Any ideas for obesity?

[twistedshadows]

Not to rile up any sort of hatred or rioting or mass lynchings, but obesity is worse than smoking or other lifestyle choices. This is something that hurts the obese people, hurts other people by buying junk food, which means more junk food and higher prices on quality organic foods, is entirely stoppable (I mean for fucks sake, it's a disease that you inflict on yourself, as you know you're inflicting it on yourself), and it may well be a significant factor in poverty and global warming (agriculture is a leading cause of greenhouse gasses).
Cliched as it is, we need some tough love, or at least some more extreme measures. No one ever died of being offended or insulted.

So... being obese is worse than being, say, an alcoholic? Sorry, but I don't really see your point.
Obesity is often an emotional problem or an addiction instead of a conscious decision not care for one's health. It can also be genetic. If you're going to limit food or tell an obese person how to live their life, you might as well reform and limit people who have problems with alcohol, cigarettes, even gambling and anything else that can be addictive or used to affect a person's physical or mental health.

Here's a genius idea: stop society being such a dick about weight. As I have said before [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/18.126070] much of the problem with weight is in the perception. Sure, it's unhealthy to be sedentary but that's regardless of ones weight. Chances are that fat person you're poking fun at has starved themselves half to death in the past so they won't need a size above XL. Most fat people have dieted like mad and regained the weight. I did, for example. It's not a matter of shaming people into being thin because fuck knows if that worked there wouldn't be a person on the planet above 70kg.

Fat is not synonymous with unhealthy.
Thin is not synonymous with healthy.

I couldn't have said that better myself.

Also, to some of the people in this thread: It's not something to be cruel about.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Idea 2: At any given gym, such as the YMCA, have exercise bikes hooked up to generators, obese people can get paid for using these bikes for a certain amount of time.
Hopefully it would result in: obese people get a workout, jobs are created in a bad economy, and a lower electric bill. These machines would also be available for home usage, perhaps with similar results.

Nuts to fat people, if excesrize bikes could do that I'd be on one earning an easy living!

My solution about this is to stop freakin' worrying about it. ok! They are bigger than us. We get it. Who cares? Someone's weight is nobody's business but their own.

It's our business because everyone else has to deal with the myriad health problems they're setting themselves up for. People are quite happy to get fat but the moment it's diabetes, heart problems, liver damage or kidney stones they're all 'omg hospital treatments now,' when it would have been much easier for everyone if they'd just done some damn excersize.

I don't think anyone should be denied treatment for being overweight (if you won't treat people for being fat, where do you draw the line? No athletes? No old people? No foreigners?), but they seriously need encouraging and/or forcing to help themselves as well.

The notion of being overweight genetically is bollocks as well. It's a predisposition, not automatic morbid obesity, even then I know plenty of fast fat guys who keep fit despite their natural body shape being on the round side.

 

[Nawsome]

The only thing I've been curious about is how those really obese people keep being obese. I'm not trying to be mean or anything but when you have evolved into a snorlax and take up an entire sofa when you sit. Isn't it a tid hard to have a job and bring in money to buy the food???

Twp things, first off, the poke nerd in me has to point out that snorlax are not evolved forms. Second off, my dad's friends Eric, he weighs about 500-600 lbs. He's a father of two, has a successful (albeit unfulfilling) job in an insurance firm and coaches my little brother's soccer, baseball, basketball and football teams. He does more outside then almost any parent I know and he's still big enough to take down a bus. (also, what's a tid)

The google searching nerd in me had to do a google search to see if I could somehow counter you and found -Munchlax evolves into Snorlax at any given level, when it has a high level of happiness. - ( http://pokemon.wikia.com/wiki/Snorlax )So ha! Secondly I wasn't bashing on fat people, I tried to say that.

I was just thinking about how odd it is that people become so large that they can barely fit through there front door, yet somehow support there eating habits. The amount of money they spend on food must be extremely large, so they must have a high paying job to earn all the money to buy said food. But, what kind of high paying job would employ such a person? I mean CEO's of large companies could probably pull it off... But, there are only so many CEO positions going round...

Also, a tid is just a word meaning small. I don't know if it's an actual word but the context it was put in was pretty obvious. Jeez, where are your word attack skills!

 

[Labyrinth]

Losing weight has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with starving yourself, that is an urban myth, and a very, very, very popular one. It has to do with calorie intake versus calorie burning. You can eat a lot, and I mean a lot, and still be quite thin, I certainly do. But it means you have to be very active. Likewise, if you don't eat a lot, then you probably don't move a lot, because you don't have the energy to do so. The problem is combining high intake with low activity levels, because then you have extra calories.

