</intolerance>

I'm not sure if any of you have seen this link on the NYTimes or not: Fat Tax

The gist of the article is questioning whether or not obese people should be treated like smokers are. Should obese people have to pay more for health insurance etc.?

I tend to think you can be healthy AND overweight, so I don't know that using a BMI scale is really a great way to determine these types of things.

Now onto my question. I just got back from the doctor and she was very happy with where I've gotten to weight wise. She said I could lose another 15 pounds if I want to, but that she didn't think I should restrict my calories to get there. I currently weight 175 down from 290, but I still have what looks to be a gut.

After talking to the doctor, she thinks most of it is skin. She said I was young enough that the stomach didn't develop a skin flap, but that the part that looks like a beer belly is mostly skin.

She mentioned a tummy tuck as being a possible solution. I don't know that I am concerned enough about it to shell out the $2k to get it done. I wondered if some of you had thought about it? What did you decide to do or what do you think you'll do when you get to that point?

And lastly, according to another NYTimes article, it is now hip to have a potbelly. So maybe I shouldn't even think about a tummy tuck and I'll be an awesome hipster.

turtlewoman

That is great that you have lost so much weight. Did you do it with a combination of diet and exercise? Any special diet? Give me tips, gosh darn it!!
I don't know about the tummy tuck. A woman I work with had one and you can't tell she had it done. It's been about two years now. Of course, I don't think she is watching what she eats. She is exercising some, though.

wirehead

I tend to think that the BMI makes for a good diagnostic tool. As in "Hey, you know, this patient is ____ lbs and ____ inches tall. If they aren't muscular, you should have the weight loss conversation with them."

As a matter of public policy? Bad idea.

The problem is that you can be very muscular and thus have a high BMI even though you are fit. Yeah, that's fairly rare because when my BMI said I was obese, I was. And I'm healthier now that I've lost weight.

Real problem is that it's just a simple mathematical equation that vaguely fits the data. Not an actuarial table.

I also tend to think that it's harder to get the whole population to stop being heavy than to get people to stop smoking. Hard as hell to stop smoking, but you can just not get started smoking. But you have to eat, just not too much.

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The doctor did warn me that is you have it done and then gain again, you'll get some really weird rolls going on.

gitarzan

I've had a couple ladies tell me they prefer a guy with a paunch. I fail to see why, I guess it's a daddy thing or a maturity thing. None of these ladies had any reason to have to settle, but that's what they liked. It surprised me to hear that.

As far as Doctor Cosgrove goes, I'll bet he'd also like to not hire Democrats, or Jews, or Motorcyclists, or omnivores, or drinkers, or good looking people, or ugly people or any number of other groups that he feels is voluntarily engaged in something he may not like.

dgrenthum

BMI is horrible. Most every college and pro football player would be Obese even though many of the LB's and Running backs are less then 8% body fat

flip18436572

But, those "athletes" are not the norm. Yes, it is a generic system, but as an overweight person because of fat, I can see where the BMI can be used in general. Yes, I am losing fat, and not losing a lot of weight, but I bet when I am at the top of the BMI chart for the healthy range, I will still have more body fat than 10%. Just my opinion.

zoste

We had a discussion on BMI in this thread.

Not a very good indicator IMHO. According to most of the charts I've seen, a person 6'2" would have to be about 185 pounds to be in the upper range of normal. That was my weight in high school and people told me I needed to gain weight.