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Obesity rate may be worse than we think

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Re: Obesity rate may be worse than we think

  • imageLaPiscine:
    imageimoan:
    imageLaPiscine:

    I don't think people can tell when they're overweight.  If you're 300 pounds, okay, yeah, you probably know you have some weight to lose.  But what if you're 160? 

    Yeah... because women every day, who are a healthy weight, look in the mirror and don't see a giant whale and TRULY believe that their body is absolutely repulsive.

    What world do you live in? 

    This one.

    http://healthland.time.com/2011/03/08/did-your-doctor-call-you-fat-you-should-thank-her-for-it/

     

    Wow, an article stating that people don't know when their BMI is unhealthy?? How shocking, considering most people in this thread have agreed that BMI alone is a spectacularly sh!itty and flawed system of measuring health or even "obesity". Yeah, I can't imagine why that 5'2", 140lb woman who weight lifts would not consider herself to be overweight or obese, because protip, she's not.

     

    Also, did you even read the study? They went based off the patient with over 25 BMI telling their doctor they were looking to lose weight or had attempted to lose weight in the past few months. It's not like they took some huge sample and used a questionnaire. Just because a person isn't actively or looking to lose weight doesn't mean they're not aware. 

    image
  • imageeddy:
    imagemysticporter:

     If you understand the limitations of BMI, what do you care where you get classified?

    Well mostly just because I don't want to be labeled something I am not. Why can't we find a system that takes more than just height and weight into account as our indicator of who falls into obesity or normal ranges.

    Right now I can see my online chart and it says I am overweight according to BMI. That irritates me that I have that label because I know it isn't true. Until I pointed out to my MW that although I had that label I actually am very active with weight lifting she was going to put me on a very restrictive weight gain goal for my pregnancy. After looking at the facts she realized the label was wrong and now I am able to go about gaining like my body wants to during pregnancy. I don't want to be under restrictions if I don't have to be.

    Like I said:  because you can't start with a complicated system, it defeats the point of having something as an indicator that's easy to calculate.  No simplified system is going to be perfect.  You could go to something like percent body fat (which, depending on how you calculate it, is also going to up the cost of a basic physical, since it takes more measurements/time), but I'm assuming there are still people who are relatively healthy despite having a higher percent body fat than others.

    I don't understand the point of the second paragraph.  You weren't under restrictions that you didn't have to be.  Your MW took into account a more complete picture of your health before making a decision, so the simplified system did exactly what it was supposed to do.  Triggered a check, restrictions weren't needed, off you go.


    image
  • Things I have learned today:

    Getting rid of wide seats and fat people clothes will cure me of my compulsive overeating. I will make sure to tell my therapist!

    Thanks for taking a superbly complex issue and totally simplifying it for me!

     

    ETA: I also don't know that I am fat. Damn. I thought I knew, but I guess I don't have a clue. I am a SKINNNYYYY yay!

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  • imageNerdicorns:
    imageLaPiscine:
    imageimoan:
    imageLaPiscine:

    I don't think people can tell when they're overweight.  If you're 300 pounds, okay, yeah, you probably know you have some weight to lose.  But what if you're 160? 

    Yeah... because women every day, who are a healthy weight, look in the mirror and don't see a giant whale and TRULY believe that their body is absolutely repulsive.

    What world do you live in? 

    This one.

    http://healthland.time.com/2011/03/08/did-your-doctor-call-you-fat-you-should-thank-her-for-it/

     

    Wow, an article stating that people don't know when their BMI is unhealthy?? How shocking, considering most people in this thread have agreed that BMI alone is a spectacularly sh!itty and flawed system of measuring health or even "obesity". Yeah, I can't imagine why that 5'2", 140lb woman who weight lifts would not consider herself to be overweight or obese, because protip, she's not.

     

    Also, did you even read the study? They went based off the patient with over 25 BMI telling their doctor they were looking to lose weight or had attempted to lose weight in the past few months. It's not like they took some huge sample and used a questionnaire. Just because a person isn't actively or looking to lose weight doesn't mean they're not aware. 

    she's not overweight or obese according to whom? According to what medical standards?
    image
  • imageimoan:
    imagecopzgirl:

    For all my preaching and KNOWING that I am not overweight or obese and for all of my self empowerment this post has managed to make me feel like a POS..this is how easy it is to tear someone down folks.

