My goal is to be FIT, NOT SKINNY!
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amen to that
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Nope, my view is not skewed at all, it is accurate
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-60953/Why-fat-fit-save-life.html
Fat and fit is better than skinny and unfitObesity may be less of a health hazard than was feared, claim scientists.
Because, even if you are fat, the key to prolonging your life seems to be how fit you are.
Researchers found that slim people who are unfit have a death rate double that of obese people who exercise regularly.
The American expert behind the study says the modern plague of inactivity may be more of a danger to health than the obesity epidemic being experienced on both sides of the Atlantic.
Professor Steven Blair said technological developments had engineered physical activity out of many people's lives and left them more likely to fall victim to life-threatening illnesses and premature death as a result.
'We don't even have to open doors any more - electricity does it for us - and there are 10,000 more examples like that,' he said.
'It isn't just the TV and computer taking over our lives - it's an insidious change in everyday activity that is robbing us of good health.'
Prof Blair and his team at the Cooper Institute in Dallas studied thousands of men and women aged from their 20s to their 80s.
The tests, conducted over several decades, show physical activity is a more important signpost to health than being overweight.
'Data from our recent study in the U.S. on 30,000 people shows that lean individuals who are unfit have a death rate that is more than double that of obese individuals who are fit. Inactivity is the key problem rather than obesity itself,' said Prof Blair.
He told a conference on obesity in London yesterday that people were checked for physical fitness using treadmill tests.
One group who improved their fitness between two such examinations a year apart had a 50 per cent drop in their death rate over the following ten years, compared with an unfit group of people who did nothing to improve activity levels.
'We found those people who lost weight and at the same time improved their fitness had a big reduction in the risk of dying. But those who lost weight and did not get fit had an increased risk of dying, ' said Prof Blair.
In the UK, three out of five adults are over-weight or obese - the level at which their health is seriously threatened - and the problem has tripled in 20 years.
Altogether, half of women and about twothirds of men are clinically overweight or obese and the problem is mirrored among children.
Recent studies show a doubling of youngsters with weight problems and almost one in ten under four is obese.
Illnesses triggered by obesity, such as diabetes, colon cancer and stroke, can reduce life expectancy by around nine years.
Prof Blair said the problem may be due to an unhealthy diet, but added: 'It is much more likely to point to the drop in energy expenditure in the last 25 years.
'I'm not talking about jogging or going to the gym but the lack of activity in everyday lives that has just crept up on everyone.'
UK statistics show people are spending longer sitting in front of computer and TV screens - watching 26 hours of television a week in the mid-1990s compared with 13 hours in the 1960s.
Barely one in three people takes part in regular exercise, almost all youngsters between seven and 18 are classified as 'inactive' and safety fears mean children are less likely to walk to school and back.0 -
My journey is about me. I am finally putting myself, my health in the daily routine of my life. I would like to be at a healthy, maintainable weight for me. YEARS ago I was about 165 and I felt great. I'm sure others would cringe at that number, but for me, it might be a healthy weight once again.
Each person has their own goals, ideal weight/size.0 -
OP ignore all the haters!! Thats their job, to hate. But that being said i 100% agree with you. So many people are focused on being thin or skinny. I just want to live longer and be as healthy as possible. Cheers sister ! Right there with you!0
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I am saying regardless of weight, being FIT is better - why is that so hard to understand?
and here's anotherSteven Blair is professor of exercise science at the University of South Carolina. He describes the official focus on obesity as an "obsession ... and it's not grounded in solid data".
Blair's most fascinating study, in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2007, took 2,600 people aged 60 and above, of various degrees of fatness, and tested their fitness on the treadmill, rather than asking them to quantify it themselves. This is an unusually rigorous approach, he claims, since many rival surveys ask participants to assess their own fitness, or ignore it as a factor altogether. Proper tests, Blair suggests, demonstrate no hard and fast link between excess weight and increased mortality.
"There is an 'association' between obesity and fitness," he agrees, "but it is not perfect. If you look at the normal-weight men and women aged 60 and older, for example, about 90% are fit as demonstrated by a 'maximal exercise' test in the laboratory. This is not asking them if they're fit, or guessing that they're fit – they've proved it on the treadmill. As you progress towards overweight, class I obesity and class II obesity, the percentage of individuals who are fit does go down. But here's a shock: among class II obese individuals [with a body mass index, or BMI, of between 35 and 39.9], about 40% or 45% are still fit. You simply cannot tell by looking whether someone is fit or not."
But doesn't that only prove that some fat people can hold their own on the treadmill? Not at all, Blair says. "In all of these studies, we typically see higher rates of mortality, chronic diseases, heart attacks and the like, in people with high BMI – we see the same thing that everybody else sees. But when we look at these mortality rates in fat people who are fit, we see that the harmful effect of fat just disappears.
"If we look at individuals who are obese and just moderately fit – we're not talking about marathon runners here – their death rate during the next decade is half that of the normal weight people who are unfit. So it's a huge effect."0 -
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Do I want to be SKINNY?
No thank you! I'd rather be FIT! Skinny to me could equate to illness and sickness. It doesn't always equate to healthy. There are SKINNY Aids and Cancer victims.
