being skinny is more unhealthy than being fat?

TaintedVampyre

where did they find underweight people in America?

:laugh:

yaymeforlife

I would rather be skinny my whole life and love myself and die a BIT sooner than be fat and hate myself and live longer. Why would anyone want to live extra while they hate what they see in the mirror?

Who said everyone overweight hates themselves and everyone underweight loves themselves?

Its Called an OPINION. I guess I should rephrase:
Why would I want to live extra while I hate what I see in the mirror?

Better?

And yes it is physcological, just as people that think they don't need to lose weight when they do have phsycological issues. The only difference is the fat people are coddled, and the skinny people are victimized all because there are way more fatties than skinnies.

And I fall right in perfectly healthy BMI so this was just a pondering of mine, I don't ACTUALLY have phsycological issues with myself. I'm healthy and happy.

ChitownFoodie

Bump

alexbusnello

Being unhealthy is unhealthy. Doesn't matter which side of the spectrum you fall on.

THIS.

END THREAD.

or... how about the thread doesn't end and the conversation is left for people who actually have an interest in such things?

It's true, though. Being unhealthy is unhealthy. It doesn't matter of your size....

RuthieCass

Read the entire paper here: http://www.jabfm.org/content/25/4/422.full

Staying alive for 6 years =/= "being healthy".

The thing that is most nonsensical about this study is that they are trying to separate out the effects of being diabetic or having hypertension from being overweight. These health issues go hand-in-hand. I mean, we know that being obese greatly raises the risk of having diabetes/hypertension, so how does it make much practical sense to say that being obese will not kill you as long as you don't develop these diseases? It's kinda like saying it's okay to smoke as long as you don't get lung cancer, emphysema, etc.

Some of the statements in here were also strange, like the conclusion that "the mortality risk of diabetes was lower among both obese and severely obese persons than among those in lower BMI categories." Really? I guess not correcting for things like diabetes type, cancer, etc., gives you a funny conclusion. Or maybe b/c the data is from self-reporting?

Also, while I don't think that BMI is the be-all-end-all, it can provide some decent, rough guidelines, unless one is very muscular or tall. It does correlate very well with excess fat. Sorry, but if you have a BM of 29+ and you're not muscular or tall, I doubt you are at a healthy weight. I think there's only much of a question if you're near the borderline of healthy/overweight (I'd say to talk with your doc, although even docs sometimes give bad advice when it comes to weight). And if you don't like using BMI, get your body fat measured. But I don't think *most* people at an unhealthy BMI will like that measure either.

devil_in_a_blue_dress

Being unhealthy is unhealthy. Doesn't matter which side of the spectrum you fall on.

THIS.

END THREAD.

or... how about the thread doesn't end and the conversation is left for people who actually have an interest in such things?

Interested in talking about what, exactly? Unhealthy is unhealthy - nobody should want to be unhealthy for any reason. There is not conversation to be had there. Instead you are going to get people who are terrified about being heavy trying to justify the unhealthy they measures they take to stay thin -- or people who are heavy who want to use this as a justification to lead to continue their lifestyle (that likely increases their chances at becoming unhealthy) at some point in the future. There is nothing legitimate to talk about -- just people justifying their unhealthy, warped perspectives.

adet983

talking about articles like this are like trying to talk urself out of common sense....no duh being to skinny isnt healthy......no duh being obese isnt healthy.....just because one is a little worse than the other doesnt mean its a better alternative both are bad choices.

Bronx_Montgomery

People are nuts. Doesn't just being unhealthy makes you unhealthy. Being unhealthy has nothing to do with size. It just has to do with your activity level and what you eat and how much of it. We need to stop placing a label on health due to size and more on about ingestion

lporter229

Jerant and his colleagues, surveying nearly 51,000 Americans of all ages over a period of six years, found that "underweight" BMI was far and away the most dangerous category to be placed in. During the study period, the "underweight" subjects showed a risk of death no less than twice as high as the "normal" participants.

What does this even mean? " A risk of death"? When? Within a year? five years? What? We all die eventually...that tells me nothing unless you define "risk of death". Also, often times severe weight loss is a symptom of disease or other terminal illness so this could be an issue of cause and effect. Could it be that the under weight subjects were at a higher risk for death due to another underlying cause? They don't say that the the elevated risk of death is a direct result of being underweight...

dandaninc

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Heaven71

Being unhealthy is unhealthy. Doesn't matter which side of the spectrum you fall on.

