Obesity: A Protected Class?

I've always struggled with my weight, but a debilitating 2+ year illness had me housebound and isolated and able to do little more than lay in bed or sit on the couch. I couldn't stand up for long, so I made fast meals and quick snacks and rushed through the grocery store when I got up the strength to go, and admittedly did not make healthy decisions about food. I lost my job and my illness isolated me from friends and family and I became severely depressed. Not sad. Clinically depressed (and it wasn't my first experience with that either). I was so anemic from constant blood loss, I barely had the energy to heat up my food.

You know what isolated me even further? The fact that when I did go out people treated me with no respect. They made assumptions about me because I was fat. They assumed I was just lazy when the fact is, I was sick.

When I started getting better, I knew I had to take action, so I started walking at my local park. It was torture. Not just because my back hurt and I was out of breath, but because of the way people looked at me. Some even made negative comments right to my face.

Now, I'm eating right and getting outside for walks almost every day and am down almost 30 pounds. But ya know what? I'm still fat. And I'm still gonna be fat a few months from now. I've got 100 more pounds to go. I don't expect special treatment because I'm fat, but it sure would be nice to think that I won't get passed over for a job just because a long physical illness and bout of depression lead to significant weight gain.

To those of you who have always had your health and nutrition under control, good for you. Really. But you can't judge a person by the weight they carry, you have no idea what lead to it, and unless you see them regularly binging, you have no idea if maybe... they just lost 30 pounds and are working hard on the next 100.

The problem is - this is all should/shouldn't happen talk, when really it's what does/doesn't happen that matters.

I SHOULD be able to leave my door open because people SHOULDN'T steal my belongings. However, I know that's not realistic so I lock my door.

People SHOULDN'T judge people based on their appearance, but you know what; people always WILL, so it makes sense for individuals to look at themselves to find the solution.

Stop always looking elsewhere for the solution, always trying to change how the bad people behave. The ability to change your situation is held by you.

To quote MJ - "Take a look at yourself and make that....*key change*...CHANGE!"

I've always struggled with my weight, but a debilitating 2+ year illness had me housebound and isolated and able to do little more than lay in bed or sit on the couch. I couldn't stand up for long, so I made fast meals and quick snacks and rushed through the grocery store when I got up the strength to go, and admittedly did not make healthy decisions about food. I lost my job and my illness isolated me from friends and family and I became severely depressed. Not sad. Clinically depressed (and it wasn't my first experience with that either). I was so anemic from constant blood loss, I barely had the energy to heat up my food.

You know what isolated me even further? The fact that when I did go out people treated me with no respect. They made assumptions about me because I was fat. They assumed I was just lazy when the fact is, I was sick.

When I started getting better, I knew I had to take action, so I started walking at my local park. It was torture. Not just because my back hurt and I was out of breath, but because of the way people looked at me. Some even made negative comments right to my face.

Now, I'm eating right and getting outside for walks almost every day and am down almost 30 pounds. But ya know what? I'm still fat. And I'm still gonna be fat a few months from now. I've got 100 more pounds to go. I don't expect special treatment because I'm fat, but it sure would be nice to think that I won't get passed over for a job just because a long physical illness and bout of depression lead to significant weight gain.

To those of you who have always had your health and nutrition under control, good for you. Really. But you can't judge a person by the weight they carry, you have no idea what lead to it, and unless you see them regularly binging, you have no idea if maybe... they just lost 30 pounds and are working hard on the next 100.

:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

No apology, UsedToBeHusky? You did kind of imply I'm too lazy to use Google, twice.

Reading carefully enough to notice the difference between an amendment to an Act, and completely separate legislation that follows the example of said Act in a highly selective, weak-sauce way, is not lazy.

Actually, I did attempt to post something in response. Not an apology, but an admission. Something happened with my internet connection and I resolved to let the issue go.

I work for government. I have also worked in private sector. Discrimination against LGBT has always been a 'no-no' to the best of my knowledge. If the laws aren't firm enough, then I suggest that the LGBT community focus their efforts on that fight for equality.

I see. It was just frustrating because as far as I can tell, we didn't actually disagree about anything emotive. Only about what the law does and doesn't say, and we don't even have an underlying clash about what it should say. I mean if that can't stay as friendly as it would do face-to-face, what would happen in an abortion or death penalty debate round here?!

I didn't set out to derail the thread with the LGBT issue, I just think it's always worth pointing out when American discrimination law comes up, and the 'choice' issue invariably comes up with it, that if 'choice' were always a determining factor in what is included, then religion wouldn't be in there. I contrasted this with the fact that LGBT people are left out (largely because of some people's belief that it's a choice) to demonstrate how inconsistent the discrimination debate has been for decades and still is. Either the choice issue matters, or it doesn't. As I explained, my opinion is that it doesn't, hence that particular argument against protection for fat people does not wash with me. The subsequent derailment was unintentional.