     

    Yep.  I have the girls on TIP constantly yelling at me that I'm not in any way, shape or form fat.  Even the girls on ML once got in on it.  I struggle every.day not to see that 220 lb girl I was about 8 years back when I look in the mirror.

    And then I come here and learn that I'm a repulsive lumpy bag of Crisco.

    And then TIP will wonder why my elation over being in a jeans size I was in high school was short-lived.

    But no... fat people don't know they're fat.   

    I wish I could give you a hug. I find it hard to believe you were fat at one point having met you IRL, but body dysmorphia is a huge problem and reading some of the posts in this thread totally disgusted me. 

     I probably shouldn't have even come into this thread.  Bleh.

    image
  • imagemysticporter:
    imageeddy:
    imagemysticporter:

     If you understand the limitations of BMI, what do you care where you get classified?

    Well mostly just because I don't want to be labeled something I am not. Why can't we find a system that takes more than just height and weight into account as our indicator of who falls into obesity or normal ranges.

    Right now I can see my online chart and it says I am overweight according to BMI. That irritates me that I have that label because I know it isn't true. Until I pointed out to my MW that although I had that label I actually am very active with weight lifting she was going to put me on a very restrictive weight gain goal for my pregnancy. After looking at the facts she realized the label was wrong and now I am able to go about gaining like my body wants to during pregnancy. I don't want to be under restrictions if I don't have to be.

    Like I said:  because you can't start with a complicated system, it defeats the point of having something as an indicator that's easy to calculate.  No simplified system is going to be perfect.  You could go to something like percent body fat (which, depending on how you calculate it, is also going to up the cost of a basic physical, since it takes more measurements/time), but I'm assuming there are still people who are relatively healthy despite having a higher percent body fat than others.

    I don't understand the point of the second paragraph.  You weren't under restrictions that you didn't have to be.  Your MW took into account a more complete picture of your health before making a decision, so the simplified system did exactly what it was supposed to do.  Triggered a check, restrictions weren't needed, off you go.

    But what if I hadn't already known that BMI was a load of crap? I wouldn't have known to point out that I weight lift and that I had just had my body fat checked and it was actually pretty low. Without those facts my MW may have stuck to wanting me to gain only 15 lbs. So then I have to go through 40 weeks of agonizing over the fact that I gained 25 instead of 15 all because I had an incorrect label put on my chart.

    I don't agree with BMI being used for medical purposes. There has to be something that isn't as complicated as jumping in a pool of water to check body fat to give you a indicator of how you are weight wise. There are smart people out there, why can't something be developed? Take into consideration, height, age, gender, weight, and body build. That can't be that hard.

  • imagehindsight's_a_biotch:

    I may have eaten a fat slice of walmart red velvet cake while reading this thread. I washed it down with a tall class of non-organic milk and then swiped a half piece of leftover bacon from the fridge. That's all I've eaten today and aside from a few glasses of diet dew it will probably be all I eat until I cook up burgers and cheese fries for dinner.

    The idea that society automatically assumes I'm healthy because my ass fits in a size 6 pair of lucky's is ludicrous.

    Also, I'm mad at Ludacris for making the proper spelling of the word look weird to me.

     

    Can we hold hands? Because I am chowing on french fries from Mystic Pizza while reading this. YUM.

    And, no, my fat ass should not being eating them. I'm taking no responsibility. 

    Proud Mom: Madilyn Louise 9/19/06 and Sophia Christina 12/16/08 Bumpersticker
  • imagetartaruga:
    she's not overweight or obese according to whom? According to what medical standards?

    Fitness tests, blood work, the myriad of other ways of individually assessing a person's health that doesn't involve a BMI system that's pretty messed up and wildly inaccurate at times and generalizes people's bodies despite the fact that there's a lot of variance from human body to human body?

