Hey guys!

I'm not being mean and it's not crap. Why do you think heart disease is the leading non-accidental cause of death. Higher than cancer!

Obesity and overweightedness is an international epidemic.

Go rent the documentary "Super-Size Me" and then tell me what you think.

I'm 5'7" and I have a medium-small frame, and after a trip to the doctor two weeks ago I learned that I weighed 160lbs. I don't look it, but I'm about 20lbs overweight. Since then I've stopped drinking soda and eating candy except for a treat a few times a month. I haven't really been excersising too much, just taking the 9 flights of stairs instead of the elevator at work and doing the odd bicep curl and push-up. I've lost 4 lbs in a couple of weeks.

My dad doesn't look fat either, but he's clinically obese. He suffers from high blood pressure, high cholesterol and he's got a history of serious heart trouble. His afflictions are directly related to his eating habits. He almost died when he was 40 because of the way he ate, he now has to take at least 6 pills a day just to stay alive.

Thanks, but I think I'll elect to be healthy and trim, spuds.
 
OK, I realize that my last post may have been a conversation killer and I'm sorry. I just think that people aren't careful enough about what they eat, and that the food production business takes no responsibility for the health of their clients (read: all of us).

Also, I couldn't bear to see this forum hanging on the brink of 7,000 posts any longer!
 
i am 6'2" and have weighed 150-155 pounds since my sophmore year in high school. i am one of those lucky people who can eat a ton and not show it. but then again, i also have self control. i dont gorge on candies, cakes or the like. i dont eat fast food that often either.

and i did see super-size me. it was a pretty good movie, though completely biased and purposefuly weighed in one direction. it was still interesting. i do agree that it is a serious problem in our country, but i find it very offensive for people to be chastised for their weight, since often times it is not something they have much control over.

let's face it, we live in a society where the food flows freely and we don't have to get up and move about all that much.
 
GhostToast said:
but i find it very offensive for people to be chastised for their weight, since often times it is not something they have much control over.

let's face it, we live in a society where the food flows freely and we don't have to get up and move about all that much.
Nobody's chastising anybody. I just said health and fitness were worthy goals, when that idea was mocked, I explained why they were worthy goals.

And yes, our society makes it nigh impossible to truly be healthy. For example, the least expensive food is often the worst for you. And as far as societal encouragement to be active? Hah! Although, Nintendo's new controller may be a trailblazer for a new "active" gaming era. Holo-decks would still be ideal.
 
I don't like the concept of straight weight-based scales for "overweight" "underweight" etc.

As we should all know, muscle weighs more than fat. Being 6"0' and 185lbs, I am slightly overweight myself. However, while until six months or so ago most of that weight was excess weight, I've been working on getting in shape and have been decreasing my body fat percentage, though my weight has stayed fairly constant. I'm replacing fat with muscle, and while I'm not losing weight I'm in better shape and feel better.

Up until I was 25 or so I was like GT, I weighed around 155 for years, never put weight on.

Obesity is a problem. I don't want to be paying for people's health choices in the form of increased insurance rates. But other than that, people can eat what they want and do what they like with their own bodies, I don't really care. Just don't expect special treatment; if the airline tells you you have to buy two seats because you take up two seats, don't start bitching.
 
You're right about some people not having control of their eating patterns, although there IS always something that can be done, one way or another, and I would argue that most people COULD have that control if they took it, or sought a little counselling.

But for those who do suffer from uncontrolled appetite, there is a new device made by Medtronics that is implanted near the epidermis in a reversible procedure that sends tiny, imperceptible electrical pulses to the stomach lining, causing it to contract, which then sends satiety messages to the brain, making the patient feel full, not hungry. The device can be remotely adjusted as the patient learns new eating behaviour. It's a viable alternative to the drastic measures currently employed (such as stomach stapling, etc.).
 
I thought it was. The only trouble is that people who don't need it, people who, like I said, could be doing the work themselves (which, let's face it, is always a better alternative to surgery, and cheaper for those of you without public healthcare), will demand to use it. It should be limited to those who cannot help themselves at all.
 
I thought they had a reversible version of that now?

But yeah, the stomach stapling is a bit ridiculous. There are people who are resorting to it without trying any sort of self control; I know one woman who weighs more than 400 pounds and went to six different doctors trying to get one that would authroize the surgery. They all wanted her to try counselling and dieting, and she didn't want to put in the effort. Thankfully she wasn't able to find a doctor that would, but you know they're out there.
 
If you think being overweight can truly ever be established by a simple number, you're wrong. There are an infinite number of builds a person can have, be it wimpy like a Frenchman or horse-throwing like the Polish. A simple number can never determine health. That isn't to say that I'm saying I'm not overweight, because I know I am. But that doesn't mean I'm not fit, and that doesn't mean I'm going to die at 35 when my heart, stomach, kidneys and liver all simulataneously explode, like you say.
 
Haha. I didn't say that, nor did I claim determining health and fitness was a simple numbers game (it's actually a complex numbers game). Suffice it to say that all good charts take into consideration the size of your frame (essentially how big your bones are). As BC said, muscle weighs more than fat, but you can generally tell just by a glance or a poke whether someone's extra weight is lean or fat.

I found out I was overweight. Instead of getting defensive about it, I changed my lifestyle (not drastically, but enough). Now, I feel pretty good all the time, whereas two weeks ago, I had chronic digestion problems and much less energy.