91–100 of 156 posts
If we have always been lazy, why is there now an obesity epidemic? It seems to me that means the cause of obesity lies elsewhere.
It's not just obesity; people were more fertile. Men had much higher sperm counts 100 years ago.
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More specific than oppression. As obesity and its effects are seen as acutely unhealthy, quality of life for underweight people is sacrificed for the health benefit of the obese. Clearly there is not some cabal of fat dudes stroking their bellies plotting ways to stick it to the skinny man.
Assuming access to quality foods, but activity and metabolism keep them skinny (that is, this is a healthy skinny, not a malnourished skinny), in what ways are below-average weight people's quality of life sacrificed?
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There are better ways to die young than deliberately harming your health. Take on riskier hobbies (while still remaining physically active). Refuse to wear safety gear while riding a motorcycle or never wear a seatbelt while in a car. A coke a day, probably not a huge problem if you're moderately active. But, smoking, excessive drinking, excessive time spent physically idle, etc, will all reduce your health. They may…
> Refuse to wear safety gear while riding a motorcycle or never wear a seatbelt while in a car. Not wearing a seatbelt somehow doesn't compare to a juicy burger, fries and Coke.
I was very frustrated by PE. At my college, you could take a class about making maple syrup for a wellness credit. It's a joke. But how many people can brace correctly, or squat, deadlift, and press with proper form? These are archetypal movement patterns that we repeat 100s of times a day without thinking about it, and most people don't even know what they're supposed to look like. How many people know how to use a…
It would be awesome if everyone knew proper lifting form, but it's just not going to happen. Getting people to engage in an activity that they like, and that involves lots of real-world movement, is the biggest win you can hope for, practically speaking.
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Sure, they can be responsible for their own actions. Doesn't mean the schools have to provide them the option to be actively harmful to their health. They're adults (as mentioned in another comment). If they want to buy a few cases of Coca Cola and drink that instead of water every day for 4 years, that's their prerogative. No school should stop them from making such a terrible, stupid mistake, but no school should p…
There's a little bit of cognitive dissonance going on here. If they're responsible for their actions, and they're adults, why are you taking an option away from them in fears that they're "making a mistake"? This is universally seen as hand-holding.
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Assuming access to quality foods, but activity and metabolism keep them skinny (that is, this is a healthy skinny, not a malnourished skinny), in what ways are below-average weight people's quality of life sacrificed?
It's very difficult to buy clothes that fit, for one. Especially suits.
EDIT: Actually, clothes that fit could be hard. I wasn't terribly round, I ended up with a 38" waist at my fattest at 5' 10", but usually around a 36" waist. But my legs, thighs in particular, were not toned or thin. My option on pants almost always required me to go up several inches on the waist to get pants with large enough legs for me. My thighs, now, are well-muscled and toned, but I still have a hard time finding pants that fit them well now that I'm down to a 32" waist.
But I still don't think the problem is catering to the obese hurting the skinny. The problem is that being that thin is abnormal (from a statistical perspective). Consequently, it's a small market. It's hard to justify making off-the-rack shirts that fit a 6'2" 120lb man. Just as it's hard to justify making of-the-rack shirts that fit a 5'4" 250lb man.
Make your organism always maintain optimal muscles and circulation system while burning a lot of calories? Seems like a win/win to me.
Some people are strong and healthy without excersice, I think we are all entitled to same package?
I had PE in University (and before that school), hated it and now I'm turned off from any excercise.
I was very frustrated by PE. At my college, you could take a class about making maple syrup for a wellness credit. It's a joke. But how many people can brace correctly, or squat, deadlift, and press with proper form? These are archetypal movement patterns that we repeat 100s of times a day without thinking about it, and most people don't even know what they're supposed to look like. How many people know how to use a…
In my opinion the maple syrup class could be a fantastic wellness opportunity -- making maple syrup involves hiking around the woods, often in the snow, carrying heavy buckets full of sap around. It's this kind of real-world, ecologically reasonable movement that most people are so profoundly deficient in. To say nothing of spending time in a beautiful natural setting, which is often quite restorative and de-stressin…
I'm not talking about proper lifting form, I'm talking about proper human movement. We perform these archetypal movement patterns every day throughout our entire lives. Every time you sit down in a chair you're performing a squat. Every time you pick up your bag off the ground, you're performing a deadlift.
And to say "that's just not going to happen" is a self-fulfilling prophecy. We're not teaching people these skills, therefore we wouldn't be able to teach these skills.
I completed a minor in music and I still had to take more general liberal arts classes for my CS degree. They can afford to include a class that teaches about how to correctly use and care for one's body.
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20 miles a day? Surely you aren't serious? Someone check my math but at a 7 minute mile, that's a 2 hour run every day, plus warmup, stretch, change, cleanup time. That feels absurd for anybody with a job, family, etc. Maybe every other day would make more sense.
A couple specific individuals I've known. Both ran 15-20 miles a day. They'd just go for runs most evenings or mornings and run and run. At least every weekday for one, the other I know ran daily. One was a Catholic seminarian (ran in the mornings, no family, obviously). The other was a middle-aged, family man, working as an engineer. He'd run most of his life. Both were African, one Nigerian (the seminarian), I don'…
That explains a lot. One of the true and tested recipes for libido suppression the Church takes to heart is to physically and mentally exahust their horny young men until they are not horny any more.
This of course is just my opinion, but an informed one. I went to a Catholic mid-school and highschool, and even when we were not 100% on board as a seminarist would be, sports was something the administration promoted very heavily. We'd also get to know lots of seminarists that would come to do field work there prior to taking their vows, and an almost universal trait of them was their passion for sports.