You are absolutely correct about being sedentary, you can be as thin as a twig and being sedentary will be bad for your health, but that does not in any way mean that being fat is not unhealthy. There has been scientific evidence showing accumulation of hardened cholesterol deposits in the veins of overweight people as young as 20 years old. This can have very drastic effects on their cardiovascular health later on in life.

I have no sympathy for fat people, because however much some of them deny it, it's a choice, a lifestyle choice. However, I also have nothing against fat people, I have some friends that are well beyond hefty, and earlier in my life I was more than a bit heavy myself. Nowadays, especially with the health knowledge I have now, I would never choose to allow myself to become fat again, but if someone else does, then fine.

Edit: The exception of course being glandular problems, that's genetics.

Perhaps you should read the post to which I linked, and then some of the links from there. 75% of ones stable weight is decided by genetics. People whom that 75% dictate are fat will have their body react as though starving if they exercise and eat the amount required to adhere to 'normal' ideals.

 

[Panzer_God]

[

My solution about this is to stop freakin' worrying about it. ok! They are bigger than us. We get it. Who cares? Someone's weight is nobody's business but their own.

It's our business because everyone else has to deal with the myriad health problems they're setting themselves up for. People are quite happy to get fat but the moment it's diabetes, heart problems, liver damage or kidney stones they're all 'omg hospital treatments now,' when it would have been much easier for everyone if they'd just done some damn excersize.

I don't think anyone should be denied treatment for being overweight (if you won't treat people for being fat, where do you draw the line? No athletes? No old people? No foreigners?), but they seriously need encouraging and/or forcing to help themselves as well.

I'm sorry it took me so long to respond to what I would laughably call your argument, I simply couldn't stop alternating between laughing and baying for blood. I don't even know where to start, you obviously know some pretty assholeish fat people if you think they take advantage of their conditions. Second off, they pay for their medical treatments, not you, unless they don't have enough money to have decent insurance in which case they are fat because they can't afford health food. 3rd, all of the things you mentioned can happen to anyone, and anyone would react that way. Saying it's bad is like saying that cervical cancer shouldn't get research money because only women get it and if they don't want it they need to change. And I have to stop here because I'm about to get pissy and no one wants to deal with that,

 

[Panzer_God]

The only thing I've been curious about is how those really obese people keep being obese. I'm not trying to be mean or anything but when you have evolved into a snorlax and take up an entire sofa when you sit. Isn't it a tid hard to have a job and bring in money to buy the food???

Twp things, first off, the poke nerd in me has to point out that snorlax are not evolved forms.

The google searching nerd in me had to do a google search to see if I could somehow counter you and found -Munchlax evolves into Snorlax at any given level, when it has a high level of happiness. - ( http://pokemon.wikia.com/wiki/Snorlax )So ha! Secondly I wasn't bashing on fat people, I tried to say that.

Also, a tid is just a word meaning small. I don't know if it's an actual word but the context it was put in was pretty obvious. Jeez, where are your word attack skills!

Oh yeah, I ignore pokemon games made after gold version. Second, I wasn't saying you were bashing on fat people I was giving an example of how a fat person could support eating habits. (now it might have been meaner then I intended but if want an excuse for my anger just look at the myriad of insults to people whose only issue is that society thinks that fat people are gross) 3rd, it wasn't an attack on the word I just wasn't sure if it was a real word.

 

[.Ricks.]

I used to be fat as hell, and for me there were no crazy diets... just a lot of strong will and exercise. You just have to spend the energy you ingest, by energy I mean food of course, if you can cut-down of fats and sweets, no need to stop eating them altogether just a little restraint. Of course, lot's of exercise.

 

[Jirlond]

This argument turned from a discussion of ideas to hating of fat people damn quick!

I already wrote my ideas in this post but I gotta say, being fat isn't evil and it shouldnt be penalised or oppressed the way some of you are thinking. If people are fat it was their concious/unconcious choice or genetics and they have to deal with the consequences in their own way!

If there was a zombie apocalypse and I died from being to fat to escape them I would sigh and curse and then die......... scene!

 

[Panzer_God]

I used to be fat as hell, and for me there were no crazy diets... just a lot of strong will and exercise. You just have to spend the energy you ingest, by energy I mean food of course, if you can cut-down of fats and sweets, no need to stop eating them altogether just a little restraint. Of course, lot's of exercise.

