bruce19

https://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/1...s-obese-study/

For God's sake America....do something....now.

Pete In Az

Preachin' to the choir there rev.

bruce19

True dat. But, I can't get over the "display" of American fat at the taverns and restaurants I frequent. Truly it's disgusting.

NOS88

No more disgusting than the bigotry displayed in this kind of attitude. There are people, individuals, within each of those bodies you find disgusting. For my part, I choose to see the person, not the shell they inhabit. Do I think people would be healthier with less body fat? Yes. But to call it disgusting.... come on. Really?

c.miller64

Bigotry? Come on, man...

NOS88

How would you describe it?

Perhaps the comment is a bit strong, but that's the kind of comment that just really annoys the daylights out of me. What perfect body size, fat composition, height, etc. would be acceptable? What I find highly offensive is the judgment attached to such a comment.... of which it appears I'm equally guilty in my own response to it. Damn, I hate when people do this... self included.

B. Carfree

Remember a couple of decades back when many Italians wanted to require a license to be on their nude beaches? They were disgusted by the obese Americans who were ruining the experience for them. It never came to pass, perhaps because no one could figure out where folks were supposed to keep their licenses.

Call me a bigot, but I am also disgusted by the size of my fellow Americans. There is very little doubt where the fat comes from: too much intake relative to the amount of exercise and lean mass. My wife and I often joke that cars are just devices that move reduced carbon molecules (fuel) from underground storage to human storage locales (fat). In fact, we once did a back-of-the-envelope calculation concerning how long the lights could be kept on in America if we used just the extra fat on Americans to generate the electricity. I don't remember the answer, but it was quite a while.

VNA

Certainly not disgust but saddened by seeing people taking very poor care of themselves--they do need help to stay healthier.

Aside from being very expensive to our national health care and lives shortened unnecessarily!

Primarily a question of will power that is worth instilling!

DX-MAN

What I find "disgusting" is the sense of entitlement that people have, to CHOOSE to live this suicidally bad lifestyle. It SICKENS me to see the hippo-like creatures waddling around, heading to the fast-food joint, wearing GROSSLY inappropriate clothing, loudly proclaiming how 'SEXY' they are! Any suggestion that they might want to re-think their choices, and maybe have a chance to live a more rewarding life (more active, can do more with their kids, don't have to see the doctor as much, don't need help GETTING OFF THE DAMNED COUCH!), and you're bound to hear, "I'm GROWN, I'll do what I please! I look GOOD! Why should I deny myself ANYTHING? SHUT UP!"

Don't they get it, that if you have a shadow at high noon, there's a PROBLEM?

BikeArkansas

Bigotry? Really?

DGlenday

Wonderful. You are a saint and I, apparently, am not.

I appreciate that there are valued people inside those large bodies. It isn't their personalities that disgust me. Their lack of self control, their unwillingness to embrace serious weight loss programs, the disinterest of parents whose kids grow obese before reaching their teens, and - yes - the sheer appearance of the morbidly obese, all disgust me. This evidently makes me a bigot.

Don in Austin

When you say "lack of self control," you directly contradict your statement "It isn't their personalities that disgust me." Which is it?

In all too many cases of obesity ignorant parents have dealt their children a bad hand. Diet during childhood has a lot to do with weight problems during adulthood. My wife is heavy despite that she eats half what I do and exercises 1-2 hours/day. On the other hand, my daughter-in-law loves carbs and sweets while genetically thin to the point where ignorant doctors accuse her of being anorexic.

You might withhold judgment when you don't know all the circumstances.

Don in Austin

DX-MAN

Don, equating 'personality' with 'self-control' is overly simplistic. There are plenty of people out there who have never LEARNED self-control, due to how they were raised (relating to your own statement about ignorant parents); they are still pleasant folk who do contribute positively to society. AND, given the ridiculous definition of 'obese' in America, we have to narrow the focus here.

