Overweight Yet In Shape

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Replies

  • musicmint
    musicmint Posts: 469
    I just went to a nurse and she said yes it is possible because you can condition your body to do certain things and yet still be overweight. Still kind of goes over my head...whatever lol
  • musicmint
    musicmint Posts: 469
    LOL - yes Kara ;)

    I think we really should petition the NHS to drop BMI as a cheap quick test! It's an instant fail.....

    I was bought in recently by my NEW GP who'd only met me once for having too much creatinine in my blood. After 6 blood tests and urine tests they told me I had Chronic Kidney Disease as it was a matter of time before I'd need dialysis!

    To say I was upset was an under statement! I researched it and all the time as chronic in medical terms means you can fix the damage already done! There was no way to eat or train my way out of it!

    But....I kept saying, "I eat alot"..., "I train alot". This fell on deaf ears, they went into auto pilot, following process! I even spoke to my old GP who new me, he said "er...they do know you're pretty fit don't they". He didn't really want to be pulled into the process.

    Finally I got to see the "consultant".

    When he met me, he laughed his socks off! His first response after I took my shirt off was, "why are you here? you're built like a butcher's dog. you're wasting my time and we're wasting yours?".

    So I took a 24hr urine test in a "huge" container! I couldn't go anywhere for 24hrs unless I wanted to take mr PeePee pot with me!
    I joked with the nurse I would fill it, she said impossible! So, after starting @ 8am, I'd filled it by 3:30am ... dammit!
    Still, it had the start/end times on it, so they'd be able to calculate my "flow".

    Sure enough, they took more blood when I bought in my pot of pee that day!
    They checked me out and within 3 days said, "you're not the average male 40+ year old in the UK, there's nothing wrong with you. Carry on!"

    Annoyed, yes! Relieved, yes!

    Trust the general health community? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm



    I believe you should trust what the doctors say to you...
  • musicmint
    musicmint Posts: 469
    Is it possible to be overweight yet in shape?

    It depends on what you mean by "overweight" and "in shape". Many athletes are overweight by BMI or other standards that don't account for those with a lot of muscle, and are in shape, whether by that you mean physically fit or low BF. And it's possible to truly carry too much fat on your body and still be physically fit. This is true of some athletes like linebackers, and it's true of many people who are in the weight loss process, though these people don't always look "in shape".


    I really agree with this statement!!!! Thanks for the input
  • dcarreno
    dcarreno Posts: 83
    yes the shape is usually round!!!
  • kayemme
    kayemme Posts: 1,782 Member
    Yes!! Weight is just one measurement of fitness. Its the same as you can get people who are a healthy weight but are unfit.
    But if you run for example like 15 miles a week how can people still be fat? Cause isn't that what overweight is?

    i bike 40-80 miles per week (depending on the week) and i'm still (on paper) obese. it just takes time to come off and my body had kind of acclimated to my activity level.
  • marz42
    marz42 Posts: 223 Member
    Is it possible to be overweight yet in shape?

    my dr constantly tells me that I am the fittest fat person she knows...

    I am 265... but I can go an ride my bike 70 miles in two days (up a mountain...) and I mountain bike... and I hike insanely long distances... and I mountain climb (freestyle rock scramble stuff... not like mission impossible or anything)

    my blood chemistries are all completely normal... my blood pressure is completely normal... my resting heart rate is around 70...

    so I think yes it is possible to be overweight yet in shape...

    although I find that the less overweight I get (lost ~75 so far)... the better shape I am in... so the world better watch out in about 100 more pounds ;)

    Wow, that is so very awesome. This is an inspiration. I'm 260 (just lost 5 lbs so far about) and am just starting to get in shape.
  • musicmint
    musicmint Posts: 469
    Rachel Cosgrove's article "The final nail in the cardio coffin" explains very well why hours and hours of steady state cardio will not necessarily address overweight.

    http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/the_final_nail_in_the_cardio_coffin

    I first came across this article after training for an Ironman triathlon (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, marathon 26.2 mile run -- all in one day). The cardio training load was so high (15 hours a week+) that I was forced to ditch my weight training. But 80% of the training is steady state cardio, just building endurance...

