Are Poles the „fittest“ Europeans?

[u/scurrilous_diatribe]

Currently Poland for the weekend, and It seems like the average pole is either „military buff fit“, or „cyclist endurance fit“. I mean even the dudes with the plumber-bodies despite having a beer-belly, have arms that could lift trucks. That type of „farmer-strength“ build

If Europe ever was to do a similar version of that Netflix show in South Korea „physical: 100“, it should definitely take place here.

[u/Eshinshadow]

Are you in a centre of a large city? Because that is where more wealthy, healthier people live. Polish people are in general not really fit.

[u/scurrilous_diatribe → u/Eshinshadow]

I was in krakow and Katowice

[u/Downtown-Theme-3981 → u/Eshinshadow]

But you will find more fit people in small cities, not large ones

[u/ErebusXVII → u/Downtown-Theme-3981]

You will find fit people in rich places, it's doesn't matter if it's downtown of a city, satellite town or village.

[u/Downtown-Theme-3981 → u/ErebusXVII]

I meant specifically in Poland, and no, they are not rich in 95% cases.

[u/ErebusXVII → u/Downtown-Theme-3981]

Sure, these people always consider themselves poor, even if they are above the 90th percentile. That's another signature of this socioeconomic group.

It's also common for these people to not understand "why aren't the others buying the high quality food too".

[u/Alone_Act7470]

No, check the overweight map

[u/Ecstatic-Method2369 → u/Alone_Act7470]

That doesnt look great for all of Europe, sadly.

[u/pannenkoek0923 → u/Ecstatic-Method2369]

Really depends on how they classify overweight. If this map uses BMI then it is worthless.

More than 20% of the country lives in the capital region here and I barely see anyone extra chunky, let alone obese

[u/Regular_Resort_1385 → u/Alone_Act7470]

Scary that the lowest bracket is max 48...

[u/Jagarvem → u/Regular_Resort_1385]

The very lowest is Italy coming in at 41.3%. The others in the bracket are closer to that limit.

Being overweight (50.8%) is more common than the category labelled "normal" (47.6%).

[u/Masseyrati80 → u/Alone_Act7470]

Thanks for the link!

People have started to criticize the BMI system, but it still does tell a lot on the national and international scale of things.

As an anecdote: I peaked in performance in bicycle racing as I was hovering right at the limit of being underweight in terms of BMI. I was healthiest and happiest, and most capable of trying new sports, when I was smack bang in the middle of the normal weight bracket. And now that I'm tickling the limit of being overweight, long uphills on foot, ski or bicycle feel like struggles instead of interesting and enjoyable challenges.

[u/Alone_Act7470 → u/Masseyrati80]

It’s true BMI is a bad indicator when you have a lot of muscle, but the average human doesn’t go to the gym, I’d say most of the people don’t do ANY sports nowadays.

[u/ErebusXVII → u/Alone_Act7470]

At no point in history majority of people did sport. In fact, the amount of people doing any sport was never higher.

But the regular life is much easier and food cheaper - and less healthy.

[u/Jagarvem → u/Masseyrati80]

BMI is an index, not a health evaluation tool. Sure it could serve as a very basic rule of thumb, but it's not meant to be applied at the individual level. Especially not as some system of weight classification.

It's a population-level statistical tool. It has its limitations and biases, but it is generally fine for averages and trends over a broad population.

[u/aagjevraagje]

Not statistically no the Poles don't top any of the health lists

[u/Vertitto → u/aagjevraagje]

even worse - we usually end up being among the worst on the continent

[u/cieniu_gd]

Absolutely not. I would say Dutch with their cycling craze and Norwegians with their trekking habits are way, wayy more fit. French have better diet. Poland is quite low on life expectancy comparing to the Western Europe.

[u/[deleted]]

I live in NL and I think the Dutch are pretty close to the fittest I’ve seen in Europe. Everyone is very active and there’s a huge sporting culture here.

[u/aagjevraagje → u/[deleted]]

I believe Norway , Iceland , Switzerland and Sweden have us beat on the health index but it's like a difference of one point

[u/skyduster88]

The EU actually collects data about this.

Here's the share of persons aged 15 and over performing non-work-related physical activities at least once a week, by type of activity, in 2019.

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=File:Share_of_persons_aged_15_and_over_performing_non-work-related_physical_activities_at_least_once_a_week,_by_type_of_activity,_2019_(%25).png.png)

Do keep in mind that there may also be generational differences, and that the relatively low numbers for Poland may mask generational differences (maybe younger adults keep fit, but older adults don't), and maybe also regional and rural-urban divides.

Another possibility is that the relatively few Poles who do keep fit, tend to be more intense. For example, the US has a higher obesity rate than any county in Europe, however in the US, building muscle / lifting / bodybuilding is much more popular than in Europe. A French friend of mine made a similar observation about the US, and said he thinks it's because "people came to America to build a new country". No, it's just culture and what's culturally more popular.

[u/orthoxerox → u/skyduster88]

Looks like the Nordics+Germany are the biggest gymbros. Weird than only 60% of the Dutch reported cycling for more than 10 minutes.

[u/Bierzgal]

I'm quite confident that we are not. The contrary probably as far as Europe goes. I think Italy is the slimmest.