'I'm fat and happy' article. Thoughts?

lemurcat12

synacious wrote: »

snowflake930 wrote: »

perkymommy wrote: »

I will never agree with people who say they are fat and happy. It's not possible. They just want to be that way and settle because they don't want to try to do anything to not be fat anymore because it's too hard to lose weight. That may sound harsh but I've been there myself and thought that way myself at times. It's never okay to be fat or obese, health-wise mainly, but not good.

Not possible for you, but you are judging by your standards. How can you say it is not possible for someone else.

I'm not saying I agree with the statement that people who are fat cannot be happy in their own skin, but I think there is a small truth in the statement as far as the settling bit is concerned.

Let's say you took 100 people who claimed they were happy being overweight, fat, or obese and asked them if they'd like to follow a weight loss plan to be in a healthy weight range and they said no, they're happy with their body. Okay fine, if that's the case then good. Say you then told those 100 people that you had a pill they could swallow where all that work to be done in the gym and changing their eating habits would be negated and all they had to do was take this pill once and lose some weight, how many of those 100 do you think would deny that offer? I'm willing to bet the amount of content people would change immensely.

The fact of the matter is that, no matter your size, being what most consider "fit" is not an easy task. It takes hard work, dedication, and patience. Most people are not willing to put in the effort that it takes to achieve or maintain that level of fitness. It's so much easier to come home and relax or wake up and unwind before work than it is to get into a habit of exercising. It's much easier to just eat what you want without regard to calories or hunger level than it is to consider whether or not you really need to eat at that moment.

I am what many people would consider to be fit but I work hard for that. Working hard does not include starving myself, but it does include keeping an eye on my intake, which is 2000+ as stated above, it takes working out every morning for 30 to 60 minutes, it takes walking several miles per day and being generally active. Even then, I still don't consider myself fit, just a bit above average although people tell me otherwise. The point is that many people want the fitness model body without wanting to put in the work that it takes to get there. Society as a whole wants instant gratification.

Sure, but I don't think that negates the fact that they are telling the truth when they say they are happy.

I'm content with my body. I'm well within the normal weight zone, like that it serves me well when it comes to activity, so on. I'd like to be a bit thinner and have more muscle, but so far not enough to eat at a deficit lately or really change my priorities from the cardio I love to muscle building. If you offered me a pill that would give me my perfect body (without having to continue to worry about what I ate, etc., especially) would I take it? Yeah, probably, if there were no drawbacks. Does that mean I'm not happy where I am? No--in fact, since I live in reality I can even convince myself that having to work for what I want makes me happy, as it means I have goals and achievements to focus on and so on.

BillMcKay1

snowflake930 wrote: »

Francl27 wrote: »

snowflake930 wrote: »

Francl27 wrote: »

snowflake930 wrote: »

Francl27 wrote: »

Dove0804 wrote: »

Francl27 wrote: »

Ok so we don't have the same definition of happy! Very interesting either way to get other points of view.

Just out of curiosity, what IS your definition of happiness? Happiness is complex and very subjective. It seems to me your definition would be unattainable. We hear of people all the time who seemingly have everything- gorgeous movie stars with very desirable spouses and beautiful families, amazing homes, etc.... who are not happy. We feel what we feel- humans are weird like that.

Honestly the key to happiness for me is actually not to have to worry! Obviously there's always something to worry about, but there's a big difference between little worries and 'oh man can I pay my bills this month?'.

And yeah - worrying that you might end up with a heart attack or diabetes would probably end up in the 'not a huge worry for the moment' category - which is why I see why people who are fat can be happy. It's just that I don't think that this kind of happiness can last - because denial only takes you as far as your next doctor check up when they tell you that you're at a big risk for heart disease and insist on taking an EKG. Then you freak out... and that's not 'happy'.

Well, there are no guarantees in life.
You could be in perfect health, with a "perfect" life. Go in to the doctor and get the news that you have some inoperable disease and have a few weeks to live. What then?
No guarantees in life, no matter who you are, or how healthy you think you are. It is not just about overweight people that have health issues. I know, and have known plenty of normal sized people, who have gotten very serious health issues, and some have even succumbed to them. Just saying.
So be happy, don't worry.

Which is pretty much what I said... that people can perfectly be happy being fat. Until they get sick because of it.