YEP!!! The Most Intelligent reply on the boards that I have ever seen.

akamom704

This is very true. I have read and heard about this several times. BMI has always been inaccurate as it did not consider enough diverse subjects during testing which is why I have never agreed that BMI would be the determining factor for health. Someone in the medical community needs to re-do it on a wider scale. There is also a lucrative marketing side to setting weight goals so dramatically low that the majority (if anyone) can reach it - it makes people buy more stuff to try to reach whatever is set out as an "ideal". From equipment to packaged meals and programs to pills to vanity sized double zero clothing to low-fat-calorie-sodium products to surgery, there is a profit to be had. If it were standard that a 30 year old 5'4" woman weighing 170 lbs was normal - too many people can attain that, so set it even lower. There's more money in it. Not to sound completely cynical but BMI has always been a flawed system. Even most primary physicians will tell you that.

akamom704

Absolutely right Bronx_Montgom!

hellokehtty

According to the "BMI" scale I'm underweight. But in fact, I am pretty darn healthy.

BMI numbers mean absolutely nothing to me....there are way, way too many other factors involved.

RuthieCass

Was reading up on these scales, and discovered the "ponderal index," which better scales for height. In case anyone wanted to look at a different measure: http://www.health-calc.com/body-composition/ponderal-index

hellokehtty

I'm pretty sure the only people under a BMI of 18.5 have an eating disorder. But, being at a healthy weight is still healthier than being obese.

Uh, what? I hope you're being sarcastic!

usmcmp

I personally love how they just cut out people with health issues. No discussion on how many people from each category had them. Maybe the "normals" only had to exclude 1 out of every 20 people for those issues while the "fatties" had to exclude 8 out of 20. There are ways that any study or experiment can be set up to say whatever we want it to say. We could say that amputation among young adults is very high compared to ten years ago if we compared military now to non-military 10 years ago.

srpm

This is amazing....

aelitaangels

I think it depends on just how skinny we're talking. But I don't know if its more or less unhealthy than being obese.

To be honest I think the shock value of seeing an ultra skinny person is higher. Seeing obese people is fairly common and isn't bound to get too much of a reaction. Seeing an ultra skinny person is rare, and is viewed as shocking and disturbing because it reminds us of death and Holocaust victims.

But just because we find ultra skinny people more shocking/disturbing doesn't necesarily mean its more unhealthy than being moridly obese.

ChaseAlder

where did they find underweight people in America?

FTW

thebigcb

Well you would be better off being obese v a skinny smoker.

Its far too random. In general stay away from extremes, ists and isms and ity's

You'll be safe then

menletti

Being unhealthy is unhealthy. Doesn't matter which side of the spectrum you fall on.

Exactly!

secretlobster

Yes we know "being unhealthy is unhealthy." The question is WHAT DEFINES UNHEALTHY.

You people make the internet(tm) such a frustrating place.

thebigcb

Obesity is unhealthy mind you. Partner did a study on it herself for her degree(related field) and the results where scary

Katie3784

I would assume that a women who is 5'5" and weighs 90lbs and is anorexic will die much sooner than a woman who is the same height but weighs 300lbs. I think anorexia takes a greater, faster toll on the heart than obesity.

MFPBrandy

.

AlsDonkBoxSquat

I've heard this before. It only says they're more likely to die. It doesn't say from what. The reason doesn't have to be health related. One possible explanation is the activity level of active, healthy weight people ("normals" as the article calls them).You're more likely to die at any given moment if you're outside running or climbing rock wall than if you're sitting on your couch.

Agree with this, the article is a limited statement that doesn't say what the people are dying from, just their likelihood of dying at 2 different spectrums of what is considered "unhealthy bmi." I would hazard to say that environmental factors and overall lifestyles have a lot to do with the causes of death. The other question I have is if this would be overall average in life span or at the time of death because with many illnesses (my bil recently died of cancer) one of the side effects can include not being able to retain nutrients or the inability to eat. My 6' BIL spent most of his life in a healthy to high end of the bmi spectrum but by the time he died his health complicaitons had so ravaged his body he was under 130 pounds . . . something like that would certainly skew the facts. I think this is a really unreliable article (notice I didn't say study).

jadedone

healthy = adopting healthy habits, weight =/= health

Healthy Habits:
1. Eating well (plenty of produce, not too much processed sugar)
2. Staying active (moderate leves of activity, not super intense is required)
3. Maintain a healthy blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose and triglyceride levels
4. Maintain bone density and functional strength
5. Maintain functional balance and flexibility

This may or may not cause you to lose weight and put you in the "healthy" weight range.

No matter what you weigh, if you follow steps 1-5, you'll likely live a long time, even if you remain overweight.

Avandel

Do these people who write this crap realize there are not two types of weight but three. :grumble: How about this concept, underweight, overweight & a healthy weight. (you know, the one in between) duh!

And these days any of these are more likely to die texting while driving or walking for that matter.

secretlobster

Do these people who write this crap realize there are not two types of weight but three. :grumble: How about this concept, underweight, overweight & a healthy weight. (you know, the one in between) duh!

They did use "normal weight" people as controls in the study.