    A lot of women who cross-fit for instance gain weight- a woman at my gym joined at 110lbs and 5'1". She's at around 135 lbs now, but her waist is even smaller and toned and she's strong as hell. But her BMI registers pretty high as a result and she'd traditionally be considered overweight right now, despite the fact that she's a lot healthier now than she was when she first joined at her "healthy" weight. She freaked out at first because of the type of sentiment flying around this thread. There's a lot more to body health than just the number on the scale.

     

    image
  • imagecopzgirl:

    For all my preaching and KNOWING that I am not overweight or obese and for all of my self empowerment this post has managed to make me feel like a POS..this is how easy it is to tear someone down folks.

    Copz, I hear ya!

    I'm fat. I know it. I know my health risks and current conditions can be improved by weight loss. I'm actively working on getting my weight down. I'm currently 22 pounds down from my starting get-it-together-woman weight.

    But I refuse to let anyone make me feel bad for where I am right now. I'm a work in progress and to anyone that thinks I don't know I'm fat and wants to take it upon him or herself to tell me so, you know for my own good or some ish like that, well here you go...

    image 

     

  • imageNerdicorns:

    imagetartaruga:
    she's not overweight or obese according to whom? According to what medical standards?

    Fitness tests, blood work, the myriad of other ways of individually assessing a person's health that doesn't involve a BMI system that's pretty messed up and wildly inaccurate at times and generalizes people's bodies despite the fact that there's a lot of variance from human body to human body?

    A lot of women who cross-fit for instance gain weight- a woman at my gym joined at 110lbs and 5'1". She's at around 135 lbs now, but her waist is even smaller and toned and she's strong as hell. But her BMI registers pretty high as a result and she'd traditionally be considered overweight right now, despite the fact that she's a lot healthier now than she was when she first joined at her "healthy" weight. She freaked out at first because of the type of sentiment flying around this thread. There's a lot more to body health than just the number on the scale.

     

    But nobody said there aren't outliers or that BMI makes sense for people with very athletic muscular bodies. But let's be honest - the vast ,majority of people in this country are not athletic and muscular. Most people are not outliers. BMI doesn't make sense for a certain segment of people but that doesn't mean it's totally useless. Having a BMI of 30 doesn't mean you're automatically unhealthy but if you took a random person with that BMI, chances are, they *do* need to lose weight.
    image
  • imageNerdicorns:
    imageLaPiscine:
    I don't think people can tell when they're overweight.  If you're 300 pounds, okay, yeah, you probably know you have some weight to lose.  But what if you're 160?  Chances are, you are overweight.  I mean we've seen people go absolutely ape-sh!t over the idea that 5'6" 150 might make you overweight.  But it probably does.  That's one of the problems.  If the average woman is a size 14, and you're measuring yourself against "the average" (which most of us do), don't you kind of lose sight of what the "healthy" size is?  I think a lot of people do.  And don't even touch the issue of pediatric obesity. People have NO idea when their kids are fat.  I think there have been a ton of studies on that phenomenon.   

     This is possibly one of the absolute dumbest, most ignorant things I've read in a whole month. I've never met a single fat person who wasn't well friggin aware they were fat. Society treats overweight people very poorly... especially overweight women, since society also still has a huge problem as viewing women as being public property/sex objects. 

    Arbitrarily throwing a number out as being "probably overweight" without any context (height, frame, body type, athletic level) is so incredibly ignorant at best and really harmful at worst.

     

    Well, for a thread that is really a rehash of like 40 other identical threads we've had on this topic (but for the fat people shouldn't wear clothes bit), I'm kind of surprised it merited a board invasion, but I guess if it's a slow day on ML, you're welcome to come here and say whatever you want. 

  • imoanimoan member
    10000 Comments Eighth Anniversary

    No... it's FUN to be fat.  Especially when people videotape you eating without your knowledge and then post it on FB to have all their friends laugh at you.

     

     http://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/64829523.aspx

    image
    Currently Reading: Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes
  • imageimoan:

    No... it's FUN to be fat.  Especially when people videotape you eating without your knowledge and then post it on FB to have all their friends laugh at you.