Skinny people can be unhealthy and NOT fit. I think I've heard a word for that called Skinny -fat. It's very sad when I hear women say they want to be skinny. I know it may be a word and just semantics- I just cringe when I hear it. Can anyone relate? My goal is always to be fit and healthy.
Skinny doesn't always equate to beauty. I've also seen gorgeous "fat" people. I hate that women especially are so brainwashed. I am cuter when I am fit- but I also know that I could be 130lbs and still not look perfect, I will still have a longer that I'd prefer face, a bigger than I'd want nose, and bags under my eyes that unless I go under the knife, are genetic features.
Skinny doesn't equate to having a perfect life. No one has a perfect life. Your life may be easier if you are fit- but your problems still don't go away magically. If you have depression or anxiety when you are overweight, unless you get therapy, chances are the depresison/anxiety will still continue. Weight loss doesn't change that- your MIND is what makes or breaks you.
People do not love you more if you are fit. If they do, they are not the quality people you'd want in your life anyway and you'd deserve more.
If people judge you, that's their issue, but remember skinny does not equate to beauty or necessarily good physical or mental health. You have to WORK hard to be fit- even thin people have to work hard to be fit.
How do you want your life? Anyone get me? If so msg me, add me, always up for new friends!
Some people are naturally "sticks" and they can't help it. My boyfriend is one, he's 6'2" and 138-145lbs.
Personally I think you are just jealous of thinness. Or else you wouldn't be freaking out over something that does not even apply to you. When I see a skinny model that is beautiful, I don't say "Wow, she is DISGUSTINGLY THIN!" I say, "Wow, she looks really beautiful".0 -
These forums are so filled with drama.0
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I define fitness as being sound inside and out.
Optimal health is reflected in our outward appearance. My goals are to look good, feel great and live well.
That means healthy BMI ie NOT obese, athletic body fat ie NOT fat and sound medical numbers related to blood work, resting heart rate and blood pressure.
It's a total package. It's not enough to be some fat guy who can swim 5 miles, bench 350 and do 40 pull ups. I was that guy already. Nope, I need to feel good about the man in the mirror.
Just an opinion.....0 -
These forums are so filled with drama.
You took the words right out of my mouth...0 -
I'd like to be skinny and fit
OP, I think the first couple of lines unfortunately set the tone for the rest of your post. I don't think you meant anything bad by it. But maybe look at it this way:
My goal is to be blonde, NOT BRUNETTE!
Do I want to be BRUNETTE?
No thank you! I'd rather be BLONDE! Brunette to me could equate to illness and sickness.
Compared to:
My goal is to be blonde! I love the way it looks, and it's just as pretty as brunette.
I know a silly comparison but I'm short on creativity tonight
:flowerforyou:0 -
Good for you OP. My goal is to be accepting of everybody, regardless of their body type because there truly is beauty in anyone, whether they're fit/fat/sticks/overweight/any of the above. To each their own though. :cheers:0
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Good idea, poor execution. Whenever we have to put another group of people down to lift someone (read ourselves) up, it is always a bad idea and will get bashed. At one time, and still in certain countries/societies, being overweight was a sign of health and affluence. Cue the fat bashing to make those "less" fortunate feel better. Here comes MFP where fat people are supposed to feel, oh I don't know, safe from society, and we commence to bashing the skinny/thin people because they're not US.
Like I said, the intent may not have been there, but the biases were clear! And I call myself the healthiest fat woman on the planet.0 -
I can completely agree! I was once skinny then gained weight back so not worth looking like a walking skeleton..My goal now is to be fit!0
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Come on, Blair's already admitted that his research was limited and might not be reliable because he relied on women's self-reported activity levels, and so on. No fitness evaluation, no testing, not even a treadmill test. It's been dismissed. Look at his study yourself.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2951585/
I'm sure exercise and being "fit" will help improve the risk of obesity related problems. Great! There's just no need to bash others for being thin.0 -
Still trying to get why I should care what one persons opinion is...................................0
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I say I want to be healthy, not this obese fat.
But I´m not looking to be skinny, just be a slimmer than I´m now and feeling better with myself and look better because this fat isn´t attractive. Not skinny, I feel sorry for people who are skinny, they look often as they are ill.0 -
What do you say to those who are naturally skinny? Are they not beautiful because of genetics as you said yourself? Are they just like the AIDS and cancer victims you said about yourself?
You can be fit AND skinny; skinny does not always mean unhealthy.
I think you missed the point.0 -
Skinny doesn't always mean unhealthy....0
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Everyone has different goals. If your goal is to be fit, not skinny, then good on you. Some people want to be skinny, some want to be fit, some just want to be healthy, some don't care, and some want to be muscular. It's good that you want to be fit, but that doesn't make being skinny a bad thing.0
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Do I want to be SKINNY?
No thank you! I'd rather be FIT! Skinny to me could equate to illness and sickness. It doesn't always equate to healthy. There are SKINNY Aids and Cancer victims.
