Should being fat be socially unacceptable

[rollinstok]

I think the 150,000 nurses would still be busy. The 50,000 doctors too.
The 1,000,000 beaurocrats, advisers, accountants, etc would have to hang up their pens. I'm sure the Guardian vacancy column would be popular for a while.

 

[Ashtrayhead]

I don't think so. I am not fat.

So you cycled approx 7,300 miles for three years? Or 2 miles then 3, then 21,979 miles?

Joking aside I would examine carefully your nutrition because on the face of what you have writ something does not add up. Maybe your portions are huge or you just simply are in denial? Sandwiches for an eveming meal is just asking to pile on the pounds. Eat your carbs early in the morning and at lunch time then have a snack protein based at the end of the day with very few carbs. Do not eat past 7pm at the very latest so you have a chance to digest food before you go to sleep. Drink lots of water. Exercise hard and regularly.

You seem to think it is hard just for fatties to lose weight and get fit. It is hard for everyone even those who are normal weight thin. Even athletes. Marathon runners don't find it easy to stay fit they have to be single minded and train hard as do pro cyclists who spend many hours in the saddle riding hard. These guys can't eat enough. The only difference is that non fatties are more singleminded, extremely motivated and determined to achieve their goals. I find that fatties blame everything or every one but themselves. It is not so much over eating which of course it is, but more often under performing ie lack of activity ie moving their backsides which they prefer to sit on. They are in reality bone idle.

I think they remain overweight because they don't really bother about what people think about them and make up their own minds how they run their lives.

 

[ladyjulian]

Are we pretending that fat people are all tolerant and non-judgemental? I've come across some right nasty fat people in my time.
Next you'll be be telling us fat people have a great sense of humour!

Not at all, but our hypothetical twins are exactly the same in all respects other than their weight. (So they have just as good a sense of humour as one another.) We're told both are nice guys. If we'd been told one was nice and the other nasty, that would be different.

 

[MrJamie]

How can you have a "relatively good level of fitness" if you have an unhealthy BMI and a beer belly? Please explain. What do you consider a "relatively good level of fitness"?

You are in denial.

I was talking relative to society in general and in the context of this thread, that there is already a stigma about being overweight and fat, and that in order to avoid being fat without doing exercise many people particularly young women skip meals and eat poorly to dodge nutrition, have a healthy BMI but poor fitness.

It depends on what you think is a healthy BMI, 18-25 is "healthy" according to wikipedia. It seems theres a fair few people on here with a BMI over this and have a little extra around the middle, but who do exercise regularly and perhaps dont smoke/drink excessively and have a good level of fitness relative to the sedentiary general populus.

I appreciate the blunt truth approach but I dont think i have any denial issues. I know my having a BMI over 30 isnt something to be content with, but it used to be over 40 so Im doing something about it. I think as a regular cyclist and runner, non-smoker, decent nutrition, plenty of rest/sleep etc that its okay to consider my level of fitness relatively good compared to the average.

I guess it depends how you measure fitness, but im confident im above average whenever ive checked resting heartrate, vo2max, heartrate recovery.

 

[al78]

I was talking relative to society in general and in the context of this thread, that there is already a stigma about being overweight and fat, and that in order to avoid being fat without doing exercise many people particularly young women skip meals and eat poorly to dodge nutrition, have a healthy BMI but poor fitness.

It works both ways as well. I've had comments before now on how skinny I look and how I need a decent meal. For some reason this is seen as fair game whereas if I were to tell someone they could do with a bit more exercise and a bit less food that would be classed as rude.

 

[ufkacbln]

How can you have a "relatively good level of fitness" if you have an unhealthy BMI and a beer belly? Please explain. What do you consider a "relatively good level of fitness"?

You are in denial.

Where does the beer belly comein?

An unhealthy BMI is not actually restricted to the overweight

 

[pubrunner]

It was raised, and largely ignored, earlier but which features higher in the list of Lebensunwertes Leben, the 20 stone cyclist, the 16 stone drinker or the 12 stone geek?

