Healthy to have good fat stores on your body.

calranthe

I already know this is going to be a controversial topic understand I am speaking from my own personal experience and doing what works for me.
20 years ago my wife got ill, she was overweight at the time 188 pounds and I was 210, illness was not caused or contributed to by weight, it was cancer (acute lymphoblastic leukemia) neither of us smoked or drank alcohol we enjoyed walking but also enjoyed food.

In adults that particular cancer with certain complications is incurable the main aim was to force her body into remission and then put her on a preventative medication that kept the cancer cells in check, two years of chemo, full body irradiation and an A-typical bone marrow transplant (where they take your own bone marrow out clean it and after nuking your body with radiation try to restart your body)

Out of 18 people on the treatment trials we knew of only she survived and the doctors and her consultants all agreed her excess weight was a factor, this is why people in cancer wards are allowed to eat anything they want at any time burgers to ice cream because chemo and irradiation makes it almost impossible for you to eat, time and time again 2 years on a cancer ward I saw healthy body people with low to average bmi wasting away nothing left in there body to fuel them while they could not eat or keep down anything.

Fast forward 20 years and I am on a constant battle to keep my wife's weight up it is currently at 149 and due to the side effects of the medication she can lose 15 pounds on a bad week, this does not mean she eats unhealthy, I do a lot of fresh meals with kale spinach mushroom salmon but I balance this with full english breakfasts and butter/olive oil on everything.

I know that her extra 30-40 pounds during the treatments and illness gave her energy when she could no longer eat.

As for me I am an annoyance to my doctor, 6ft 2 and 267 pounds, obese (slowly dropping my weight down to 230) I have no problem losing weight at the moment I am on course I started at 287, but I am not doing this because my Doctor says my BMI is through the roof.

My blood pressure is almost perfect, my cholesterol and blood work borderline perfect, I walk on average 3 miles a day and push my wife's wheelchair on adventures that can last 10-15 miles.

I love my food from bacon to burgers although I have set myself a short term goal when I reach 253 pounds I get to buy a monster 5 tier burger with everything on it at a local burger place

Only reason I am getting rid of 60+ pounds is I think it will mean I can take my wife on longer adventures but after spending time seeing so many thin and healthy weight people die from illness because they had no stores of energy when it got bad means I will never go below 210.

After all if I am well enough and strong enough at 47 to push my wife around in a wheelchair 176 pounds for 5+ hours over hills and through towns and the only issue is a lot of sweat then I am not doing too bad.

I am curious to hear from anyone else who went through cancer treatments or major apatite destroying illness and how/if your extra pounds of fat served you better than some one with none or less.

amtyrell

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/obesity/obesity-fact-sheet

Cancer is more likely when obese. Survivability is lower when obese. I'm glad your wife is doing well but she is not the typical.

Packerjohn

In some very specific situations excess weight can be a plus. In the vast majority of cases it is not.

Need2Exerc1se

There is a vast gap between obesity and "low to average bmi". I believe this is part of the reason that BF% recommendations are higher in older people than in younger people. Because older people are more prone to illness and yes, having fat stores can help with survival when we are unable to eat (isn't that the purpose of stored fat?). That doesn't mean we need so much stored fat that we qualify as obese.

VintageFeline

Packerjohn wrote: »

In some very specific situations excess weight can be a plus. In the vast majority of cases it is not.

This.

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

There is a vast gap between obesity and "low to average bmi". I believe this is part of the reason that BF% recommendations are higher in older people than in younger people. Because older people are more prone to illness and yes, having fat stores can help with survival when we are unable to eat (isn't that the purpose of stored fat?). That doesn't mean we need so much stored fat that we qualify as obese.

And this.

There are times when it can be useful. But by and large excess body fat, in the obese range, is going to have more risks than benefits so should not be used as reason to stay obese, on the chance of the never never (and I say that understanding cancer is pretty common now but obesity is a higher risk factor than having cancer at a healthy weight).

CSARdiver

I was diagnosed with cancer in 2000. I was at the physical peak and an elite level athlete serving in the military at the time. I went through 2 rounds of chemo, one round of radiation, and two surgeries. I was 6'4" and 204 lbs before diagnosis.

One of the reasons for my fast recovery was that I was in top physical condition, so while I lost a great deal of muscle mass I was able to recover this quickly - never stopped working out throughout the bouts of chemo/rad and pushed the limits.

Most people waste away due to lack of the desire to eat. This by no means suggests that one should remain obese for fear of managing chemo better.

Physicians like to use stats and quite honestly - these are important. BMI is an excellent tracking tool despite the criticism.

If you are holding on to fat for fear of surviving chemo you need to seriously rethink this strategy as the risk far outweigh the rewards.