Aren't you a little tired of the "Obesity Epidemic"?

Doctors refuse to say anything for fear of being called out for "fat shaming". See the Catch-22 here? No fat shaming, ever, so doctors have to keep their mouths shut and try to offer less criticism and more pills or differential diagnoses. Anxiety and depression? Just prescribe a pill, don't address the anxiety and depression that most likely caused the obesity (and continues to cause the obesity that is causing the anxiety and depression).

And exactly HOW do you know this? Have you been to every doctor in the United States? It's blanket alarmism such as this that is the epidemic. It's know-it-all people who insist that they have every answer. You claim doctors refuse to say anything. All doctors? Some doctors? How many doctors exactly? Do you know that doctors DO actually address the anxiety and depression by combining prescription medicine with therapy, diet, exercise and other techniques to treat it? Or would you rather just assume that because some individuals are depressed and take meds that all doctors simply treat one way? Your simplistic view of the world around you is the problem, not something else.

We need to stop walking on egg shells and remove the UnPC label of "fat shaming". There is a way we can address the issue of morbid obesity in a way that speaks the truth without the person falling to pieces and getting defensive.

You should feel free to do this in your own life. I suggest when your husband comes home from work, you tell him he's fat. Go ahead. Do it. Tell him he's fat and that he HAS to do something about it. See how far it gets you. Tell him he doesn't know what's best for him, but because you troll around a f'ing website about fitness, you do. If you're not married, try it with one of your friends, or your children. If they don't tell you that it's none of your damn business, I'd be surprised, and they'd be right if they did..

There is NOTHING WRONG with a doctor or nutritionist schooled in healthy living telling a patient "You are morbidly obese and need to change your lifestyle NOW before you die. That is the truth." Direct, honest truth and a reality check is what people need. Not some mollycoddling, walking around the issue, give them a pill and a pat on the head and pray they read between the lines crap.

You're right, there is nothing wrong with a doctor or nutritionist tell a patient they are morbidly obese. And when you've spoken with every doctor in the United States and have verifiable proof that all doctors walk on eggshells, then your posts will be valid.

A-HA! The crux of the issue right there! Had many of the adults on here (and in the general population) been given early education and proper modeling by parents, doctors, teachers, etc., then they wouldn't have become obese in the first place! This is an issue that dates back several generations. It's not a "now" problem, it's a "look at what we've become from years of bad eating and lack of exercise".

We are a fatter country because of the poor habits we've carried on for YEARS. It is a combination of poor eating, lack of physical exercise, the demise of the evening meal, the PC of "don't hurt Jimmy's esteem by telling him he is fat" and a bunch of other factors that have all contributed to adult obesity. People don't just grow obese overnight. It is a long process based on numerous and repetitive poor choices.

The crux of the issue is that the vast majority of obese people know they are obese, know they eat too much, know they exercise too little; and yet don't care.

What's with the attitude? Did one too many people call you fat one too many times?

I just don't like when know-it-alls make stupid comments.

Actually people in America were smaller in size back when I was growing up in the last 1970s and early 1980s. Now when I go to the doctor, the chairs in the labs for the blood draw and in the waiting room are much bigger. I once asked why the chairs were so big. They have to accommodate people who weigh 300+ pounds. Today, there are more people who weigh in that range compared to 30 years ago. In my daughter's kindergarten class today there are kindergarteners who weigh 80 pounds. I can't remember an 80 pound child in my kindy class.

I used to live in Asia because my dad's career took us there. It's an eye opener to get off the plane from say Hong Kong to the US. Or even Europe to America. What's considered average in size here is considered large to extra large over there.

I've even had a (slender) doctor tell me to my face, "I can tell just by looking at you that you have high blood pressure." (He was wrong, it's normal.) So I wonder what kind of assumptions everyone makes -- that you're unhealthy and you need to be told to lose weight?

And I keep hearing that, "Oh, yeah, I'm really just concerned about your health," but they know nothing about these people. So how much of it is really that we "We want everyone to be healthy!"

BUT, when I see an obese kid going into the doc's office, I HOPE the doctor is counseling that child's parent about the situation. They NEED to hear the truth. And instead of just saying "Your kid needs to drop weight", they need to offer constructive, helpful advice. AND THE PARENT needs to take that advice. The parent buys the food for the kid, they are 100% responsible for that child's success or failure once the doctor has given his/her advice. They just don't want to take the advice and implement the changes, because that's much more effort than taking that child to McD's three times a week.

In my family we have a few people in the medical field, including a doctor. We also have a few obese, very out of shape members, including some children and teens. What amazes me is the amount of silence that comes from doctors and medical personnel on the whole.

For example, my sister is obese. She actually at this point is likely in the "morbidly" so category. She suffers from some anxiety issues so she's been into the ER a handful of times and has regular check ups with her doctor. They'll discuss throwing her on some anti-anxiety meds, finding ways to destress, answer all her medical questions. But do you know that not one single doctor has ever, even once, addressed her obesity? They know we have a family history of type II diabetes and high blood pressure, and yet not one has said "You really need to get your weight down. Would you like some help with that?". And her story is not unique, among the adults AND the parents.

Even when I was a fat kid in the 80's and 90's my mother had to be the one to seek out a nutritionist and try and change the way we ate. She had to ask all the questions. The doctors didn't seem to think our weight issues were a big deal, either that or they're terrified of pissing off parents.

I hope the next generation of doctors come up with a vastly improved understanding of nutrition, and a "devil may care" attitude toward calling out obesity and treating it just like you would have you patient came in with any other chronic ailment.

Doctors refuse to say anything for fear of being called out for "fat shaming". See the Catch-22 here? No fat shaming, ever, so doctors have to keep their mouths shut and try to offer less criticism and more pills or differential diagnoses. Anxiety and depression? Just prescribe a pill, don't address the anxiety and depression that most likely caused the obesity (and continues to cause the obesity that is causing the anxiety and depression).

We need to stop walking on egg shells and remove the UnPC label of "fat shaming". There is a way we can address the issue of morbid obesity in a way that speaks the truth without the person falling to pieces and getting defensive.

There is NOTHING WRONG with a doctor or nutritionist schooled in healthy living telling a patient "You are morbidly obese and need to change your lifestyle NOW before you die. That is the truth." Direct, honest truth and a reality check is what people need. Not some mollycoddling, walking around the issue, give them a pill and a pat on the head and pray they read between the lines crap.

BMI does take frame size into account. That's why there are ranges.

BMI does take frame size into account. That's why there are ranges.

No, it doesn't. BMI takes only *2* factors into account. Height & Weight. That's it. Period.

If that was true, as you say, they would be no ranges for "healthy", "overweight", and "obese".

The crux of the issue is that the vast majority of obese people know they are obese, know they eat too much, know they exercise too little; and yet don't care.

Why don't they care? Because everyone assumes they are a special snowflake, and we've been pounding some notion that it's ok to be fat, just to love yourself.

I hope we all know that part of the reason that "Everyone is overweight" is that they changed the standards of the BMI -- I think around 2000 --- so that all these people who were considered average were now overweight.

I didn't know that but, yep, I just loooked it up. They changed it in 1998. I've never paid that much attention to mine. I use a mirror. If I look fat, I figure I probably am.

I'm very fortunate, though. I didn't get the little genetic particle that makes people care what other people think or say to them. I used to get comments that I was overweight. Now I get them that I'm too skinny. That's their problem.

You're awesome.