I just don't care about the 'obesity epidemic'
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I'm studying Sports Nutrition and for part of my research assignment, I watched a youtube video on obesity rates in Ireland, and then this video came up in the youtube suggestions, to those who "don't care" about the obesity epiedemic, I really think you should watch this.
This is happening right now, all over the world. Some of you have made points about, "not giving such harsh opinions on others lives" & "tax dollars", but when this is happening in the world, it is everyones business.
Some of the people in this documentary, say that they have no health complaints, I'm sorry, but If you depend on others to do everything for you, you can't move more than a few steps and are bed bound, I don't care what your cholesterol level is, those right there are major health complaints.
According to the World Health Organisation, Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
It should be a goal for all to reach a level of optimum health and nutrition, because you are reading this on MFP, then you are most likely making some good choices in life to reach these levels. Nobody should want to/feel they have to gain weight to feel happy or loved. It's wrong on so many levels.
I could rabbit on for so long on this topic. I'm going to leave it here and just post the video, make up your own minds on it, but at the end of the day, obesity is a problem, for all of us, and it is, sadly, not changing any time soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfxFn1IqHo4
Unless you're the one taking care of the bed ridden "fatty" then it doesn't affect you. So I call bs on the sweeping statement that obesity is everyone's problem. Seriously, tell me how me weighing 400 lbs in Illinois affects you?
It doesn't affect my daily life in any way at all. I didn't mention anywhere in the previous point that your body mass had an impact on me.
The current obesity epidemic affects society, influences on children and future generations.
You're an adult, you make choices to be healthy or not, it's none of my business,
The food companies are producing, what I like to call "crap" food, because it is in demand, fast food junk, if this demand is always there, then it will filter down to children and they won't know any better, because eating crap will be the norm.
So yeah, obesity effects us all, we all have a small or big part to play in making healthy decisions, for ourselves, and for future generations.0 -
I am under the NHS and I feel pretty similar to others that raise concerns about the system being taxed. And I feel this way in general about people that don't take care of their health (high risk behavior, excessive drinking/drugs/smoking etc), not just weight. Some health problems can't be helped, but some can.
A lot of health problems and problematic habits I blame on STRESS in our lives (both emotional and professional) more than laziness, weak character or lack of so-called willpower.
Treating someone as less than human because of their weight isn't going to help them. But to state that weight really doesn't matter at all is a pretty dishonest approach.0 -
Your obesity has an affect on my life because my insurance rates will be higher because you will require more medical care. People are starving and you are stuffing yourself. You are taking up more resources than necessary. A fat person doesn't appear to value themselves or they would take care of their body. I was one of the worst offenders - a high of 356 insecure pounds and I lost over 200 pounds and it was only after I saw that I was deserving of a healthy fit body.
I like how you assume I am sitting around stuffing myself. I am here using this tool to watch my intake because I actively take an interest in being healthy. I don't need to lose 200 lbs to gain health. This is the biggest problem I see in this world. We should be encouraging people towards eating healthy and exercise not focusing on how fat you are. You just assumed because I am saying it's ok to be fat that I am promoting being unhealthy.
When people love themselves they will take care of themselves and when they hate themselves they will continue to engage in unhealthy behavior. Whether, it's eating crap, drug use, alcohol, etc. I am just saying society and most of the people on this board apparently think fat shaming is ok because it will motivate people to change. Sure it will get some people motivated and those people will lose the weight and still hate themselves and be depressed and gain it back because they feel they don't deserve to be healthy or happy.0 -
You've been a member since 2011, so I presume you are not targeting your rant, if you will, to those who frequent MFP. Here I certainly have not seen any judgment toward people who have extra weight. In fact, it's quite the opposite.
What is your point?
I'm having a bit of trouble understanding your point. Has someone been giving you a hard time? You've been on here long enough to know that weight loss is a personal choice. If you don't care, why are you on here. You can lose weight without support. Keep your diary private and don't read other peoples comments and rants.0 -
I think it's just as ignorant to assume all fat people are unhealthy as it is to assume all skinny people are healthy.
Don't be an idiot; no one is saying that.There are statistics...since you're all fond of throwing them around like man hole covers, that show that fat people who eat healthy and exercise are healthier than skinny people who are sedentary and eat junk food.
