A weighty issue

[FurryFury]

Over Eaters Anonymous?

 

[Cattypuss]

Ah, okay - yes, that makes sense! Thanks, both of you.

I may look into it.

Edited to add - oh dear, I've just looked at their website..... as a dyed-in-the-wool atheist, I don't think it would sit well with me - or I with it.

Oh well, I'm sure that one day I'll conquer my demons.

 

[WriterDom]

We admitted we were powerless over food — that our lives had become unmanageable.

Maybe some are. Food is always a choice. Some people just make a lot of bad choices. Maybe it's a comfort thing. Who wouldn't like a milkshake, cheeseburger and fries? I would love that. But I don't eat fried food. Red meat rarely. I'm lucky that I don't have much of a sweet tooth. Give me a 40 calorie frozen fudge thing and I'm happy.

 

[Cattypuss]

We admitted we were powerless over food — that our lives had become unmanageable.

Maybe some are. Food is always a choice. Some people just make a lot of bad choices. Maybe it's a comfort thing. Who wouldn't like a milkshake, cheeseburger and fries? I would love that. But I don't eat fried food. Red meat rarely. I'm lucky that I don't have much of a sweet tooth. Give me a 40 calorie frozen fudge thing and I'm happy.

Everything is always a "choice". Just like alcohol is a "choice" for the alcoholic or heroin is a "choice" for the heroin addict.

I'm guessing you've never been addicted to anything. I suspect if you had you would have a better idea of what it is like to wrestle with "choices".

 

[Netzach]

Ah, okay - yes, that makes sense! Thanks, both of you.

I may look into it.

Edited to add - oh dear, I've just looked at their website..... as a dyed-in-the-wool atheist, I don't think it would sit well with me - or I with it.

Oh well, I'm sure that one day I'll conquer my demons.

There are non-God Anonymous groups too, there are a lot of people who have issues with the higher power part, but the sponsorship and steps part still work for them. I'd ask the group in question what the emphasis is.

 

[Cattypuss]

Thanks Netzach - I'll look into it.

 

[Netzach]

We admitted we were powerless over food — that our lives had become unmanageable.

Maybe some are. Food is always a choice. Some people just make a lot of bad choices. Maybe it's a comfort thing. Who wouldn't like a milkshake, cheeseburger and fries? I would love that. But I don't eat fried food. Red meat rarely. I'm lucky that I don't have much of a sweet tooth. Give me a 40 calorie frozen fudge thing and I'm happy.

Wow, and I'm perfectly content not to go shoot some smack! Isn't that always a choice too?

 

[midwestyankee]

Wow. How can anyone despise cats?



Have you seen my av? I'm a big kitty at my core damn it! Part of me is sub, a tiny part isn't and the core is black kitty see?

*lip quivers*

Ah, FF, you know I'd like you even if you were all cat.

 

[Homburg]

The WHO considers people with a BMI index higher than 25 as overweight and over 30 as obese.

BMI is a stunningly flawed tool. Flawed, in fact, to the point of being almost useless in the cases where it is needed most. The "average" person doesn't need BMI measurements to tell them they're average. The underweight person doesn't need useless height-to-weight measurements to determine if their weight is healthy or not. Body fat percentage is what is useful to determine if their lean muscle mass is sufficient to maintain healthy metabolism.

And people that are overweight per BMI? Again, useless.

http://multimedia.olympic.org/pic/dimas_gal_l_02.jpg

This is Pyrros Dimas. Those shapes you see on the side of his torso are his serratus muscles, not his ribs. It takes a pretty damned low body fat percentage to show serratus like that.

When he blew everyone in the world away on the oly weightlifting stage at, oh, 3-4 different Olympics, Pyrros was ~187lbs at 5'8". That is about a BMI of 29. So, tell me, is Pyrros Dimas obese? Do a google image search for more pics. The man has the body of the stereotypical greek god, and did not get that way with the unhealthy habits of competition (juiced up) bodybuilders. Just loads of hard work and the best diet science could produce.

I am a fat guy. Ain't no denying it. I've lost loads of weight before, and weigh less now that I did at my heaviest, but I'm still fat. However, at my lowest weight as an adult (231lbs at 5'11") I was still in excess of the standards of obese (32 BMI), and I looked pretty bad. My neck and arms were pipe-stem skinny (which made my head look comically huge), my legs had lost muscle tone to the point where I was having difficulty climbing hills on my bike, and I felt like shit. It took gaining about 25lbs (80% of that was muscle per body fat % tests) to get to the point where I felt, and looked, good again.