     

     http://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/64829523.aspx

     

    That is horrible. I would def. say something if I were the OP 

    Proud Mom: Madilyn Louise 9/19/06 and Sophia Christina 12/16/08 Bumpersticker
  • FTR, I am a TIPer but had to change my sn for crazy-woman-who-found-my-account purposes. HAB, imoan, and plenty of others can confirm that. I posted here plenty under my old sn, as well. Though I don't see what my "home board" has to do with it.
    image
  • imageimoan:

    No... it's FUN to be fat.  Especially when people videotape you eating without your knowledge and then post it on FB to have all their friends laugh at you.

     

     http://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/64829523.aspx

    That makes me want to cry.

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  • imageimoan:

    No... it's FUN to be fat.  Especially when people videotape you eating without your knowledge and then post it on FB to have all their friends laugh at you.

     

     http://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/64829523.aspx

    Indifferent

    What the fuuk is WRONG with people?

     

    image
  • So if 160 lbs is fat/obese, then I should probably just get my big ol' butt into the stretchy future suit, sitting in a flying chair and eat pizza in a cup like they did in WALL*E. Abandon all hope.
    image
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  • So, this could be totally irrelevant since I stopped reading the thread around page 6, but I like to read my own words.

    I think it's weird to argue that we shouldn't have clothes available for fatties.  Like it doesn't even make sense to me.  I'm biased though, b/c as a woman with sizing concerns (large breasts, 5'10), I know that I feel better about myself and more inclined to take care of myself when I feel like I have things that fit me.  When I don't feel that way, I am far more likely to stuff my face full of cheetos and wash it down with some cherry coke.  Now, I'm not a psychologist or a therapist, but I like to play one on the nest, and I think I'm right about if you feel better about yourself you are more likely to care about what you are putting in your body.  I also think our food sources, recesses, and other things mentioned are important for our society/children and would help our overall health.  I think this clothing suggestion, however, is ridiculous and counterproductive.

    Also, I am really excited to finally feel comfortable in tops and dresses.  Because my breast reduction is scheduled for 5/17.... plastic surgery FTW.

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  • 160 pounds at what height? I'd have a BMI of 28.3 at that weight, putting me in the overweight category.

    It is not that difficult. I know that at my height, I won't reach the "normal" category until I weigh 141 pounds. It's always been a mantra from doctors, though, that I should weigh about 120-130 lbs.

    But at 5'7" or taller, 160 is normal. I really doubt there's anyone who doesn't know when they are overweight. Have you ever met a woman not concerned with her weight? 

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  • HAB, i'm sure i'm going to be told that i have no idea what i'm talking about but to answer what i think was your original question, it's not exceptionally harder to make plus sized clothing from "normal" sized patterns.  it takes some work but not much.  and the costs involved do not justify higher prices.  the fabric is still purchased in bulk.  the costs for adjusting patterns can and should be considered part of developing a plus-sized line of clothing.

    or so says my father who was a garment manufacturer for 27 years. 

    hiw direct quote, "yes, it costs more but it always costs money to make a pattern.  it's considered part of R&D, just like creating any pattern."

    proof that i make babies. jack, grace, and ben, in no particular order
    imageimageimage
  • imagelarrysdarling:

    imagetartaruga:
    Here's the thing. It's very simple why we have a problem with obesity in our country: everything about our society is set up to make us fat. Everything. As children, we sit at desks for 8 hours a day, then ride a bus or car home where we sit inside because there are scary predators lurking around every corner and watch TV with tons of advertisements of delicious, sugary food. As adults, we sit in cars for an hour to get to work, where we sit at desks all day long, wolf down some lunch on our breaks, sit some more, then sit in cars to go home, drive to run our errands, go to the grocery story where we buy food that has been carefully manipulated to hit every single hot spot in out brain for addiction - the fat, the salt, the sugar. It's advertised in packages that are carefully designed by experts in psychology to manipulate our brains and make us want to buy and eat it. And it's cheap because it's been subsidized by the government. The grocery store has been designed to make us go down the aisles with the unhealthiest food and puts the healthy food in the farthest places. Then we go home and get less sleep than our bodies actually need, which causes us to secrete hormones that make us hungrier and fatter, because we've been told that sleep is for lazy people and you don't *really* need to sleep. If we have the time and energy, we go to the gym, where we engage in exercise that is not particularly enjoyable and for some people just plain sucks.

    if we want to lose weight, we are going against every biological impulse that has been programmed into our body by millennia of evolution. And we're surrounded by constant temptations and ways to fail. if we succeed at losing weight, we will spend the rest of our lives fighting off our bodies' constant need to pit that weight back on.