I adore how in the first sentence you get on people's *kitten* in the thread for generalizing then DO EXACTLY THAT in the next sentenceBeing fat increases your risk of certain diseases, but it doesn't mean you automatically get them. That's what risk means. Like not all smokers get lung cancer...it's just they are more likely too etc.
That doesn't make smoking any less stupid.
By saying people need to lose weight to be healthy is exactly what people are saying. Ah do you "adore" it? How special for you. Again, I promote eating healthy and exercise because it's good for you. Losing weight is secondary and a byproduct of healthy living.
Slowly over the course of 5 years I have lost 50 lbs and I either maintain or slowly lose, by simply eating healthy and exercising. It's effortless because weight loss is not my goal. Being healthy is and I don't have depression from the weight loss as some people struggle with because no matter what they weigh they will always hate themselves. It's my experience and opinion that you have to be ok in the skin you're in before you can make any changes that stick.
Yet, people encourage fat people to hate themselves. Hate being such a great motivator.
When I was 12 years old I was in track and ran 2 miles a day and was a cheerleader and weighed 218 lbs. I was fat and athletic and I loved myself. As the years went by I was told to "STay in your house fatty" when I would be out walking. "No one wants to see your fat *kitten* out here" when swimming. As a teen I learned to be ashamed and hated myself and so I hid in my house and ate myself to my current size.
Fat people are told to hate themselves thin, we see how successful that has been.0 -
I don't care if a person wants to be skinny or obese. They can do what they want and i will still love them for them... but i do care if a parent is making their kid obese and telling the world it's okay. It's not. And i think it's a form of abuse.
We need to stop saying obese and morbidly obese are curvy or sassy. They're not. Curvy is curvy, healthy women are curvy. We shouldn't be bring up the next generation to think it's fine to be extremely unhealthy and eat junk. And yes, i know some overweight people can be healthy.. But a person who's 500lbs is not going to run a 5k marathon, nor would i see them as physical role model, Just as i wouldn't expect a severely anorexic person to be either. =/
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/21/local/la-me-fatman-20110321 Here is a link to a 400lb man running a marathon. The point is that it can be done.0 -
I understand where you're coming from. I don't discriminate against any fat person nor do i tell them what and how to eat however that doesn't stop them from discriminating against my choice of eating, lifestyle and preference though. I'd rather be called shallow anyday than to change to please them.0
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From my perception there is nothing wrong with being fat. Fat is a decriptor like being tall or short. Blaming fat people for little juniors perceptions is insane. We're bombarded every day in the media with fat hysteria I don't see how any kid in the world could see fat as anything but a vile disease ravaging the world.
...then why are you here?
ETA: I read that you're here to eat healthy and work out. Are you going to be disappointed when/if that leads to you not being fat anymore?0 -
"Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean they're any more healthy. Skinny people have medical problems and die everyday too, did you know?"
no, as a skinny person I have no medical problems that will cause me to die. Healthy or not, I won't die from something like diabetes or anything caused by obesity.
No? Someone should tell that to the thin, supposedly healthy people that have diabetes. Like my cousin. Never overweight a day in his life but still severely diabetic.
Yes, some thin people have diabetes.
Yes, there are factors other than obesity, such as genetics.
But being obese greatly increases your chances of developing Type 2 diabetes.
You can't change your genetic risk but you can reduce the component of risk caused by obesity.0 -
I won't die of any genetically inherited disease. I could get run over by a car or something but diabetes is not in my future.0
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On a recent flight (fully booked, no free seats left) I ended up sitting next to a lady who was so large that she didn't fit in the seat. The armrest couldn't be lowered because she needed part of my seat as well to accommodate her size. I'm sure she's a very nice person inside (despite the fact that she never so much as said 'sorry' for the inconvenience caused to me), but the fact remains that both of us paid the same amount of money for an economy airfare. So how come she rates 125% of a seat, and I have to make do with 75%?
This is why I do care!0 -
I won't die of any genetically inherited disease. I could get run over by a car or something but diabetes is not in my future.
