Medical World Debates Risk Of Being A Little Pudgy

[wdlove]

Riding to the mall one Saturday, Joanne Ikeda's younger sister turned to her and asked, out of nowhere, "Do you know that I am now overweight?"

From heart-sinking personal experience, millions upon millions of people can imagine exactly what led up to that admission. She had stepped on the scales and noticed a number a little north of usual. So she looked it up on a body mass index chart. And -- No! -- she was officially too heavy.

Not obese, not even close. But her BMI was 26, a full, leaden point above the carved-in-stone cutoff for being overweight.

There is little doubt among mainstream health professionals that being truly obese is a health hazard. But what about the borderline plump? The mildly pudgy? All those people with BMIs between 25 and 29, who according to the charts are overweight?

Check Body Mass Index

Government health agencies often lump all degrees of overweight together, noting for instance that over 60 percent of Americans are too heavy. But more than half of these people -- roughly one-third of all Americans and 800 million people worldwide -- are overweight but not obese.


http://www.thebostonchannel.com/health/3468545/detail.html?treets=bos&tml=bos_health&ts=T&tmi=bos_health_1_12150106292004

 

[Sparky's]

So tell me, why don't people care? In my neck of the woods it seems like the population is about 80% obese (up-state NY) I am aware of my own weight (195 -5'9" 53yrs) and I should be at 170 -175 At least I am concerned about myself, what bothers me are the ones that could care less, and God forbid you should say anything to them about it! My goal would to be to walk around my neighborhood and yell at obese people and humiliate them into recognition of their problem. Just like caporal punishment in school (please bring it back) let's let these folks now it's not healthy to walk (or try to walk) around when you're 200 lbs. over-weight!!!

OK slammer receptors open

 

[poopyhead]

So tell me, why don't people care? In my neck of the woods it seems like the population is about 80% obese (up-state NY) I am aware of my own weight (195 -5'9" 53yrs) and I should be at 170 -175 At least I am concerned about myself, what bothers me are the ones that could care less, and God forbid you should say anything to them about it! My goal would to be to walk around my neighborhood and yell at obese people and humiliate them into recognition of their problem. Just like caporal punishment in school (please bring it back) let's let these folks now it's not healthy to walk (or try to walk) around when you're 200 lbs. over-weight!!!

OK slammer receptors open

certainly you are not serious
there is nothing more irritating than the idiots/bullys who feel it is their place to assert themselves in the lives of others
and for what?
the momentary power trip of humiliating one who most likely already has a poor self image
no fat person wants to be fat and humiliation only pushes many fat people to eat more, it is a vicious cycle in part perpetuated by the as*holes of the world
we as a society have slowly moved away from blaming the addict for their addiction
however
with obesity, we as a culture, seem to still hold onto outdated ideas that the obese choose to be obese and desire to be ostracized and therefore somehow deserve to be treated like sh*t

with regards to the moderately overweight
medicine and science has once more chosen to, through the use of questionable statistics and an eye towards popular culture, support a stereotype
let us not forget that less than a hundred years ago science vigorously supported the idea that non white peoples and cultures were evolutionarily inferior, that women were less intelligent than men and prone to hysterics, and that children doing dangerous jobs in factories for 8-12 hours a day was no big deal.

 

[caveman_uk]

Riding to the mall one Saturday, Joanne Ikeda's younger sister turned to her and asked, out of nowhere, "Do you know that I am now overweight?"

From heart-sinking personal experience, millions upon millions of people can imagine exactly what led up to that admission. She had stepped on the scales and noticed a number a little north of usual. So she looked it up on a body mass index chart. And -- No! -- she was officially too heavy.

Not obese, not even close. But her BMI was 26, a full, leaden point above the carved-in-stone cutoff for being overweight.

To change the subject a bit but why is it that women seem to think they need to be skinny to be attractive. Personally I prefer a rounder figure on a woman. Who gives a damn if they're one point above what some chain-smoking alcoholic quack says is a safe weight.

P.S. I went to University and knew a lot of medical students and they were nearly all chain smoking alcoholics. I now have precious little respect for doctors and their lifestyle pronouncements.

 

[MacFan26]

To change the subject a bit but why is it that women seem to think they need to be skinny to be attractive.

I think it's because you can't go anywhere without having someone shouting in your face about weight loss. Ok, maybe not shouting, but I've seen more weight loss commercials on tv/internet, etc. that no wonder women think they have to be skinny. And now with these huge diet fads, it's just ridiculous. Not to mention all the Victoria's Secret commercials. Have you seen those women? It's just like it's become unacceptable to be an average, healthy person.

 

[ecche]

Who gives a damn if they're one point above what some chain-smoking alcoholic quack says is a safe weight.

Now look, I didn't say anything!!

 

[kettle]

oh no, I hate thinking about the first dents in a fresh soul.

From heart-sinking personal experience, millions upon millions of people can imagine exactly what led up to that admission

I mean, god knows how dangerous the world would be if we were all allowed to be happy with our selves, sure there will always be a little doubt, we need that edge to solve problems and drive personal discovery, but the kind of poison that is pumped into the T.V. culture of Western Civilisation is just crazy. But completely deliberate.