Perfect example - my dad. He was very happy. Ate too much, drank too much, although he was never obese, but definitely overweight... well his aorta split when he was 47 because of his blood pressure. He survived, but died 7 years later from complications after a follow-up surgery.

So again, my point - you can be perfectly happy being fat. It just probably won't last forever - and I just don't think that most happy fat people are really aware of that - or they just don't want to think about it.

That's all.

SassyMommasaurus wrote: »

And i have a question, why does being poor mean put me at risk of getting really sick? I have insurance, as do m kids, I go to the doctor regularly.

Now my mother, who gets enough money a month to live comfortably for the rest of her life, can't get insurance because she makes too much and not enough money all at the same time, it would cost her, her whole pay check every month to pay for insurance. She has to be listed as my dependent to get insurance. Last November she was hospitalized because her liver was failing, and she rarely drinks or take any medication that would harm her liver. Now depends on me to take care of her because something is going on and shes become very frail and weak and is a fall risk. She wasn't poor when this happened to her.

The 'getting sick' part was related to being obese.

Do you seriously think that every overweight person gets a health issue directly because of being overweight?
Because that simply is not true. I know this for a fact, because I am one of those people. I was morbidly obese for most of my adult life. I will be 65 in September and have been a normal weight for over 2-1/2 years now. Not a single health related issue. Not a single day off of work in the past 10 years for being sick. Hospitalized only 2 times in my life. Tonsils out at 10 years old. Birth of my daughter at 32 years old, neither condition because of being overweight.

No, not everyone, that's why I said 'probably'. But most people I know who are obese ended up with some health issue when they got into their 40/50s.

Everyone I know who has died in my immediate family (mother, father, bil, sister, fil, mil) has been thin or normal weight. Dad had cancer, mom had emphysema, bil had type 2 diabetes (he was very slender), sister had cancer(3 different types, breast cancer @ 39 (no family history) brain and adrenal cancer at age 54 (which she was diagnosed and died from in 6 weeks) she was teeny tiny, barely 100# soaking wet. Doc's said she had no fat reserves to fight the cancer, go figure. If I had gotten it, I had plenty of fat reserves to tide me over. Father in law, heart disease, hereditary, never overweight in his life. Mother in law, also normal weight. Heavy smoker. Lung disease.

Don't generalize. Not probably. Maybe.

Statistically it is a probably going to happen, not a maybe, that long term obesity will cause health issues.

Your anecdotal evidence is not statistically relevant. Eventually everyone dies of one thing or another. That doesn't mean because your thin relatives had issues doesn't mean obesity isn't a massive driver of chronic illness and mortality.

Right from the CDC

Obesity is common, serious and costly

More than one-third (34.9% or 78.6 million) of U.S. adults are obese. [Read abstract Journal of American Medicine (JAMA)]
Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, some of the leading causes of preventable death. [Read guidelines]
The estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the U.S. was $147 billion in 2008 U.S. dollars; the medical costs for people who are obese were $1,429 higher than those of normal weight. [Read summary]

Just because some super fit athlete dies from a congenital heart defect doesn't negate the hundreds of thousands of obese middle aged folks keeling over from heart attacks every year.

Francl27

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

Francl27 wrote: »

Got to ask though - can someone who's really poor be REALLY happy?

Yes. You obviously can't wrap your mind around it, but it can indeed be achieved. I invite you to consider Bhutan, one of the world's poorest and happiest countries.

Eh. Different circumstances. Different way of life. Ask a homeless person in NYC if they are happy.

CrabNebula

You want to really blow people’s minds? Try this at home: Be fat and happy. Be unapologetically fat. Wear a bikini, and mean it. Eat pizza and ice cream and enjoy it. Drink up your life and a bottle of wine, and make no apologies.

No thanks. I've been down the obesity road before and I can't see how being obese again will improve my self-esteem or self-image or improve my life any. Quite the opposite.

Is it fun to calorie count? No.
Is it fun to exercise 5 days a week? Not always.
Is it fun to tell myself no a lot? No.

On the other hand...

Is it fun to be fat? No.
Am I setting a good example to my child by being obese? No.
Do I want to risk my health and take years off my life simply because I don't want to control my intake? No, not anymore.
Is it worth being obese just to give a big FU to society somehow? Um, no...

kuftae

She doesn't look obese, just fat. If she's happy then good. I mean, yeah, I am fit but i still do a lot of stuff that is not healthy-- like drinking i don't think anybody should shame me for my personal unhealthy choices.