Am fat.... So what?

[Precambrian]

I don't care for the fact that I am fat. Should I? Isn't "uncool being fat" a myth propagandised by the media and the concerned industry? Why

Do you really care that you are fat? If not, join the club.

The only angle of being fat that worries is me is the potential health problems. Right now, I've been overweight for about 12 years, and yet I don't have much problem in my daily life.

Can we discuss this? I really am at a loss when people tell me that I should reduce, and it sometimes grinds my gear like nothing else.

Are we not becoming a tad obsessed with the notion that good looks = slim? After an age, do we really care? What is the entire point of being dandy if you can't back it up with inner qualities? Or that's the world has come to?

And why people judge others just based on their appearance?

[LongHopCassidy]

Pics???

[Jono]

Gotta love the ads related to the thread topic...

[KiWiNiNjA]

Fat People

[inbox24]

Post a pic of yourself Precamb. What are your numbers?

Obviously if you're comfortable being overweight then that's fine who cares what other people think (unless it's affecting your career or love life or something important). But you gotta think of the long term consequences, because it increases your risk of getting heaps of major diseases when you get older.

[profernity]

I'm personally more concerned with fitness, because that's something I notice more often, eg. how many stairs I can climb before beginning to tire, how quickly can I walk from the train station before starting to sweat, etc.

If there's one thing about the body, it's that it is capable of dealing with a range of stresses with minimal physiological effect. I think this extends to weight, ie. "the bathtub theory". If you think of a graph with the x-axis as weight, the y-axis as risk of physiological damage, the plot follows a "bathtub" shape. That is, very low and very high body mass will correspond to a statistically higher risk, but weight range in between is relatively lower. The morbidly obese, and anorexic/bulimic are at serious risk of cardiovascular disease and organ failure, that is not debated. What is debated is the relative risk for those who fall in between, esp. the overweight.

The public message is being fat=bad. I think clarification must be made. It is poor diet and lack of adequate fitness that are risk factors for cardiovascular disease, not "weight" per se. In my opinion, it is better to be overweight and adequately fit, than the "right weight" with a poor lifestyle. And yes, I am overweight. however, I have been working on my strength and cardiovascular fitness lately, and find myself feeling much better, where others at my workplace are thinner but struggling to get through the day without chugging 5 coffees a day.

The message is: it's your fitness and diet you should keep an eye on, not your weight. It just so happens that often when we improve our lifestyles the weight is lost as well. But not always, and sometimes not to the extent we would like to for aesthetic purposes.

Disclaimer: I graduated as a pharmacist in 2006. But I am not a doctor, or a currently practicing pharmacist for that matter. This is just my personal opinion.

[pup11]

There is nothing wrong with being fat, if you don't have a problem with that, but of course as inbox said the diseases that one might invite due to being obese are obviously not cool.

I have been a bit of a fitness freak since a very young age, but since my back problems started, I was put off my workout regime, and that led to me gaining a lot of weight, but in the last two months, I have been working my backside off to get back in shape, and that's not just necessarily to look good, but also to avoid the problems that being obese can cause in the longer run.

Then not to forget, if you are too overweight, it could certainly rocks your self-esteem, confidence, and social life (though that might vary from person to person).

[Pratters]

Fat people are usually unhealthy and prone to much more diseases. They are also unfit by large. It is better to be in shape than being fat 100/100 times regardless of how comfortable or not you are of being fat.

[Matt79]

Originally Posted by Precambrian

I don't care for the fact that I am fat. Should I? Isn't "uncool being fat" a myth propagandised by the media and the concerned industry? Why

Do you really care that you are fat? If not, join the club.

The only angle of being fat that worries is me is the potential health problems. Right now, I've been overweight for about 12 years, and yet I don't have much problem in my daily life.

Can we discuss this? I really am at a loss when people tell me that I should reduce, and it sometimes grinds my gear like nothing else.

Are we not becoming a tad obsessed with the notion that good looks = slim? After an age, do we really care? What is the entire point of being dandy if you can't back it up with inner qualities? Or that's the world has come to?

And why people judge others just based on their appearance?

So long as you've got a decent personality, it doesn't matter.


Not sure what you're going to do though...

[Hoggy31]

Now you're a fat ****.

[inbox24]

Originally Posted by profernity

I'm personally more concerned with fitness, because that's something I notice more often, eg. how many stairs I can climb before beginning to tire, how quickly can I walk from the train station before starting to sweat, etc.

If there's one thing about the body, it's that it is capable of dealing with a range of stresses with minimal physiological effect. I think this extends to weight, ie. "the bathtub theory". If you think of a graph with the x-axis as weight, the y-axis as risk of physiological damage, the plot follows a "bathtub" shape. That is, very low and very high body mass will correspond to a statistically higher risk, but weight range in between is relatively lower. The morbidly obese, and anorexic/bulimic are at serious risk of cardiovascular disease and organ failure, that is not debated. What is debated is the relative risk for those who fall in between, esp. the overweight.