    It's really not that hard to understand why we have an obese society if you just look around and think about it for five seconds. The human body is designed to eat as much fat and sugar as it can because for virtually all of human history, this was *good* for human survival and the ones who had these desires lived and prospered. It's only in a very short span of history that it's suddenly become the opposite and our biology simply hasn't caught up yet.

    This is a little too victim-y for me b/c there is a lot of this that is attributable back to choice. 

    Parents choose to park their kids in front of the TV and buy them video games and ipods and iphones and ipad and computers and OMG I need a TV in my bedroom when I'm 4!   A parent can 100% say, "Um, no tv. Let's go outside and play together. Let's go to a park. Let's go ride bikes." That's a choice. 

    When we go to the grocery store, food doesn't just FLLYYYYYYYY off the shelves into our carts. The fruits and vegetables aren't on lockdown.  Yes, it can be difficult to buy less processed foods when you're on a lower income. But it doesn't mean we're all zombie shopping.  When you buy soda, you're choosing to do so.

    If you come home and cook crappy food and sit on your duff and go to bed late, and do the exact same thing the next day and the next that's a choice.  

    I believe there is a genetic component to overweight and obesity. I believe it is going from being obese to not obese is extremely difficult but to relegate this to something we have no control over is just not true. There is a personal choice in this matter.  I don't understand why acknowledging this is so problematic.

    I grew up on and off in a "food desert" and now live in Europe.  It is night and day and a lot of it comes down to society, IMO.  In a food desert what you have around you are basically convenience stores and gas stations.  If you have no money and no car, you have to go to the stores that are around you. And many places in the South don't have public transportation so there is that.  The fruits and vegetables in those bodega-like places look like someone picked them up off the side of a road after they had been run over by a truck.  If they had them at all.  And there was absolutely no education on what one should eat and why.  Most of the foods I eat now, I wasn't introduced to until college.  I ate how everyone ate and if I hadn't left and been exposed to other ways I would probably still run around thinking Hawaiian Punch in a bottle and a KitKat is a perfectly acceptable snack for my child.  Also depending on where you live, people aren't being alarmist not letting their kids play outside.  My cousins on the South Side of Chicago don't let their kids ride their bikes outside and I don't blame them.  And yes, they could take their bikes on the train I guess to somewhere safer and ride, but really it's not like their lives are filled with so much free time that that is going to be something they can do regularly.  And they live by bus lines, not trains and I don't think they let you take bikes on the buses there, but I could be wrong.

    Europe, well, Germany, at least is just set-up completely differently.  Even the bigger cities have broad sidewalks for walking and clearly marked bike lanes.  Bikes are respected on the road (for the most part) and so people use cars less and bike more to work, to the store, everywhere.  The culture is one that stresses the importance of fresh air and going out for walks in the mountains or in nature reserves in the afternoons.  There are places in the States that don't even have safe sidewalks for walking.   There are parts that are a bit to bread and meat focused for my liking, but it's balanced at least with fruits and veggies and regular everyday exercise.  They don't work as much, there are more vacations, shorter workdays.... It all comes together in a way.  And I'll say it,  there are basically no guns so they odds of your kid getting shot while they are out playing even in the worst neighborhoods are very low. 

     

    I don't know if I'm explaining myself correctly, but there is something in the society here that teaches people a healthier way of life that we are missing back home.   It's not that these things aren't a choice to some extent and it's not like Germany is perfect, but there is a definite societal factor at play that influences all of this.   I guess I'm saying there really is a component that comes down to the general culture and options.