I may be missing the context here, but you can still contract genetic, inhereted and acquired diseases if you are not obese. Obesity increases the risk of developing some health problems but being of a normal weight doesn't guarantee you will only die if you forget to look both ways while crossing the street.0 -
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Something to think about if you "don't care about the obesity epidemic" and are in the US: with the Affordable Care Act, we are all going to be paying a part of everyone's choice of bad habits, be it smoking, drinking heavily, doing drugs or eating too much, its not truly a "this doesnt affect you (except for sitting next to you on the airlines)" issue anymore...
Conversely, I used to think how great it was that by exercising regularly I am also reducing the cost of my healthcare by reducing the probability of many sedentary/obesity linked diseases and could even afford to have catastrophic coverage only. But the cost is not reduced perceptibly anymore since risk is all distributed, it appears you don't get health discounts, you cant just buy catastrophic coverage...so my personal health choices don't lower my cost, unless a few million people do it with me...maybe then you care a bit more about the "obesity epidemic"? So this bit of selfish "motivation" to not overeat/smoke/drink/do drugs that some may have is now gone. Luckily cost of my healthcare was only one motivation out of many that I personally had and maybe most people don't think like me. But will this encourage some to encourage others and to now care about the "obesity epidemic"?
This is all complicated by: although type II diabetes is many times essentially caused by the obesity, it isn't always, and some people are genetically disadvantaged with a lot more fat cells to start with and a lower metabolism. People BS about high/low metabolism like its not real on this site, but it is in fact very real, and energy burnt in basic metabolism by some is set lower in some, higher in others, and fat cells are actually strongly genetically and not environmentally determined, and metabolism does lower with age, as does muscle building speed. This means it is VERY hard for some people and easy for others to maintain a "healthy" weight (not trying to hand out excuses, but something for bigger people to take pride in while losing), and how are you going to differentiate those people from "I eat what I want, when I want, as much as I want and I don't care how much I weigh" people? So yes its a difficult issue and both sides have merit, but "I don't care" isn't a good approach.
BTW, even when I'm in great shape (yeah I've got weight to lose too right now) I have a problem with fitting in economy airline seats on the UPPER part of my body, I always try to sit in the aisle because of it, there is just no way those seats are wide enough for a broader guys shoulders, even without being truly obese and overflowing the seat. So its not just an obese problem, and unless you buy a seat by the pound or inch, its not really fair to begrudge people for physical characteristics, especially since they can't change them at that point if ever, and they don't want to sit that close to you just as much as you don't want to sit next to them and they didn't have a "wide seat" option to buy without paying an arm and a leg for first class. One flight I sat next to another big guy, he was bigger top and bottom...we took turns leaning forward so we'd have room.0 -
Something to think about if you "don't care about the obesity epidemic" and are in the US: with the Affordable Care Act, we are all going to be paying a part of everyone's choice of bad habits, be it smoking, drinking heavily, doing drugs or eating too much, its not truly a "this doesnt affect you (except for sitting next to you on the airlines)" issue anymore...
This was already true before the ACA. How do you think insurance companies set their prices?
Actually the ACA is decreasing the effect by "requiring" that everyone sign up for health insurance, so the healthy people who might not otherwise have had insurance are further diluting the burden paid by all healthy people.0 -
From my perception there is nothing wrong with being fat. Fat is a decriptor like being tall or short. Blaming fat people for little juniors perceptions is insane. We're bombarded every day in the media with fat hysteria I don't see how any kid in the world could see fat as anything but a vile disease ravaging the world.
...then why are you here?
ETA: I read that you're here to eat healthy and work out. Are you going to be disappointed when/if that leads to you not being fat anymore?
You miss my point entirely. Weight loss is simply a result of eating healthy and exercise, but it's not my main goal. When people focus solely on the number on the scale they get discouraged when they don't get results and in depression go back to old habits. etc.0 -
I won't die of any genetically inherited disease. I could get run over by a car or something but diabetes is not in my future.
I may be missing the context here, but you can still contract genetic, inhereted and acquired diseases if you are not obese. Obesity increases the risk of developing some health problems but being of a normal weight doesn't guarantee you will only die if you forget to look both ways while crossing the street.