When will people realise that the whole point of pumping us full of "News" on the hour every hour is to keep the population down. Every hour usually has something to make every demographic of person feel despondent with their own lot in life.

I just think the media in one lump, regardless of political bias, is just another incarnation of a controlling force, instead of having to "report in" to listen to our sins and the sins of others, we get dosed up on the hour every hour with other religious stories in-between.

I think the biggest health problem in this world is people with low self esteem, it's like a plague. Regardless of circumstance and luck/accident of birth, before anyone worries about dying from being over weight they should be concerned for the inner energy that makes humans human.

When a person dies, at whatever moment of their existence, they really have to think about who you were kidding during your physical moments as a member of the human race. I think most people will feel low because they know they were trying to be something that they didn't really want to become.

Die fat and happy or thin and weighed down by demographic quotas
neither will change the curious side effects of a gigantic world population living on a little world. All I know is I'd rather die in a plague of brimming human spirit than a plague of low self esteem.

random options

death under bus aged 28
death heart disease aged 48
death worn rocking chair aged 101

Trust me , if you think time drags you are experiencing distortion, now I'm older time (perception) has accelerated, I have no doubt that dying young is a problem whatever your age, I still feel 17 and am very concerned about the number of people who are caught in the imaginary rules of being themselves.

Forget the awful injustice in the world and the accidents of birth and make sure your very last answer to your departing self is the truth. The more time you can spend telling the truth to yourself (usually uncomfortable), the more the pressure is put on the side of whatever good is.

I imagine that a "good" (whatever that is) world would be a lot more chaotic and Anarchic than a person today would expect.

Maybe the price in energy for a more predictable/controlled world and population, is the sum of our missing self esteem. (ozone friendly)

So, todays question is.. is Nature/God/the sum of human existence, ever really solvable/beatable/deceivable?

 

[ziwi]

The world I know

Kettle,
I think we are already in that world. Go to an amusement park or water park or the beach and you will quickly see that there are no self-esteem issues with people and the way they appear - everyone is happy with their appearance. In the old days people would cover up if they felt they were not 'in shape' - now you have people wearing bikini's that have so much over hang you can't see the bottoms. How does one explain the overweight person sitting on a bench at an amusement park sweating because they are downing ice cream? I don't think people have many issues - we are in a place where people are happy with who and what they are and they govern themselves. We live in a guiltless society. Until each person on their own decides that they want more of what is right for themselves out of life they will just be happy with more of anything.

I drone on....

 

[Hemingray]

In the old days people would cover up if they felt they were not 'in shape'

Guess I'm still stuck in the 'old days'...

I'm from the school that if what you've got ain't attractive, you have no business subjecting the public to it! A lot of people are simply insensitive to others. Whether that's in place of or in addition to being "comfortable" with themselves, who knows.

As for the other posts, unless the person has genetics working against them, these people have no excuse not to get in shape. They simply aren't using willpower and determination. That doesn't mean it's okay to humiliate them though.

Also, you have to draw the line somewhere. If you were to put a gray area of "pudgy" between normal and obese, all you've done is given those people more excuse to push the envelope.

 

[wdlove]

My fear is that the government is going to get into this overweight issue. There may be another plan to control our lives. They started with cigarettes and they used lawsuits and taxes. The lawsuits have already started with being overweight.

 

[poopyhead]

My fear is that the government is going to get into this overweight issue. There may be another plan to control our lives. They started with cigarettes and they used lawsuits and taxes. The lawsuits have already started with being overweight.

I think there has already been a bill introduced that would allow higher taxation for junk food
kind of a sin tax i guess

EDIT: found an article
it appears your fears have already been realized
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4131830/

 

[Angelus]

i can't deny that being really obese is a serious health risk,heart disease is one of the main killers here in ireland.still, i feel that people shouldn't beat themselves up over being just outside the recommended "normal" range of the BMI index. Afterall, "normal" is two standard deviations from the mean but there will always be exceptions since everyone is unique. To be kicking up such a storm vis a vis plumpness is just an example of increasing medicalisation in my opinion. Do we really know what normal is? More like, we allow the media to tell us what is normal e.g. skinny ass girls who are being told by the tv that they are attractive even though they are skin and bones.
Our opinions of what is normal with regard to weight changes with our environment. Take a look at history and men favoured plump women since they were more likely to live in the lean times when food was scarce. In this day of plenty and better healthcare, survival isn't as much an issue(unless your in the third world) and so our opinions of normal are heavily influenced by the media and advertising.
If you are a bit plump go to the gym. Hell you might not be able to lose those few pounds and get the "perfect" figure but at least you will be cultivating a healthy heart which is better than conforming to a preferred image which can change on the flip of a coin.

 

[kylos]

When I'm at college, I weigh between 240 and 250, when I'm working, I'm between 230 and 240. I would guess my ideal weight to be 210. Those are all in pounds for all you metric peoples. The BMI chart would have me at 192 to not be considered overweight, and much less to be at an ideal weight. While I have some weight to lose, I'm not trusting the BMI chart to gauge my weight. I'll know when I feel and look my proper weight. And I'm not going to feel guilty either; that doesn't get you anywhere.