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“Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

bigthink.com

131–140 of 397 posts

Re: “Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

#131

The old line goes > Your BMI tells me your overweight. > But rugby players BMIs are high, and they aren't overweight! > You don't play rugby though do you. I'm glad that "fat acceptance" may be turning a corner and will be banished hopefully and there can be a semblance of rational discourse. Ideally you should be a BMI 22, non smoking, non drinking, long distance runner living in the countryside eating a perfectly b…

> Ideally you should be a BMI 22, non smoking, non drinking, long distance runner living in the countryside eating a perfectly balanced diet.

All good except the long distance runner part. Don't think it is equivocally good as the others and may be potentially harmful (key is the long part, short/medium is good).

Re: “Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

#132
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Losing a significant amount of fat on purpose is becoming healthier, no ifs or buts about it.

There are absolutely dangerous ways to lose weight that will kill you quicker than the weight.

Sure, there are edge cases. I don't know why you're fixated on those.

Re: “Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

#133

The old line goes > Your BMI tells me your overweight. > But rugby players BMIs are high, and they aren't overweight! > You don't play rugby though do you. I'm glad that "fat acceptance" may be turning a corner and will be banished hopefully and there can be a semblance of rational discourse. Ideally you should be a BMI 22, non smoking, non drinking, long distance runner living in the countryside eating a perfectly b…

> I get to eat what I want and sit around all day? Hell yeah! I am naturally thin. That statement ("i get to eat what i want and sit around all day") is true of my body. Is it such a strange idea that there are as many people who are naturally thin as there are that are naturally fat? Those people aren't making a choice to be fat any more than i am making a choice to be thin. Why should they feel bad about their body…

They choose it a bit. First eating all the day long some crap (sweets, processed food, fiberless industrial food), drinking sweet sodas and not walking/doing real sports is a choice. It's the choice to live unhealthy. They should feel bad the same way smokers should feel bad. It's quite a disrespect for oneself.

Re: “Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

#134

The old line goes > Your BMI tells me your overweight. > But rugby players BMIs are high, and they aren't overweight! > You don't play rugby though do you. I'm glad that "fat acceptance" may be turning a corner and will be banished hopefully and there can be a semblance of rational discourse. Ideally you should be a BMI 22, non smoking, non drinking, long distance runner living in the countryside eating a perfectly b…

> I get to eat what I want and sit around all day? Hell yeah! I am naturally thin. That statement ("i get to eat what i want and sit around all day") is true of my body. Is it such a strange idea that there are as many people who are naturally thin as there are that are naturally fat? Those people aren't making a choice to be fat any more than i am making a choice to be thin. Why should they feel bad about their body…

>Those people aren't making a choice to be fat any more than i am making a choice to be thin.

What an interesting take. Are you saying that people do not essentially "choose" what weight to be by their eating habits?

Re: “Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

#135

The old line goes > Your BMI tells me your overweight. > But rugby players BMIs are high, and they aren't overweight! > You don't play rugby though do you. I'm glad that "fat acceptance" may be turning a corner and will be banished hopefully and there can be a semblance of rational discourse. Ideally you should be a BMI 22, non smoking, non drinking, long distance runner living in the countryside eating a perfectly b…

> I get to eat what I want and sit around all day? Hell yeah! I am naturally thin. That statement ("i get to eat what i want and sit around all day") is true of my body. Is it such a strange idea that there are as many people who are naturally thin as there are that are naturally fat? Those people aren't making a choice to be fat any more than i am making a choice to be thin. Why should they feel bad about their body…

That's the bit that OP and the writer, if they're different people, miss. Fat acceptance is basically a position that we fatties have been forced into. If every skinny person learned to mind their own business, it wouldn't exist.

The problem is not that we aren't listening to our doctors - the problem is that people like OP exist who self-appoint themselves as our doctors and start preaching. And that word was chosen carefully, because it's exactly the same bullshit.

Re: “Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

#136

The old line goes > Your BMI tells me your overweight. > But rugby players BMIs are high, and they aren't overweight! > You don't play rugby though do you. I'm glad that "fat acceptance" may be turning a corner and will be banished hopefully and there can be a semblance of rational discourse. Ideally you should be a BMI 22, non smoking, non drinking, long distance runner living in the countryside eating a perfectly b…

One issue is that for the betterment of society in regards to climate change, dense urban living is undoubtedly better than spread out living in the countryside. Assuming we want to maintain current population, of course.

Re: “Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A general rule is that you burn about 100 calories in a mile jog. A 12oz can of Coke has about 140 calories, a quarter of a cup of nuts has about 200 calories, an apple has about 100 calories. Exercise is important for many reasons, but not for preventing obesity. Unless you're running marathons, or exercising like somebody who is, the amount of calories you will burn from exercising will in no way whatsoever compare…

The critical piece you're missing is that building and maintaining muscle mass increases your metabolism greatly. Michael Phelps eats 10,000 calories a day. This an extreme example, but the principle is true for all of us.

It may actually not. The hypothesis may be that building and maintaining muscle simply increases linearly with the increase of lean muscle mass. If (and these are made up numbers) one lb of lean muscle mass takes 10 cals to maintain, adding 5lbs of muscle would only increase your caloric needs be 50 cals.

At 190lb, my BMI is 26.5, but I'm relatively muscular with a body fat % of around 15%. I have more than 5lbs more muscle than an average person, but my required daily caloric needs are only a few hundred cals more a day at most.

Re: “Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

#138

[flagged]

"Step 1: Declare that there is no objective standard for a better skin color.

Step 2: Declare that things like race and skin color are strictly a cultural phenomenon that have no grounding in reality or biology.

Step 3: Assert a power dynamic imbalance. Since there is no reason for people to say one skin color is better, then white people are merely "race shaming" people to oppress them.

Step 4: Relentlessly point out all the ways "non-white people people" are "oppressed". If anyone disagrees with you, accuse them of "race shaming", label them an oppressor, etc."

I did the thing you said, replaced weight with skin color, but it came out pretty damn racist.

If you're reading this and it sounds racist, might be time to switch it back to being about weight and realize that yes it is also shitty to treat people poorly because of their weight - just like it's shitty to treat someone poorly because of their race.

Re: “Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

#139

Did they control for anti-fat bias? Unlikely. Especially in the medical system, fat people don't get their body issues taken seriously. The stress of being treated poorly by everyone in your life undoubtedly has a huge impact on your lifespan. Did they control for efforts to change you body? Most fat people are trying to be thinner. Plenty of ways that people are told to change their body involve extreme stress to yo…

That podcast is good for a cringe chuckle as they openly wonder if being fat is even bad for you ("what's the evidence for that???" -- well, did the hosts even look?). That show is pure cope for fat people. My girlfriend and I listen to it for fun.

Re: “Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

#140
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are several reasons: 1. Historically being fat was considered a sign of good health. Of course, this was during times of massive food scarcity and the definition of fat was probably very different from what we consider fat today. 2. Massive amounts of money involved in telling people to eat/drink more, and then spend more money in gyms and taking pills to lose that weight. As opposed to just eating less…

I'm interested in 3. Is there any research or data about that? I do not encourage fat shaming at all, but I can also imagine that in some cases shame may be a powerful motivator for some people. Is there hard data showing that it actually makes it harder?

Shame is a powerful demotivator. Guilt is a good motivator.
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