I'm just not that strong-willed, I just don't get why people suddenly decide that my eating habits should become a matter of federal law. The only type of eating habit that should be regulated is cannibalism. I know you aren't advocating it, I'm just angry and got off topic a bit. I never use my weight for anything special, in fact it can keep me from doing fun stuff, I don't even go swimming anymore because people get grossed out when I take my shirt off (and if you knew how much i love the water you would know how much it sucks). I take every precaution that I don't offend people and now I'm listening to idiots and health freaks say that being fat should mean you have fewer privileges. I'm feeling a strange psychic connection between some of these people and 1940's Germany.

 

[Panzer_God]

If there was a zombie apocalypse and I died from being to fat to escape them I would sigh and curse and then die......... scene!

And then we'd become boomers and barf on you.

 

[Hexenwolf]

Perhaps you should read the post to which I linked, and then some of the links from there. 75% of ones stable weight is decided by genetics. People whom that 75% dictate are fat will have their body react as though starving if they exercise and eat the amount required to adhere to 'normal' ideals.

I'm sorry, I cannot for the life of me find the link you're referring to, I did look for it though.

In response to your argument, though I couldn't find the link, I know what you're talking about and just want to say a person's genetic stable weight is likely a healthy weight for them. It wouldn't make sense for any organism to be genetically hardcoded to an unhealthy level of weight. Really the problem is in 'normal' ideals, as you put it. It's illogical to expect everyone to look like movie stars, or supermodels, quite frankly, those people have hit the genetic jackpot, it's not "normal" to look like that, yet the majority of people strive to achieve that look. Furthermore, I looked at your profile picture (I'm sorry if that offends you, but Max commented earlier contradicting you when you said you were overweight and it made me curious) and quite frankly, you're not overweight. You look perfectly normal to me.

 

[Xyphon]

You know, I really enjoy the amount of hate and prejudice that's being displayed in this thread. Not one single person here is better than the other. You people want to piss and moan about people that are overweight, you tell them to put the forks down, you tell them to go outside, you tell them to play some sports and you tell them to exercise. Yet, when they actually DO said activities, you people MOCK and RIDICULE them, which only forces them back a few steps. "OH MY GOOD LOOK! Fatty is trying to run! HAHAHAHA RUN FATTY RUN! DON'T TRIP OVER YOUR OWN ROLLS!"

Hypocrisy at its best.

One thing that pisses me off about this is when people are ignorant enough to link eating with being large. You walk into a restraunt and see a big guy eating 3 plates of food. You ridicule him for it in your mind. Yet, you look next to him and see a thin person with 7 plates next to him/her and you don't think a god damned thing about it. If I had a fucking PENNY for the times I've seen this happen, I would make Donald Trump look like a damn tramp.

When it comes to eating, it's so very hard to tell. Everyone on this planet has a different rate of metabolism. I can eat a maximum of 3-4 plates at a restraunt and I'm big myself, but my MOTHER, who is SKINNY, can eat TWELVE plates and not gain a single pound.

Really. Were you people not hugged enough as a child? Did father not play with you? Were you dropped on your head once too many times whilst your parents were drunk?

There's gotta be SOME explanation why you feel it necessary to pick apart another human being for their appearance.

 

[AngloDoom]

Put the fridge up a tall flight of stairs. Most obese people will only eat lots if it's available. There was some psychology test I heard about years ago so I really can't give much in the way of details, but they monitored two controlled 'parties', one with average-sized people in and the other with obese people in. There were several rooms full of food besides the main room, but once the obese people had polished off the first room they just sat around an had a nice chat; it was the smaller people who explored.

My solution about this is to stop freakin' worrying about it. ok! They are bigger than us. We get it. Who cares? Someone's weight is nobody's business but their own.

Except in countries with a health-care system being drained dry because some people won't stop stuffing their face and leave people like my grand-mother waiting for, basically, a new knee after she wore the other one out dog-walking, when her obese friend sat around her whole life due to pure sloth and ended up needing a new knee from crippling it under their own weight. I'm all for leaving people up to their own devices, but it's not as simple as 'they will die faster and that's their choice'; it's the same arguement smokers use when I tell them to stop smoking around me.


There's not way to really 'solve' obesity other than to encourage an active lifestyle from a young age, unfortunately PE often only acts to ostracise those who are good at football from those who aren't. We need people to take pride in their bodies, rather than throw their health away for the sake of an easy lifestyle. I have sympathy for the minute percentage of people with a real problem but the rest are just trying to take an easy route. If it didn't impact others I wouldn't give a shit, but it sometimes does.

 

[Captain Pancake]

It's like how stupid kids should be eliminated in order to reduce the burden on the school systems.

That's what exams are for...

OT: slip them diet pills in their big mac.