The public message is being fat=bad. I think clarification must be made. It is poor diet and lack of adequate fitness that are risk factors for cardiovascular disease, not "weight" per se. In my opinion, it is better to be overweight and adequately fit, than the "right weight" with a poor lifestyle. And yes, I am overweight. however, I have been working on my strength and cardiovascular fitness lately, and find myself feeling much better, where others at my workplace are thinner but struggling to get through the day without chugging 5 coffees a day.

The message is: it's your fitness and diet you should keep an eye on, not your weight. It just so happens that often when we improve our lifestyles the weight is lost as well. But not always, and sometimes not to the extent we would like to for aesthetic purposes.

Disclaimer: I graduated as a pharmacist in 2006. But I am not a doctor, or a currently practicing pharmacist for that matter. This is just my personal opinion.

Oh really now? Which uni?

I'm doing pharmacy atm too.

[silentstriker]

I'm fat, and I don't like it because its extremely unhealthy. I am prone to so many more diseases that it's not even funny. And when you do get a disease, you take longer to recover, and many times it increases your chances of serious or fatal complications by a huge factor. I don't want to develop diabetes, heart problems, and a million other things. Generally, when people tell you to lose weight, they are doing it because they care for you, but generally you know yourself when you're fat and you can do more. Unless you're delusional and think its because of a thyroid problem. Sorry, but 90% of the fat population of the United States does not have a thyroid problem, I laugh every time I hear it. It's true in such a minority of cases.

Any case, that's an aside, but I cringe when people talk about accepting people who are fat and somehow celebrating it. It's one thing to be an asshole to someone, but we as a society shouldn't be condoning such a lifestyle - it's a burden on all society, not just a personal thing. Obviously there shouldn't be any discrimination, but there definitely ought to be a moderate to strong social disapproval. Like there is with drunk driving these days, and slowly with smoking (at least around here).

And I'm speaking as an obese guy who has dropped quite a bit but needs to drop a lot more pounds.

[Jamee999]

It depends what you mean by fat - if you're just a bit overweight that's not really a disaster, but if you're 5'2'' and 20 stone, then yeah, you might wanna do something about that...

[Craig]

Originally Posted by pup11

There is nothing wrong with being fat, if you don't have a problem with that, but of course as inbox said the diseases that one might invite due to being obese are obviously not cool.

I have been a bit of a fitness freak since a very young age, but since my back problems started, I was put off my workout regime, and that led to me gaining a lot of weight, but in the last two months, I have been working my backside off to get back in shape, and that's not just necessarily to look good, but also to avoid the problems that being obese can cause in the longer run.

Then not to forget, if you are too overweight, it could certainly rocks your self-esteem, confidence, and social life (though that might vary from person to person).

I'm convinced you would have to break both my legs or made sure I couldn't move, because that would be the only way for me to put on a lot of weight, because if I start being inactive and eat a lot of crappy foods, my mind starts playing games with me and I have to be active, some how. According to the scales at the gym I signed up for, I'm 77kg, but I don't have a lot of body fat on me.

Originally Posted by silentstriker

I'm fat, and I don't like it because its extremely unhealthy. I am prone to so many more diseases that it's not even funny. And when you do get a disease, you take longer to recover, and many times it increases your chances of serious or fatal complications by a huge factor. I don't want to develop diabetes, heart problems, and a million other things. Generally, when people tell you to lose weight, they are doing it because they care for you, but generally you know yourself when you're fat and you can do more. Unless you're delusional and think its because of a thyroid problem. Sorry, but 90% of the fat population of the United States does not have a thyroid problem, I laugh every time I hear it. It's true in such a minority of cases.

Any case, that's an aside, but I cringe when people talk about accepting people who are fat and somehow celebrating it. It's one thing to be an asshole to someone, but we as a society shouldn't be condoning such a lifestyle - it's a burden on all society, not just a personal thing. Obviously there shouldn't be any discrimination, but there definitely ought to be a moderate to strong social disapproval. Like there is with drunk driving these days, and slowly with smoking (at least around here).

And I'm speaking as an obese guy who has dropped quite a bit but needs to drop a lot more pounds.

Likewise, I'm quite fit, but last year I could not stop getting sick, I had the flu quite a few times and a bout of bronchitis and I have just got over the flu now. I'm interested as to why that is the case. I've been told it is was because my immune system was down, but I'm not sure if that is the only reason.

[profernity]

Originally Posted by inbox24

Oh really now? Which uni?

I'm doing pharmacy atm too.

Sydney Uni.

Once again I must emphasise that a healthy lifestyle should be number 1 priority for prevention of chronic diseases such as cardiac failure, Type II diabetes, renal impairment - fat is generally lost because of improved lifestyle anyway, but it cannot be a target in and of itself.