Skinny people can be unhealthy and NOT fit. I think I've heard a word for that called Skinny -fat. It's very sad when I hear women say they want to be skinny. I know it may be a word and just semantics- I just cringe when I hear it. Can anyone relate? My goal is always to be fit and healthy.
Skinny doesn't always equate to beauty. I've also seen gorgeous "fat" people. I hate that women especially are so brainwashed. I am cuter when I am fit- but I also know that I could be 130lbs and still not look perfect, I will still have a longer that I'd prefer face, a bigger than I'd want nose, and bags under my eyes that unless I go under the knife, are genetic features.
Skinny doesn't equate to having a perfect life. No one has a perfect life. Your life may be easier if you are fit- but your problems still don't go away magically. If you have depression or anxiety when you are overweight, unless you get therapy, chances are the depresison/anxiety will still continue. Weight loss doesn't change that- your MIND is what makes or breaks you.
People do not love you more if you are fit. If they do, they are not the quality people you'd want in your life anyway and you'd deserve more.
If people judge you, that's their issue, but remember skinny does not equate to beauty or necessarily good physical or mental health. You have to WORK hard to be fit- even thin people have to work hard to be fit.
How do you want your life? Anyone get me? If so msg me, add me, always up for new friends!
I think you make some good points. Yes, you can be fit and skinny... You can also be unhealthy and skinny... skinny is the term that is unrelated to healthiness... fitness, is the consistent point of health. Can one be unhealthy and fit? possible but unlikely.0 -
make that LESS likely0
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Just so you know I didn't take it any other way than you meant it, I saw an example on a talk show that had one
skinny woman and one woman seemingly over weight. They had a fitness competition and the seemingly over
weight person one the fitness competition.0 -
Just so you know I didn't take it any other way than you meant it, I saw an example on a talk show that had one
skinny woman and one woman seemingly over weight. They had a fitness competition and the seemingly over
weight person one the fitness competition.
My coworker is overweight and gets a better time on her mile than me. But guess who hasn't menstruated in over 5 months and has a horrid cholesterol level? Not me.
But she is 23 and I'm 36...0 -
OP, If your point was to convey that women of all sizes are beautiful then you should have titled the thread so rather than My goal is to be FIT NOT SKINNY! That was a big mistake.
You can be skinny and fit, overweight and fit. You need some skinniness if you want to be able to see the muscles you work hard for.
I read how you lost 125lbs and won $10,000 that was great. You must have felt bad gaining back 50. Glad you are dropping it again and are still free of diabetes.0 -
thin is fine. fit is fine. overweight is not.
but what if you are overweight and fit? :ohwell:
if you are overweight you are not fit.
What a ridiculous statement. What defines fit?
Heart rate?, Blood pressure?, cholesterol?, abilty to run 10K?, ability to do 100 push ups?
o i dont know...how about all the things we associate with being overweight? disease, stress on the body etc...
What a rude things to say. I was considered over weight at 130 cuz of my height. But I was prob a hell of alot better in shape then someone in normal range. Bmi scales are a load of ****. And my step dad had high blood pressure cuz it runs in the family but I bet he's in better shape then some other ppl. Unless ur a doctor and u no this persons medical history quit being a asd and keep ur opinion to urself
I agree, what was said is rude. I'm considered obese because of my height. I can run a faster mile than I could when I weighed 100 pounds and wasn't having menstrual cycles, and as of now I have text book perfect blood pressure and heart rate, do not have asthma or high cholesterol or high triglycerides or insulin. I also am "disease" free, whatever that means...so basically my body is under no stress with my being "obese".
On a side note, I'm really discouraged by the snark and general negative attitude towards the OP. I work in a social services field and at one point was doing residential treatment for adolescents. The majority of the girls want to be "skinny" and suffered from ED. we would always try encourage health. We never used the terms thin, skinny, fat...etc. these are triggering terms for many people. There is nothing wrong with being thin, but in our society there is EVERYTHING wrong with being overweight, women are constantly scrutinized for any amount of weight gain or for not obtaining a beauty standard that is based on lies. When a women is accepting of her body, rather than have encouragement, she's told by people who usually aren't doctors that they're promoting an unhealthy lifestyle and that fat acceptance is unacceptable. There may be people that are accepting of all bodies, but the majority tends to be against "fat" people. That being said, women who are stigmatized as anorexics also have to deal with the constant barrage of negative labels. If you can't be objective and see perspective, really see and understand it, an Internet forum is not a good place for you to share your opinions.0 -
Can't we all just get along? :flowerforyou:
At the end of the day, health and how we feel about ourselves are the important factors, rather than a particular weight. We can all agree on that, right?0 -
i know this isnt exactly analogous but a smoker can get a clean bill of health but if they keep it up there will be a very good chance that it negatively affects their health. so please dont delude yourselves into thinking that if you are obese with good blood work right now it will always be that way.0
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I think everyone needs to take a kit kat break. yes? Okay , good :drinker:0
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i know this isnt exactly analogous but a smoker can get a clean bill of health but if they keep it up there will be a very good chance that it negatively affects their health. so please dont delude yourselves into thinking that if you are obese with good blood work right now it will always be that way.
Also don't delude yourself that if you are slim that you are automatically immune from heart issues.0
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