Well said and why it's dangerous for weight to be equated with health. Many thin people get ill because they have a false sense that their size protects them from the ravages of disease.0 -
I don't care if a person wants to be skinny or obese. They can do what they want and i will still love them for them... but i do care if a parent is making their kid obese and telling the world it's okay. It's not. And i think it's a form of abuse.
We need to stop saying obese and morbidly obese are curvy or sassy. They're not. Curvy is curvy, healthy women are curvy. We shouldn't be bring up the next generation to think it's fine to be extremely unhealthy and eat junk. And yes, i know some overweight people can be healthy.. But a person who's 500lbs is not going to run a 5k marathon, nor would i see them as physical role model, Just as i wouldn't expect a severely anorexic person to be either. =/
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/21/local/la-me-fatman-20110321 Here is a link to a 400lb man running a marathon. The point is that it can be done.
That's a long stretch... Extremely long... So long that he is the only person to have done it. He even set a world record.
Just because 1, 400lbs man did a marathon doesn't mean they all can successfully and without health issues. He was an athlete. A professional sumo wrestler and it look him 9 hours, 48 minutes and 52 seconds to complete it. took him almost 12 hours last time... And as i said before.. He is the heaviest man to have done this.. The only one hence the world record. I'm also sure he's not trying to promote being obese.
If they're actually running it. I'd hate to think of the damage done to the knees. People who are overweight do damage to their knees.. A LOT of damage. And taking him almost 10 hours to do it i'm sure he was walking it slowly with many many breaks.
The world should not encourage morbidly obesity on the future generation.. Give me a positive on why morbidly obesity is good? I've been studying nutritional and bio medical science and so far i haven't seen one good reason or case study to be morbidly obese. Oh wait except this 1 women who contracted flesh eating disease and being morbidly obese meant they could remove more flesh. Still not exactly a pro. But i really would love any pros as then i can use that for study.
I'm not going to attack an obese person for being obese, i've been there and i understand how hard it is... Plus i think that's just plan rude and no one knows their circumstances or if they're trying to be healthy... I will however point out the flaw of people calling morbidly obese curvy. In no way is it curvy. When you see people like June Shannon saying they're sassy or curvy... i wonder what happen to logic and common morality.
And lastly for those few posters.. There's no derogatory meaning when calling someone who is, over weight, obese or morbidly obese, just that...so why take offence? Why sugar coat the truth. It's the medical term. Get over it. Get it out on the open. Saying all fat people are unhealthy however is incorrect and extremely ignorant, I know overweight people who are extremely healthy and work out 5 days a week. It's how their body is built and they have accepted that. If you're trying to lose weight or just get healthy then wear it like a badge. I did. There's no shame in trying to be healthy.
Her claims was that no 500lb people are going to run a marathon. My point was that it's possible not that all fat people are running marathons. If people worried more about eating healthy and exercise and less about how they look and how much they weigh they would be a lot more prone to continue those healthy habits. We live in a society where people are patted on the back for any weight loss no matter what damage they did to their health to get there. I think the constant hysteria about fat people and the *****ing about fat people in their space etc...isn't helping.
I have never been on a plane and if I did I'd buy another seat. Do I get a pat on the back for being a responsible fatty? This entire idea of separating the good from the bad fatties is insane. The point is you don't know how someone lives their life just by looking at them. So maybe not a good idea to judge..
I am just interested in why it's so important for me to feel demoralized? Why is it necessary for me to hate myself in order for you to feel I am being a good socially minded individual?0 -
I won't die of any genetically inherited disease. I could get run over by a car or something but diabetes is not in my future.
I may be missing the context here, but you can still contract genetic, inhereted and acquired diseases if you are not obese. Obesity increases the risk of developing some health problems but being of a normal weight doesn't guarantee you will only die if you forget to look both ways while crossing the street.
Well said and why it's dangerous for weight to be equated with health. Many thin people get ill because they have a false sense that their size protects them from the ravages of disease.
What's your point? Many diseases have nothing to do with weight, you dont have to be a rocket scientist to know that. There are those that do and it's always either from weighing too much or too little. Are you now saying that being obese doesn't increase your risk for any disease?0 -
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