Example: Me. I am 6'1", 235, by BMI charts defined as 'obese'; yet, all I have is a slight 'spare tire'. I ride MTB for everything, and can tear off a 30-50 ride on that 35-lb MTB any time. My legs, naturally, are ripped and road-mapped with veins -- as are my arms, since I also work a physical job. I just have that little 'extra', which I jokingly refer to the soft-side cooler for my six-pack (oh, yeah, can knock out 40-50 situps any time, too, in 2 minutes or less)....

I personally get disturbed -- and yes, disgusted -- when I see someone SO heavy they have trouble WALKING; their feet THUD so heavily on the ground that their torsos ripple, because they are carrying so much, they can barely operate their legs! We have had to incorporate a whole new series of clothing sizes in this country because people can't fit what has been around for decades.

I mentioned a sense of entitlement earlier; it irritates me that people believe, because we live in 'the greatest country in the world', that we should automatically be entitled to a more decadent lifestyle, and NOT HAVE TO make smart, yet uncomfortable decisions about life and health. Too many people believe prosperity=ease and comfort. We as human beings are not made for that, though, as this trend should indicate. Add into that the deplorable degree of 'processing' (read: chemical enhancement) in our food supply, which is killing us as a society. THAT is where I believe the source of this epidemic is.

I also know there are circumstances, genetics and all, which seem to be triggered by the conditions I just related; a little bit of indulgence can launch a big problem for some. Bit I'LL BE DAMNED if I will just sit back and give everyone a pass because they're "big-boned" (LOL at the sillier ones who say 'big-boneded'), or the ones who say they're carrying "just a little extra" when they can't see their own genitalia without a mirror!

WAAAAY too many people just abdicated their own responsibilities at a young age, and are paying for it now...as are we all, indirectly.

Dudelsack 

I really found this article helpful:
https://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...592157004.html

I've always wondered why so many obese people in the workplace get under my skin, and this article made the scales fall from my eyes. I don't like being controlled by control freaks, and many obese people are inveterate controllers. On the other hand, I know a 220# woman who I think is really hot, and I think it's because she's not a controller (and she has sexy blue eyes and gorgeous hair. She really should be a plus size model, but enough of that).

Having said that, I wont be an enabler. I saw a very obese woman on her electric wheelchair (probably bought with taxpayer money as she is no doubt on total disability because of her knees) struggle at a vending machine buying pure sugar soft drinks, then have trouble maneuvering herself out the door.

Hey lady, you're making bad choices. Deal with it.

jmccain

That's what I've been thinking...

The only time I get worked up over the large size of folks is when I have to sit by them in an airplane or theatre and their excess is in my seat and makes me uncomfortable. I wish there was a solution for this situation.

Dudelsack 

There is. Southwest Airlines makes them buy two seats. More businesses should do this.

AzTallRider

Put me in the category of no longer accepting obesity as anything other than a choice, and a very poor one. I'm saddened, more than disgusted, when I see so many people who have passed the tipping point and just given up on any effort to be in shape. It's a choice, though the choice is harder for some. Choices have consequences. Bad health and physical (and mental) decay until premature death are among them.

stonefree

Survival of the fittest eh. Get serious will ya. They need tough love anyway.

stonefree

This plus terminal gluttony is the essence of this rant.

Artkansas 

Absolutely! Bigotry against fat people has been long recognized as one of the last few acceptable prejudices.

The bigots disgust me far more than fat people do. Though it's not surprising that Bike Forums is a bastion of it.

It's interesting that no one has brought up the vast changes in the food industry that have happened in our lifetimes. Addictively fattening foods have moved center stage. Go into a grocery store and see where the veggies are, off to the side. Try finding some decent food in a convenience store, which is all poor folks often have because big grocery chains avoid poorer areas. Massive amounts of advertising have been created to promote this shft. And people do respond to advertising. Look at Paula Deen, diabetic yet promoting the exact style of cooking that leads to diabetes, and why, because it sells. To cure obesity, you need to change the culture that inculcates it.