Well, obviously not the drinker . . . . . . . whilst they still have money to spend.

 

[jonny jeez]

I was talking relative to society in general and in the context of this thread, that there is already a stigma about being overweight and fat, and that in order to avoid being fat without doing exercise many people particularly young women skip meals and eat poorly to dodge nutrition, have a healthy BMI but poor fitness.

It depends on what you think is a healthy BMI, 18-25 is "healthy" according to wikipedia. It seems theres a fair few people on here with a BMI over this and have a little extra around the middle, but who do exercise regularly and perhaps dont smoke/drink excessively and have a good level of fitness relative to the sedentiary general populus.

I appreciate the blunt truth approach but I dont think i have any denial issues. I know my having a BMI over 30 isnt something to be content with, but it used to be over 40 so Im doing something about it. I think as a regular cyclist and runner, non-smoker, decent nutrition, plenty of rest/sleep etc that its okay to consider my level of fitness relatively good compared to the average.

I guess it depends how you measure fitness, but im confident im above average whenever ive checked resting heartrate, vo2max, heartrate recovery.

Ditto.
I've long learnt to ignore BMI...its useless for me. I weigh 17 Stone and despite my height (6'2'') I am classed as morbidly obese.

Yet, I don't have a belly and feel like I am possibly only a couple of stone overweight. Problem is I have a very broad chest and shoulders and am generally well built (I am described by many as having a typical rugby payer physique).

In many of the sporting activities that I practice (and am attracted to because of my physical size/shape), my peers are also classed as obese.Yet I will happily cycle 220 miles a week to and from work, swim 40 lengths (front crawl) in under 30 minutes and rip through 2 hours of spin classes all without issue.

So BMI is not a good nor accurate reference point.

I heard that height versus waist measurement is a new ratio that the government is considering...as large waisted males are most likely to become diabetic, have heart conditions and become a drain on the NHS be unhealthy.

 

[jonny jeez]

Someone up thread said fat ugly people get discriminated against in the work place. Less chance of being the biggest earner, getting that job ect.

Well thats rubbish

99 % of the people running this country and in parliament are fat and ugly

Ah but you are forgetting they have money and power. those two qualities seem to outweigh (see what I did there) the issue of fattyness.

I know this was said tongue in cheek but actually, I suspect very few "successful" politicians are overweight (by much) there are some for sure but most seem quite lean, wirey and all the more shifty because of it.

"Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o' nights;
Yond' Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous"

 

[tyred]

Absolute rubbish. Doing hard and regular exercise everyday meaning you increase the energy that your body needs means you WILL lose weight and your waist will get smaller. Provided you don't continue to troff pizzas, pies, crisps, cakes, donuts, alcohol, fizzy drinks, etc

Not absolute rubbish.

Not everyone is or wants to be an athlete. I don't cycle or hill walk to be super fast, super fit or super skinny, I do it because that's what I enjoy doing. If it is good for my health, that's a side benefit.

Most people want to enjoy their life, not to become a slave to calorie counters and heart rate monitors.

 

[ufkacbln]

#
A much better Job, with far more resource and far less drains on it.

I guess

Or simply divert the resources to treating the eating disorders, ill health and psychological problems caused by a Society that sees size 0 as desirable?

 

[Paul J]

Why is it that fat people expect the NHS to help them lose weight, after all they shoved the food in their faces in the first place.

 

[ufkacbln]

Why is it that fat people expect the NHS to help them lose weight, after all they shoved the food in their faces in the first place.

Why is it that ultra-thin people expect the NHS to help them gain weight, after all they shoved spoons down their throat to vomit or laxatives in their faces in the first place.

 

[subaqua]

I am an amnesiac bulimic. stuff myself silly and forget to puke.

 

[mcshroom]

Why is it that fat people expect the NHS to help them lose weight, after all they shoved the food in their faces in the first place.

Why is it that cyclists expect the NHS to help them recover from injuries? After all they put themselves on the bike in the first place.