BMI is not so useful for people of "normal" stature either. My friend K's wife was a slender woman when we first met. She didn't have a model's body, but was slender and looked good. One day she stumbled a bit, so I reached out and grabbed her upper arm to steady her. My fingers sunk in. She had NO muscle mass. After that, I paid attention. She was weaker than a kitten, and couldn't do physical activity in any sort of healthy manner due to a complete lack of strength. BMI would probably show her to be in the normal range, but in reality she was "skinny-fat" as her shape was made of fat, and atrophied, weak muscle. This is NOT HEALTHY.

When you are "under" or "over" normal weight and frame size, BMI is about as useful as tits on a bull. When you are near-"normal" or "normal", it just shows what your eyes already told you.

I am not going to disagree with you that weight issues have become epidemic in this country, but BMI is all but useless. Look at body fat percentage for a more accurate picture of healthy body composition.

--

And the result in the end?

She is slender, and looks great.

And, yes, her BMI is in the "normal" range.

--

Please understand that this is not personal. It's simply an economic fact that the total costs of health care in this country are higher than they need to be because of the high number of weight-related health problems in our population.

They are higher than they need to be because we are stupid as a whole both about how we handle health, and how we handle health-care. And yay for the insurance industry for acting as the enabler in this.

 

[kiss_of_sin]

oh Fury! i will invent a bottle, and stuff that attitude in!

*stuff stuff stuff* and then i'll sell it at McD when they buy a big mac with large fries and a diet coke they get half off you know... incentive. lol.

 

[kiss_of_sin]

for the diet coke. good thinking!

 

[WriterDom]

Wow, and I'm perfectly content not to go shoot some smack! Isn't that always a choice too?

If you are a compulsive eater that's one thing. Some people live off of fast food and go to the grocery store for their desserts. They don't need help and wouldn't ask for help. They are perfectly happy being fat. If they did care there would be a OA on every street corner. The closest one I found was 30 miles away.

 

[kiss_of_sin]

on a side note, i like cats, we can discuss those furry cute little things. like the kittens my friends cat just had. ADORABLE!

or Chipotle and how thats the BEST damn burrito shop ever! and one of the places im gonna go to first when i get back stateside (the first time in three years.)

or maybe we can get a political convo going,... if you think overweight issues were a touchy topic

lalalalala, monroe was a 12 but today its really a 7-8 blah blah blah, last 12 i wore was not a 42 (technically a size 16 to most jean charts...) in the hips, it was a 38 but what should i know, i just buy the damn jeans. lol.

and seriousness, *serious face ppl* doing something you love like volleyball, bike riding, swimming (ME!) or any other sport is an easy way to work out. cuz you're not doing something you have to endure. so yay for the beach!

 

[nh23]

If you are a compulsive eater that's one thing. Some people live off of fast food and go to the grocery store for their desserts. They don't need help and wouldn't ask for help. They are perfectly happy being fat. If they did care there would be a OA on every street corner. The closest one I found was 30 miles away.

And so fucking what. If they are happy being fat, yay for them. They accept their bodies and don't have the bullshit esteem issues the rest of it do.

Some people are perfectly content being ignorant or stupid, not much we can do to change that either. Perhaps just rid the world of anyone with an IQ under 120.

 

[CutieMouse]

And so fucking what. If they are happy being fat, yay for them. They accept their bodies and don't have the bullshit esteem issues the rest of it do.

Some people are perfectly content being ignorant or stupid, not much we can do to change that either. Perhaps just rid the world of anyone with an IQ under 120.

I am so screwed...
















(kidding, kidding - I've never taken an IQ test. )

 

[nh23]

I am so screwed...
















(kidding, kidding - I've never taken an IQ test. )

*giggles* I'm pretty sure you'd be ok. That was me being very sarcastic. Yeah I'm fat, but I have an IQ of 153. Fat people obviously annoy him, I was just showing that maybe stupid people annoy me. (Sarcasm) I like people of all different variety's.

 

[pink]

i'm extremely unhappy with my weight. Yet when it comes to my life, i've never ever been happier.



i know, i'm weird.

 

[the captians wench]

Is it just me?

There seems to be so much discussion of sedentary lifestyles and greed and sugar addiction and junk food and metabolic issues......

I can't be the only person who's fat because of compulsive eating, surely?

I was brought up on dreadful junk and was always a fat child/teen. When I got to my mid-teens I started cooking for myself and discovered how much I like fresh, real food. So no problem there.

.

Nope, actually I had a very simular up bringing. Infact my mom and I still use excusess like "oh we're celebrating x, let's go out to eat", and "I'm upset about y let's go out to eat", or "I had a bad/good day let's go out to eat" you get the idea. When we were both employeed and she lived down the street from me we got to the point where we were eating out 2-3 times a week, mostly at out favorite rib joint. Now we're down to once every other month or so as she's unemployeed and now lives a half hour away.