I recommend that people watch Food Inc.. It describes these changes well.

mikepwagner

Hear, hear.

As someone who has gone from "obese" - 243@5'10"on the BMI scale to the low end of "normal" (150), I try to be very careful about my attitude towards other people who have not made the journey that I have made - yet.

My own take is that being disgusted by a person's excess weight is a visceral reaction - but cultivating an attitude of disgust towards a person is a choice. And a poor choice, in my opinion.

Excess weight very often means that a person eats more than they need to eat. Nothing more, and nothing less. That flaw is in the catalogue of human frailties, but it is far from the most egregioous. If someone is a kind, decent human being who eats too much, then they are kinds decent human being who eats too much. Big deal.

I am not arguing that all overweight people are kind and decent - from what I can tell, human frailties are spread pretty evenly across the weight spectrum. Would I rather deal with an unkind or dishonest thin person than a kind or honest overweight person?

Of course not.

On the scale of human frailties, a number of characteristics rank much higher than overeating.

Maybe if I shared none of those frailties, I would be better equipped to judge - but I probably wouldn't want to.

cccorlew

It's difficult to separate our feelings about seeing large individuals from our feeling about the unarguable fattening up of America.
So, sure, some hefty folk are healthy, some have medical issues. I'm not the universal cop here to write them tickets, or point at them.
But jeeeezzz, this country is getting HUGE and it isn't a good thing.

I mean, here's just one recent example:

on the path

I was preparing a rant, but the above will suffice. I'll add just a bit more..

Being "very expensive to our national health care" means very expensive to anyone reading this. We all pay for it, and we pay a lot more than we would if people took better care of themselves. It's a good bet that obesity and poor diet/nutrition factor in a majority of individuals' health problems.

And, at the risk of ruffling a few feathers, I'd suggest that there is an element of selfishness in the personality of an obese individual. Their choices cost us all in the form of health insurance premiums and even in the quality of health care we receive. There are many other manifestations of the selfishness of which I speak.

I've hardly been a perpetually skinny person for my entire life, and at one time weighed ~50 lbs more than I do now. But I've never affected the comfort level for a person sitting next to me while on mass transit. The seating on such is designed for a 200 lb person, not one who weighs 400 lbs.

Ok, so I did rant a little. I could go on, but, you know...

mikepwagner

I think that you can convince yourself that obesity is more complicated than a "question of will power".

If obesity were largely or primarily a question of will power, we would expect two things to be true:

1. People who are not obese should exhibit discipline or "will power" in other areas of their lives.
2. People who are obese should not exhibit discipline or "will power" in other areas of their lives.

You don't have to look very hard to find thin, fit people who exhibit a general lack of discipline in other areas of their lives - consider professional athletes, Hollywood actors., etc. For example, you'd have a hard time convincing me that Charlie Sheen - though he appears to be pretty trim - is a paragon of discipline and will power.

You also don't have to look very hard to find obese people who exhibit lots of discipline and/or "will power" - for example, classical musicians - playing instruments or singing opera, or playing in the NFL.

The "will power" or discipline model also doesn't explain people - like me - who successfully lose weight at an advanced age. Am I to believe that I had little or no will power for 57 1/2 years, and that "will power" or discipline was miraculously bestowed on my half way through my 58th year?

AzTallRider

Please show me a poorer neighborhood that doesn't have a Walmart, Costco, or some discount food chain. They all sell fruits and veggies. Their meat may not be as natural as one would like, but the healthy choices are there.

I admit that I have to fight a tendency toward prejudice when it comes to obesity. It's hard not to correllate it with poor discipline and a lack of work ethic. Maybe if more people looked on fitness as a 'job', and attacked it the same way they do their careers, we'd have less of a problem.

Watch Food, Inc., yes, and then read "Younger Next Year" to see what you can do about it.