    ETA to make some bit of sense.  Oh, and advertisement.  Completely different. There aren't that many ads here in general so there is not so much pushing the unhealthy stuff.  The ads come basically all at the end of the show so it's easier to ignore them and do something else until the next show.  And I feel like I very rarely see a fast food ad.   I would not be surprised if that is regulated somehow. 

  • imagecee-jay:
    imagelarrysdarling:

    imagetartaruga:
    Here's the thing. It's very simple why we have a problem with obesity in our country: everything about our society is set up to make us fat. Everything. As children, we sit at desks for 8 hours a day, then ride a bus or car home where we sit inside because there are scary predators lurking around every corner and watch TV with tons of advertisements of delicious, sugary food. As adults, we sit in cars for an hour to get to work, where we sit at desks all day long, wolf down some lunch on our breaks, sit some more, then sit in cars to go home, drive to run our errands, go to the grocery story where we buy food that has been carefully manipulated to hit every single hot spot in out brain for addiction - the fat, the salt, the sugar. It's advertised in packages that are carefully designed by experts in psychology to manipulate our brains and make us want to buy and eat it. And it's cheap because it's been subsidized by the government. The grocery store has been designed to make us go down the aisles with the unhealthiest food and puts the healthy food in the farthest places. Then we go home and get less sleep than our bodies actually need, which causes us to secrete hormones that make us hungrier and fatter, because we've been told that sleep is for lazy people and you don't *really* need to sleep. If we have the time and energy, we go to the gym, where we engage in exercise that is not particularly enjoyable and for some people just plain sucks.

    if we want to lose weight, we are going against every biological impulse that has been programmed into our body by millennia of evolution. And we're surrounded by constant temptations and ways to fail. if we succeed at losing weight, we will spend the rest of our lives fighting off our bodies' constant need to pit that weight back on.

    It's really not that hard to understand why we have an obese society if you just look around and think about it for five seconds. The human body is designed to eat as much fat and sugar as it can because for virtually all of human history, this was *good* for human survival and the ones who had these desires lived and prospered. It's only in a very short span of history that it's suddenly become the opposite and our biology simply hasn't caught up yet.

    This is a little too victim-y for me b/c there is a lot of this that is attributable back to choice. 

    Parents choose to park their kids in front of the TV and buy them video games and ipods and iphones and ipad and computers and OMG I need a TV in my bedroom when I'm 4!   A parent can 100% say, "Um, no tv. Let's go outside and play together. Let's go to a park. Let's go ride bikes." That's a choice. 

    When we go to the grocery store, food doesn't just FLLYYYYYYYY off the shelves into our carts. The fruits and vegetables aren't on lockdown.  Yes, it can be difficult to buy less processed foods when you're on a lower income. But it doesn't mean we're all zombie shopping.  When you buy soda, you're choosing to do so.

    If you come home and cook crappy food and sit on your duff and go to bed late, and do the exact same thing the next day and the next that's a choice.  

    I believe there is a genetic component to overweight and obesity. I believe it is going from being obese to not obese is extremely difficult but to relegate this to something we have no control over is just not true. There is a personal choice in this matter.  I don't understand why acknowledging this is so problematic.

    I grew up on and off in a "food desert" and now live in Europe.  It is night and day and a lot of it comes down to society, IMO.  In a food desert what you have around you are basically convenience stores and gas stations.  If you have no money and no car, you have to go to the stores that are around you. And many places in the South don't have public transportation so there is that.  The fruits and vegetables in those bodega-like places look like someone picked them up off the side of a road after they had been run over by a truck.  If they had them at all.  And there was absolutely no education on what one should eat and why.  Most of the foods I eat now, I wasn't introduced to until college.  I ate how everyone ate and if I hadn't left and been exposed to other ways I would probably still run around thinking Hawaiian Punch in a bottle and a KitKat is a perfectly acceptable snack for my child.  Also depending on where you live, people aren't being alarmist not letting their kids play outside.  My cousins on the South Side of Chicago don't let their kids ride their bikes outside and I don't blame them.  And yes, they could take their bikes on the train I guess to somewhere safer and ride, but really it's not like their lives are filled with so much free time that that is going to be something they can do regularly.  And they live by bus lines, not trains and I don't think they let you take bikes on the buses there, but I could be wrong.