    So what was the result??? Yes I could go and jog for 4 hours comfortably... Yes I could cycle for 7 hours comfortably... but my body got flabby!




    Thanks alot!!! This makes sense...yeah definitely depends on the goal!

    So yes you can be overweight yet have good endurance in certain activities, just like not every skinny person is necessarily fit.

    But if you don't want the flab you'll have to do more than just steady state cardio.
  • marz42
    marz42 Posts: 223 Member
    LOL - yes Kara ;)

    I think we really should petition the NHS to drop BMI as a cheap quick test! It's an instant fail.....

    I was bought in recently by my NEW GP who'd only met me once for having too much creatinine in my blood. After 6 blood tests and urine tests they told me I had Chronic Kidney Disease as it was a matter of time before I'd need dialysis!

    To say I was upset was an under statement! I researched it and all the time as chronic in medical terms means you can fix the damage already done! There was no way to eat or train my way out of it!

    But....I kept saying, "I eat alot"..., "I train alot". This fell on deaf ears, they went into auto pilot, following process! I even spoke to my old GP who new me, he said "er...they do know you're pretty fit don't they". He didn't really want to be pulled into the process.

    Finally I got to see the "consultant".

    When he met me, he laughed his socks off! His first response after I took my shirt off was, "why are you here? you're built like a butcher's dog. you're wasting my time and we're wasting yours?".

    So I took a 24hr urine test in a "huge" container! I couldn't go anywhere for 24hrs unless I wanted to take mr PeePee pot with me!
    I joked with the nurse I would fill it, she said impossible! So, after starting @ 8am, I'd filled it by 3:30am ... dammit!
    Still, it had the start/end times on it, so they'd be able to calculate my "flow".

    Sure enough, they took more blood when I bought in my pot of pee that day!
    They checked me out and within 3 days said, "you're not the average male 40+ year old in the UK, there's nothing wrong with you. Carry on!"

    Annoyed, yes! Relieved, yes!

    Trust the general health community? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm



    I believe you should trust what the doctors say to you...

    And if he did he might have ended up with a kidney transplant on perfectly healthy kidneys.

    Doctors are human, they can be wrong, and aren't always up to date either. Plus these days there is so much pressure to get people in and out quickly they really don't always take a good serious look at things or consider all the factors. Most of the ones I've been too spend 10 minutes with you at most.

    A number of years ago I was having palpitations and my doc tested a bunch of stuff, and couldn't find anything wrong but seemed to think there must be *something* pretty bad they hadn't caught. Finally I did some digging on the internet, and read about how caffeine could cause palpitations even hours later (I had thought it was right after or not at all), so I asked the doc, oooh, yeahhhh she said, as if this hadn't occurred to her before. I cut way back on caffeine, problems solved. Too bad she hadn't asked me of my caffeine habits initially before all the expensive tests.
  • LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo
    LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo Posts: 3,634 Member
    Great examples of overweight yet fit people are some rugby players, power lifters, shot put players & sumo wrestlers. Everybody would think that these people have health issues because of their size but many times they appear to be healthier than skinny but inactive people.
  • recoiljpr
    recoiljpr Posts: 292
    Someone can work out a lot and still be obese. I take my own experiences over the past 5 years. Only really when sick have I ever not worked out at least 5 days a week. Running 5k, 10k's, century bike rides, body combat, martial arts, etc, etc. I always thought I was in good shape since I could do things many "thin" people couldn't do. I have yearly checkups and I am healthy as a horse. But, i'm doing the weight loss for me, so I can see my performance improve.

    But yet, as i'm now realizing, by staying the size I was, I was really limiting myself. I don't think it's necessary to look like a model, but at least in my case I want to be able to see results, see my body change and feel stronger, faster, etc. For me, when that excess weight is gone, I can finally shoot for sub 30 minute 5k's, etc.
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