The difference is that the OP was referring to obesity as a physical disability being protected under Americans with Disabilities Act. The argument is that it is commonly accepted that, unless physiological factors are involved, obesity is a choice. Whereas, the debate over homosexuality as a choice is still being argued. The ADA addresses unavoidable physical handicaps. The homosexuality issue is a civil rights issue. Unless you want homosexuality considered as a handicap, I don't see how the two are comparable (which was my point).

There is one cause of fat gain that is never mentioned and it surprises me that it wouldn't be known about in a country with such a massive rate of it.

Psychiatric medications! I'm not hating, I take one with more stigma than most in fact and defend that medication to the hilt. My point is that a massive proportion of Americans take them, and everyone knows that weight gain is a hugely common side effect of the most common ones, antidepressants. Antidepressants are used for a huge range of mental illnesses and even a few physical ones in the US. How they cause fat gain is unproven, so we don't know whether it affects the storage of fat or the behaviour of the person taking them. But it's often very drastic and the numbers affected are very drastic.

Antidepressants aside, anti-PSYCHOTIC drugs and mood stabilisers are even worse for weight gain, they often make people go from thin to clinically obese in an alarming amount of time, and as around 1% of the population has schizophrenia, and many more on top of this have bipolar disorder, autism or another problem treated with these drugs, you end up with, I'm guessing, at least 4 in every 100 Americans on anti-psychotics or mood stabilisers, on top of the even larger percentage on antidepressants.

The big problem here is the stigma: people who say they have a medical reason for their fat problem are often dismissed on the basis that very few people are known to have a glandular or untreated thyroid disease. However, when was the last time you heard someone say "my fat gain started and won't shift ever since I started taking lithium"? People don't like to admit it because of the stigma, and that disguises the fact that many people who are large frankly have much bigger problems to deal with than their weight: they are being pleaded with by society to take their medication so they won't get forced into a mental hospital or hurt themselves or others, but when they DO take them, usually giving themselves a range of other horrible side effects as well, they get fat-shamed by ignorant people who say "most fat people just eat too much!"

Very little proof demonstrates weight gain as a side effect of psychiatric medicines. Weight gain is only identified as a potential side effect because it is reported by the patients. However, correlation does not equal causation, and proof does not exist that weight gain is a direct effect of beginning a new medication. Some anti-psychotics, such as Risperdal, have been clearly identified as inhibiting parts of the brain that affect appetite, but for the most part, SSRI's and other antidepressants have not been prove to have a direct effect on weight gain or loss. If one is medically prescribed an anti-psychotic, then they have proof of a disability. At the same time, however, you are not required to provide your company with your medical history, and very few people will openly admit to be taking an anti-psychotic, IF they are even functioning (since anti-psychotic meds are generally prescribed to the hospitalized). Therefore, it is highly difficult to prove discrimination, but even if a situation such as this were to occur, then the disability would be a mental disability and obesity would be only a consequence of that disability.

I believe in personal responsibility.

I think that protection should be applied where discrimination is likely or experienced if it is out of a person’s direct control. This to me includes race, age and disability.

Obesity, in my opinion only qualifies if a cause is identified which is out of the persons control e.g. thyroid or mental imbalance. If no underlying medical cause is identified, personal responsibility should be applied.

I don’t believe that obese people deserve to be abused, in fact think they should be allowed an encouraged to help themselves; the emphasis being on help themselves.

Personally, I learned not to judge others based on my own experiences. I gained most of my weight once I hit puberty and nearly 20 years after that, I was diagnosed with PCOS which can make weight loss difficult and weight gain easy. I won't say I've been a perfect shining example of health but from an early age, I was taught to eat whole foods, lots of vegetables and get plenty of exercise. Of course when you are morbidly obese from a pre-teen age, this isn't always easy. I used to swim for hours every day, walk multiple miles every week (in high school, my high school was a mile away and I walked there). I would participate in charity walks and what not and despite doctor supervised diets, losing weight was tough and keeping it off was even tougher. In my adult years, I took up hiking and have enjoyed other activities such as kayaking and biking. I won't say I'm the most active person out there but I will say I don't think I'm a total couch potato either.

Anyway, I never had any success through dieting until my PCOS diagnosis and prescription of BCP. Even then, my lowest adult weight was above 200 lbs. Exercising nearly every day, hiking 5-8+ miles on the weekends or other outdoor activities and eating 1200-1500 calories/day resulted in me being obese. I was ok with that though. If someone would look at me and say I was fat because I was lazy, I could blow them off because I knew my own habits. If someone would say that I should not be hired due to such obesity then I would disagree.