    Europe, well, Germany, at least is just set-up completely differently.  Even the bigger cities have broad sidewalks for walking and clearly marked bike lanes.  Bikes are respected on the road (for the most part) and so people use cars less and bike more to work, to the store, everywhere.  The culture is one that stresses the importance of fresh air and going out for walks in the mountains or in nature reserves in the afternoons.  There are places in the States that don't even have safe sidewalks for walking.   There are parts that are a bit to bread and meat focused for my liking, but it's balanced at least with fruits and veggies and regular everyday exercise.  They don't work as much, there are more vacations, shorter workdays.... It all comes together in a way.  And I'll say it,  there are basically no guns so they odds of your kid getting shot while they are out playing even in the worst neighborhoods are very low. 

     

    I don't know if I'm explaining myself correctly, but there is something in the society here that teaches people a healthier way of life that we are missing back home.   It's not that these things aren't a choice to some extent and it's not like Germany is perfect, but there is a definite societal factor at play that influences all of this.   I guess I'm saying there really is a component that comes down to the general culture and options.

    ETA to make some bit of sense.

    You are making perfect sense. Thank you for this post.
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  • What a crappy crappy day for me to be slow at work and read this.  I am morbidly obese. I already fight thoughts that I shouldn't leave my house because no one wants to see the big fat lady walking or grocery shopping or <GASP> out eating lunch.  Nevermind I've lost 20 pounds last month on a strict Dr. supervised diet.  I should just stay fat because my goal of being 5'6 and 175 pounds will still be considered obese by a good chunk of people so I might as well eat yummy food than the packaged junk I have been eating.
  • imageUnfamiliarMoon:
    What a crappy crappy day for me to be slow at work and read this.  I am morbidly obese. I already fight thoughts that I shouldn't leave my house because no one wants to see the big fat lady walking or grocery shopping or <GASP> out eating lunch.  Nevermind I've lost 20 pounds last month on a strict Dr. supervised diet.  I should just stay fat because my goal of being 5'6 and 175 pounds will still be considered obese by a good chunk of people so I might as well eat yummy food than the packaged junk I have been eating.
    This is what I don't understand. Look, if the science says that at 5'6", 175 lb you are still at increased risk of certain diseases, that doesn't mean "OMG don't even bother". It means, that's what the research indicates. The science says that we should all be doing at least an hour of cardio every day. I HATE cardio and I will probably never do that much, ever. that doesn't mean I should just say "*** you, mean scientists! I'm just not going to ever exercise ever then!" I should still realize that doing cardio once a week is better for my health than not doing it at all.

    The science is what it is. Researchers don't come out with these findings to make people feel bad.
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  • imageUnfamiliarMoon:
    What a crappy crappy day for me to be slow at work and read this.  I am morbidly obese. I already fight thoughts that I shouldn't leave my house because no one wants to see the big fat lady walking or grocery shopping or <GASP> out eating lunch.  Nevermind I've lost 20 pounds last month on a strict Dr. supervised diet.  I should just stay fat because my goal of being 5'6 and 175 pounds will still be considered obese by a good chunk of people so I might as well eat yummy food than the packaged junk I have been eating.

    You and I need to talk.

  • imagelaurenpetro:

    HAB, i'm sure i'm going to be told that i have no idea what i'm talking about but to answer what i think was your original question, it's not exceptionally harder to make plus sized clothing from "normal" sized patterns.  it takes some work but not much.  and the costs involved do not justify higher prices.  the fabric is still purchased in bulk.  the costs for adjusting patterns can and should be considered part of developing a plus-sized line of clothing.

    or so says my father who was a garment manufacturer for 27 years. 

    hiw direct quote, "yes, it costs more but it always costs money to make a pattern.  it's considered part of R&D, just like creating any pattern."