Also, evenings as a child and up until I moved out on my own, were spent infront of the tv with a bag of chips. It was kind of built in that if you are watching tv, you have to be eating something.

I also have PCOS like Bunny does. And we suspect a thyroid issue.

And let's toss in a dash of emotional eating, a smidge of nervous breakdown when I was 19, and a pinch of being married to a feeder and we get wenchie at 395lbs and a size 24+ (for those of you who have not read my comments on previous topics of this nature when I reached a size 24 I stopped buying clothes and started only making for myself using a lot of elastic and embelishing the patterns to trick myself into believing that I was not bigger than a 24).

I could not stand to look myself in the mirror. I hated going out. Walking across the room winded me. But every night I sat with a bag of chips watching tv or playing video games with my husband.

One day I decided this was rediculous. The first thing I would tackle would be my eating habbits, namely the association of watching tv and putting food in my mouth.

The way I decided to do this was to subsitute carrot sticks for the chips. With chips you can eat a whole bag and not feel full, with carrot sticks you can't. This made me pay more attention to when I was full. Eventually that realization came sooner and sooner and I wasn't stuffing myself with carrots until I felt like I was going to explode.

Soon this translated into my other meals. I didn't feel like I had to eat everything infront of me because it was infront of me. I ate until I was full, then stopped eating.

It took about a year for all of this to happen, and I still have my moments,, like CM with chipotle. But for the most part my eating habbits are under control.

We just have to work on this soda addiction...again.

 

[the captians wench]

btw, I am happy at my current state of fat. Hince you get to see my fat ass with every post.

Would I like to be smaller, yes. But I'm not obsessing over it any more, and I can, and do, look at myself in the mirror and apreciate my shape. I do endulge a bit more than a die hard health nut, and I'm not as strict on my exersice, but I'm happy, and I'm maintaining or slowly loosing. And I'm a healthy fat. I found out about the hypoglycemia when I was at my thinnest, it's not due to my fat. Sure it would take some pressure off my arthritic knees, but so would getting a desk job.

 

[Cattypuss]

Whereas I am extremely unhappy with my current state of fat.

I don't like what I see in the mirror naked, I don't like how I look in clothes (and clothes are extremely difficult to buy cos I carry almost all my weight on my tits and hips and arse and thighs - you can see my ribs, and I have an unbelievable hip-to-waist ratio which is no fun at all for me, despite being something that can make a lot of men drool in an atavistic way.......... hell, I even had a man recently say to me all breathily and huge-pupilled, while stroking his cock "You look like one of those stone-age fertility goddesses"). I hate the way I look. I look like a fucking caricature of a woman. I hate trying to make clothes fit.

I hate the fact that my favourite pastime (second only to sex) (day-long hikes with my dog) makes my hips and my feet hurt for days afterward. I hate the fact that I KNOW I would have more physical energy if I were carrying less weight. I hate knowing that many people who look at me make negative judgements about my intelligence and my personality based on my weight.

I hate the fact that my thighs are so fat that there are only certain positions I can be tied up in.

I hate it all. And I have no problem avoiding bad or too much food, UNTIL the compulsive eating demon takes over my mind and body and makes me stuff myself with food I don't even like but am eating purely because I know it is very fattening. It's a kind of self-harming activity.

I think I need to find me one of those godless OA-type groups lol.

 

[Keroin]

We've done this one before too. Are you a parent? A lot of the times people say things like this they aren't. It's not fair to judge someone by an encounter in the store. Unless of course you see the same kids sucking back coke everyday.

Sometimes I give my kids something they can't normally have to calm them in the store. Sometimes it's a rare treat. Someone can look at me and judge, but have no clue that this is a once a month thing.

Yes some people do this everyday, and that isn't a good thing. I don't disagree there. Sometimes people make judgements without knowing the facts. We're all guilty of it.

I'm not a parent and I'm not making a judgment. I am making an observation. I live on a very small island. I go to the store about every second day. I observe the same kind of behaviour again and again and again. I do not need the WHO or a BMI to tell me that 90% of this population is overweight, or why, I only need my eyes.

Mental health issues rank way up there too. So does cancer. Yet we never see threads about these. Mostly because everyone assumes that all people are fat because of their own bad choices. A lot are, but not all.

There is nothing stopping you, or anyone, form starting threads on these topics. I'd be interested in learning more about cancer and mental health issues. If these topics interest you, or you think they are important, then you should discuss them here.