And I accept the weight that I gained fairly recently as being my own fault. I got injured, couldn't be as active, had a death in the family which was difficult, had some other health issues going on and I gained some of the weight I had lost back. I had trouble adjusting my calories to a lower activity level There is also some evidence that formerly morbidly obese people have a lower maintenance level than those that have never been obese. I always just figured that meant I would need to eat less than someone else my size would but I never cared for that as long as I was ok with where I was at.

Anyway, I'd love to get back down to the lower 200s, which would leave me in the obese category. I'd love to stay there for the rest of my life and I know it will be work to maintain that level of weight loss but I'm ok with that. I will also try to get below 200 lbs but I've never had success yet but we'll see what happens. And overall I will say that I believe my weight is my responsibility. I'm sure if I had cut even more calories when I was at my lowest weight, I could've lost more, I just really wasn't willing to eat less than 1200-1500 calories while I was doing intense exercise on a regular basis (running, biking, weight lifting, hiking, etc)

No!!!
I have made the choices I have made that made me heavy...
I understand that I ate too much of the wronge food and didn't know how to excercise!
I got FAT because of my choices.
My health suffered, My kids Suffered, My self esteem suffered

But I took Responsibility.
I started Weight Watchers and lost weight.
After a few years of not going to W.W. I started Gaining
I found this site & I found accountability instead of excuses!
Weight loss is attainable!

There is no reason to be mean about the facts....
Less Food + Excersize = Weight loss

No. It absolutely should NOT be a protected class. Unless there is a medical cause, like a thyroid problem than being fat is not a disability. As someone with a legit disability(autism), this kind of thing just annoys me.

Not that it really matters anyway in America you'd probably just have people gaining weight on purpose to be put in the category to abuse the system. Sadly most well meant systems end up that way.

There are lazy people, and people who "play the system", all over the world. Just like there are many motivated, healthy people in America looking to improve their lives. Propagating stereotypes does nothing; you give reality TV too much credit. and by reality TV, I mean the "news" media too.

no.

Definitely not, the vast majority of obese people are fat because of their own behavior.

Not that it really matters anyway in America you'd probably just have people gaining weight on purpose to be put in the category to abuse the system. Sadly most well meant systems end up that way.

I doubt it. To be honest you're more scrutinized by the system if you're overweight to any degree than if you were healthy/thin. I'm on Social Security Disability because of mental issues and when I applied I was put through the ringer more times than I care to remember and a lot of it was my weight and my age. I wasn't even 20 yet and they saw a fat little lazy girl who wanted to suck the government's teet instead of getting off her butt and being useful to society. They made me ashamed to be fat more than anything, and same with my mother when she had to apply after her doctor said her heart condition was too serious for her to work anymore. Even with stuff like foodstamps (which I've been on) and welfare, your weight is a factor even if not technically an official one.

I am saddened that so many people on this site think obesity is a choice and that obese people want to be that way. The sweat and tears of people who have tried to lose weight (some siince childhood) is heartbreaking. Yes some people are lazy and are addicted to food, brought up in obese families and never learned better. Morbid obesity is now classified as a disease. Obese people are finally realizing that diets do not work. They lose weight and then gain it back with extra when the diet is over. Why do you think the diet industry makes so much money every year?? Nobody wants hypertension, diabeties, joint and back pain, and a host of other comorbidities that come along wiith morbiid obesity. I suffered a back injury at work that caused permanent nerve damage. I went from being an actiive person, to someone loaded up on pain meds, house bound and unable to move very much. I had to eat quick things that did not need cooking. Bored, I turned to food. One day I noticed all those calories in and not any going out had caused a new health concern. I had gone from full-figured to morbidly obese. I joined this site as I do my doctor supervised diet for 6 months before I undergo gastric weight loss surgery. My doctor knows using this tool is the only way for me to regain my health. I don't know if I want to be part of this site, so fllled wiith cruel people. A weight loss site that downs "fat" people. This is just a sample of the abuse we face. Overweight people making fun of fat people! It's shameful, but unfortunately part of an obese persons life. I am sorry Fitness Pal, but I do not think there are any "Pals" here for me. Way to go, discourage someone from trying to lose weight by making them feel uncomfortable. You all belong in your own protected class!

Save The Whales!!!!!!! Just another sub group of lazy Americans. I am sick of all these special groups seeking special privileges or dispensation at the expense of the rest of us. If there is a problem, never fear....the general government will make it right. NOT! They will just make it worse. I would bet you a majority of these fat-*kitten* are buying their food with their government issued EBT card. Ever been on a plane next to one of these people? Keep your fat in your seat please and don't let it ooze over on me. Better yet, buy the whole row. Sorry to be mean or insensitive but when is it going to stop??

You are entitled to your opinions and I am entitled to think that you are a flaccid ****!

Go Girl !

I second that! :0)