I am fat and diabetic. The two often go hand-in-hand, and I am getting back into cycling to combat both. Words of encouragement often matter a great deal to people who are overweight and taking positive steps to get the problem under control.

In another thread, I asked for advice on buying bibs. Most replies were very helpful. However, I received the following:

"larger" people of the world: do us all a favor and cover the spandex with a baggy short...

Very nice, very supportive...yet people like this are often the first to say, "Why doesn't he/she do something about his/her weight problem?" Maybe it's just one more sign that the amount of intelligence in the world is fixed, but the population is growing.