That wasn't directed at you I was asking WD. However I'm glad that it makes you happy. We should all have the choice to feel that way about our bodies and choices without constantly being bombarded by everyone else.

I realize that wasn't directed at me.

If you read my OP, you'll see what prompted this thread. It wasn't pertaining to any individual or a comment on how people should feel about their bodies. I am discussing a global problem, acknowledged as such by more than one international body, that show no signs of slowing.

 

[the captians wench]

I know exactly what you mean. First place I gain weight is in my tits, the first place I loose it is my waist. My waist is 10-12 inches smaller than my hips and another 2 smaller than my bust. When I wear a corset and hide the fat rolls I am extreamly pleased with myself, but fitting into anything else is a nightmare.

The company that suplies our uniforms stopped making the pleated waist pants. Why I have no idea. They fit me so perfectly I almost ordered a few pair for myself for non work deals. The cut they carry now forces me to go up 2 sizes to a 20 in order to fit over my hips, ass, and thighs, but they are huge in the waist.

I don't know when the day was that I finally found a happy place with my body. For as long as I can remember I've always hated it, even at my smallest it was never small enough, and while my tits have the size, I hated their shape. I'm still not happy with the shape of my boobs, but I don't loose sleep over it anymore. *shrug*

 

[Keroin]

From the World Health Organization...

Facts about overweight and obesity

WHO’s latest projections indicate that globally in 2005:

* approximately 1.6 billion adults (age 15+) were overweight;
* at least 400 million adults were obese.

WHO further projects that by 2015, approximately 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese.

At least 20 million children under the age of 5 years are overweight globally in 2005.

Once considered a problem only in high-income countries, overweight and obesity are now dramatically on the rise in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in urban settings.

What causes obesity and overweight?

The fundamental cause of obesity and overweight is an energy imbalance between calories consumed on one hand, and calories expended on the other hand. Global increases in overweight and obesity are attributable to a number of factors including:

* a global shift in diet towards increased intake of energy-dense foods that are high in fat and sugars but low in vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients; and
* a trend towards decreased physical activity due to the increasingly sedentary nature of many forms of work, changing modes of transportation, and increasing urbanization.

What are common health consequences of overweight and obesity?

Overweight and obesity lead to serious health consequences. Risk increases progressively as BMI increases. Raised body mass index is a major risk factor for chronic diseases such as:

* Cardiovascular disease (mainly heart disease and stroke) - already the world's number one cause of death, killing 17 million people each year.
* Diabetes – which has rapidly become a global epidemic. WHO projects that diabetes deaths will increase by more than 50% worldwide in the next 10 years.
* Musculoskeletal disorders – especially osteoarthritis.
* Some cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon).

Childhood obesity is associated with a higher chance of premature death and disability in adulthood.

Many low- and middle-income countries are now facing a "double burden" of disease:

* While they continue to deal with the problems of infectious disease and under-nutrition, at the same time they are experiencing a rapid upsurge in chronic disease risk factors such as obesity and overweight, particularly in urban settings.
* It is not uncommon to find under-nutrition and obesity existing side-by-side within the same country, the same community and even within the same household.
* This double burden is caused by inadequate pre-natal, infant and young child nutrition followed by exposure to high-fat, energy-dense, micronutrient-poor foods and lack of physical activity.

 

[nh23]

I'm not a parent and I'm not making a judgment. I am making an observation. I live on a very small island. I go to the store about every second day. I observe the same kind of behaviour again and again and again. I do not need the WHO or a BMI to tell me that 90% of this population is overweight, or why, I only need my eyes.



There is nothing stopping you, or anyone, form starting threads on these topics. I'd be interested in learning more about cancer and mental health issues. If these topics interest you, or you think they are important, then you should discuss them here.



I realize that wasn't directed at me.

If you read my OP, you'll see what prompted this thread. It wasn't pertaining to any individual or a comment on how people should feel about their bodies. I am discussing a global problem, acknowledged as such by more than one international body, that show no signs of slowing.

This thread was most likely started with a very good purpose. Read some of the posts though, they always end up with people fat bashing. It gets annoying.

That being said I'm glad you care so much about society. I'm not saying that in a sarcastic manner. What kinds of solutions do you think would be effective?

 

[midwestyankee]

This thread was most likely started with a very good purpose. Read some of the posts though, they always end up with people fat bashing. It gets annoying.

That being said I'm glad you care so much about society. I'm not saying that in a sarcastic manner. What kinds of solutions do you think would be effective?

I don't recall any posts here that I'd call "fat bashing" so I wonder if you could point to a few? What, exactly, does fat-bashing look like to you?