Negative Reinforcement (Don't Read If You Cant Take It)

Morgori

I think Morbidly Obese and Obesity are words that I dislike the most. It makes it sound like its a disorder or disease and somewhat taking away from what it truly is(I am not talking about people that have medical conditions like thyroid issues).

Our society has the tendency to make things sound like it was something you had no control over. Naming it something scientific and or disease related I think deflates it a bit.

The word FAT is something that is synonymous with well being fat and to me it has more of a bite. No one is fat because they have a medical condition, they are fat because they are fat.

I understand your point of view on this. But speaking as a member of the medical profession, I can tell you that obesity IS a disease state. One that, most of the time, you create for yourself, but that doesn't change the fact that once you've multiplied your fat cells and filled them with lipids, it becomes a medical problem. Having too much fat around mucks up all kinds of hormone pathways in your body. Thus the loss of normal satiety reflex, for example. There's also the liver inflammation due to deposits of fat in the liver, the slow destruction of the body's ability to respond to insulin properly (ushering in Type 2 diabetes), the cholesterol-crusted fat deposits in blood vessels all over the body (ushering in heart disease and strokes), the list goes on.

We are NOT talking about just a cosmetic unpleasantness here.

The good news is that every fat person can DO something about it.

Thanks for that post; it really hits home for my morbidly obese, type 2 diabetes, FAT self! The good news is I am doing something about it and will continue until I get to a proper weight.

SabrinaJL

overweight = fat
obese = fatter
morbid obese = fattest

Woo, I'm fattest... Did I win?

I don't think you want to. Diabetes and heart disease are pretty sucky prizes. :laugh:

InstantSunshine

Yep, I'm a right fat ba$tard, a bat floater, a salad dodger... and I love not being treated with kid gloves. Brilliant post. The sooner we all accept we're fatties, the sooner we'll not be any more.

JustGresh

Ok. I disagree (there has to be one, lol)

(Here comes the geek) We are not fat. Fat is the substance that causes us to be Overweight or Obese,

I have never heard any medical expert call me fat,,,, obese yes, fat never,

Fat is the substance that we are trying to get rid of to not be overweight,

Adipose tissue is more of a "geeked" term. And technically you dont get "rid" of it, you use the solidified energy stored in those cells and shrink them.

http://cdn2.mixrmedia.com/wp-uploads/wirebot/blog/2010/05/facepalm-original.jpg

*Facepalm*

ShrinkRapt451

@morgori: I'm glad to be of help, and SO IMPRESSED at your 41-lb loss (so far) and your determined, can-do attitude! Before you know it, you may be a non-diabetic! :O

natika33

For some reason this whole posts makes me picture working out to Weird Al's "I'm Fat" based on Michael Jackson's "I'm Bad." I think I just might go find that song and dance around my living room to it. (^_^)

Somewhat off-topic, but did anyone else think of this immediately too?

Cold_Steel

I think Morbidly Obese and Obesity are words that I dislike the most. It makes it sound like its a disorder or disease and somewhat taking away from what it truly is(I am not talking about people that have medical conditions like thyroid issues).

Our society has the tendency to make things sound like it was something you had no control over. Naming it something scientific and or disease related I think deflates it a bit.

The word FAT is something that is synonymous with well being fat and to me it has more of a bite. No one is fat because they have a medical condition, they are fat because they are fat.

I understand your point of view on this. But speaking as a member of the medical profession, I can tell you that obesity IS a disease state. One that, most of the time, you create for yourself, but that doesn't change the fact that once you've multiplied your fat cells and filled them with lipids, it becomes a medical problem. Having too much fat around mucks up all kinds of hormone pathways in your body. Thus the loss of normal satiety reflex, for example. There's also the liver inflammation due to deposits of fat in the liver, the slow destruction of the body's ability to respond to insulin properly (ushering in Type 2 diabetes), the cholesterol-crusted fat deposits in blood vessels all over the body (ushering in heart disease and strokes), the list goes on.

We are NOT talking about just a cosmetic unpleasantness here.

The good news is that every fat person can DO something about it.

Yeah, I agree.

I know it is a disease when it reaches that level but I think the problem I have with it is the use of the word as a descriptor. I think it is stronger to say "Mike Yax is a fat person to the level of morbid obesity." Rather than "Mike Yax is a morbidly obese." I don't know where I am going with it but I think using the adjective of fat over identifying it by the medical term simply has more punch.

One of my big motivators was when my favorite Southern Belle Nurse Practitioner told me I had a fatty liver, I asked how did that happen and she said very bluntly "because you are too fat." Well, at that point I had already accepted the term so it was not a shock, though too me it had an impact rather than saying you are morbidly obese....

Fatty liver sucks, no matter what people say it hurts.... It feels like you have been kicked in the liver, all the time.

Lemon juice, cranberry supplements work wonders on it !