 

[Panzer_God]

Put the fridge up a tall flight of stairs. Most obese people will only eat lots if it's available. There was some psychology test I heard about years ago so I really can't give much in the way of details, but they monitored two controlled 'parties', one with average-sized people in and the other with obese people in. There were several rooms full of food besides the main room, but once the obese people had polished off the first room they just sat around an had a nice chat; it was the smaller people who explored.

It's what my dad and I call the 'snack syndrome', I am rather overweight (75+ lbs above average) but I don't normally eat a lot. I eat an average amount rather quickly. My problem is that I get hungry really fast, but if there is no food around I'll just wander off and do something. It's when I have snacks around that I eat. When I have to make an effort to find snacks, a part of me realizes that I don't want to snack. I snack when I'm bored, anxious or angry (in fact I've been snacking a bit more since I started in this thread) and when I realize that I'm snacking I stop.

 

[Panzer_God]

It's like how stupid kids should be eliminated in order to reduce the burden on the school systems.

I like that idea, it makes perfect logical sense. To nazis and smart people.

OT: slip them diet pills in their big mac.

I don't eat Big Macs. I eat McNuggets.

 

[Labyrinth]

I'm sorry, I cannot for the life of me find the link you're referring to, I did look for it though.

In response to your argument, though I couldn't find the link, I know what you're talking about and just want to say a person's genetic stable weight is likely a healthy weight for them. It wouldn't make sense for any organism to be genetically hardcoded to an unhealthy level of weight. Really the problem is in 'normal' ideals, as you put it. It's illogical to expect everyone to look like movie stars, or supermodels, quite frankly, those people have hit the genetic jackpot, it's not "normal" to look like that, yet the majority of people strive to achieve that look. Furthermore, I looked at your profile picture (I'm sorry if that offends you, but Max commented earlier contradicting you when you said you were overweight and it made me curious) and quite frankly, you're not overweight. You look perfectly normal to me.

This [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/18.126070] is the post I'm on about. You might have grabbed a different quote, so my bad rather than yours.

The thing is that what is deemed 'fat' can often be said stable weight.

For my height I'm classed as overweight, by the way. I sure as hell don't have the muscle to contribute to that but I do have the 'flab' for lack of better term. It doesn't bother me any more to have that as I'm perfectly alright with it but other people seem to have grand issues with it, suggesting I try diets and the like. I've become rather pissed off with those wonderful people in clothing shops who have a habit of suggesting I get a smaller size and "just aim for it, y'know?"

 

[chaocontrol6]

Ideas for obesity? Well...I am a rather large person (as in, a bit on the chubby side) myself and I feel the media do blast fat people's heads off a little over the top about the change that they need to make. I agree, there are just some people that cannot be bothered and they should (and will) get a massive wake-up call when later on they have the health problems later on in life. I agree that those that are actually not contributing to society need a slap in the face. However, there are those that do exercise (Like myself, I love bike rides and karate and I don't care if I am 14 and a half stone, I can still do it better than some) and if people just took baby steps, as in, slowly reduced eating so much and slowly worked up the exercise regime then people can get somewhere. It does my head in when suddenly it's "Stop eating everything and exercise 25 hours a day" because that is like going from 20 fags a day (if you are a smoker) to 0 which (for most people) don't work (ask my parents)

So that is my view on said matter. Those that do nothing to benefit get no benefits and those that are trying to be healthy to get on with it. Just be a little more patient I guess.

 

[Panzer_God]

unfortunately PE often only acts to ostracise those who are good at football from those who aren't. We need people to take pride in their bodies, rather than throw their health away for the sake of an easy lifestyle. I have sympathy for the minute percentage of people with a real problem but the rest are just trying to take an easy route.

I have to agree with you about PE, I ended up getting suspended because I refused to participate in PE after my coach started giving minimum requirements. If we got over a twelve-minute mile, we had to run it again. (I don't know if it ever occurred to him that being unable do do it once meant that they would succeed next time) Several of my friends and I just ended up walking the track for the entire hour, then he made us run the mile again the next day, and the next, and the next. We ended up walking over 200 laps that year, and none of us could ever beat a 12 minute mile. And we actually had fun, we were the kids who hated sports, hated activities (besides weightlifting) and were only in PE because it was required. I stopped counting how often we got made fun of for not being able to keep up when the other kids did physical stuff and the coaches seemed to think that it was because we weren't motivated. Of course the gym answer to lack of motivation is yelling at you and punishing you for not keeping up so eventually we just stopped. We metaphorically told the PE department to suck a fat one and just walked, all day every day.