finds the motivation, for that I have no clue. For me, it was seeing a friend 20 years older look younger because he had lost so much weight. All of us have a certain degree of vanity. I couldn’t have my older friend looking younger because he weighed so much less, so I lost the weight, and I kept it off by weighing myself daily, every morning, without fail.

It’s never too late to slim down. Never.

Next year, let’s hope Hidalgo County isn’t Number 1 at WalletHub’s list of top overweight MSAs.

Besides living better, you may just live longer with a slim waist.

Then again, tomorrow some drunk could run into me head on. Some things are outside our control, but maintaining a healthy weight isn’t one of them. Thankfully.