    Well I'm just a home sewist so clearly I know nothing. LOL

    But I agree with your father. Plus, my question wasn't even about why people who don't make plus sized clothes don't make plus sized clothes but why stores who make both plus sized and misses sized clothes under their own label don't make the same garment for both sizes.



    Click me, click me!
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  • imageeddy:
    imagemysticporter:
    imageeddy:
    imagemysticporter:

     If you understand the limitations of BMI, what do you care where you get classified?

    Well mostly just because I don't want to be labeled something I am not. Why can't we find a system that takes more than just height and weight into account as our indicator of who falls into obesity or normal ranges.

    Right now I can see my online chart and it says I am overweight according to BMI. That irritates me that I have that label because I know it isn't true. Until I pointed out to my MW that although I had that label I actually am very active with weight lifting she was going to put me on a very restrictive weight gain goal for my pregnancy. After looking at the facts she realized the label was wrong and now I am able to go about gaining like my body wants to during pregnancy. I don't want to be under restrictions if I don't have to be.

    Like I said:  because you can't start with a complicated system, it defeats the point of having something as an indicator that's easy to calculate.  No simplified system is going to be perfect.  You could go to something like percent body fat (which, depending on how you calculate it, is also going to up the cost of a basic physical, since it takes more measurements/time), but I'm assuming there are still people who are relatively healthy despite having a higher percent body fat than others.

    I don't understand the point of the second paragraph.  You weren't under restrictions that you didn't have to be.  Your MW took into account a more complete picture of your health before making a decision, so the simplified system did exactly what it was supposed to do.  Triggered a check, restrictions weren't needed, off you go.

    But what if I hadn't already known that BMI was a load of crap? I wouldn't have known to point out that I weight lift and that I had just had my body fat checked and it was actually pretty low. Without those facts my MW may have stuck to wanting me to gain only 15 lbs. So then I have to go through 40 weeks of agonizing over the fact that I gained 25 instead of 15 all because I had an incorrect label put on my chart.

    I don't agree with BMI being used for medical purposes. There has to be something that isn't as complicated as jumping in a pool of water to check body fat to give you a indicator of how you are weight wise. There are smart people out there, why can't something be developed? Take into consideration, height, age, gender, weight, and body build. That can't be that hard.

    Frankly?  I've got no respect for a medical professional who would base pregnancy health recommendations completely on BMI, and needs a patient correcting them on its implementation. Of your list, the only one BMI doesn't factor in either the calculation or healthy range is "body build".  How could that possibly be objectively determined? 


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  • imageLaPiscine:
    imagecopzgirl:

    This whole post just reminded me, that I got crazy news at my NP at my last check up.

    I always defer having my weight taken (head/sand) and she is fine with that, now apparently they are going to a computer system that won't let them proceed with anything if vitals including weight aren't filled in.

    I swear her assistant said something about federal guidelines...is this right? 

    I think the federal guidelines have to do with electronic medical records, not with recording a weight, but I could be wrong.  And seriously, with the amount of privacy invasion that Obama seems to be okay with, I wouldn't be surprised if he was monitoring all of our weights. 

    OK, I just have to say that I love this post....lol.

    And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this Rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.
  • imagetartaruga:
    imagehawkeye+:

    But you guys are right, maybe taking the stores / availability away isn't the answer the more I think about it. What is the answer then? I'm seriously asking.  I just will never get on board with this mentality of people are getting fatter and fatter so we should just change everything to accomodate that even though it's happening to the detriment of our whole society.

     

    Here are some ideas: stop eliminating recess in schools in favor of more hours to study for standardiZed tests. Make our cities more walkable and pedestrian friendly so people aren't so dependent on their cars for everyday life. Change our work culture so people arent forced to sit at desks for 9 hours a day without ten whole minutes of activity in the whole day. Stop subsidizing crap foods. Put more restrictions on food advertising to children. Stop allowing vending machines in schools and stop having schools serve so much crap food. Improve our healthcare system so more people have access to regular primary care doctors who are keeping an eye on their general health on a periodic basis.

     

    You are awesome! 

    Proud Mom: Madilyn Louise 9/19/06 and Sophia Christina 12/16/08 Bumpersticker
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