It is more frustrated by the persistent and willful ignorance than the being ignored but thank you both for the kind words.
Since I presume this was directed at me, I’d just like to point out that I also said:
As well as:
Though I do maintain that emotional issues are also at play. A few people in this thread have even said as much. And it was certainly true for me.
In 30+ years of going to a gym 3 to 5 times a week, not once, not ever, have I seen a fat person ridiculed at a gym.
+1
Where do you go to the gym lavenderviolet, a middle school?
As a very fat person who regularly goes to the gym, I agree. I’ve never been ridiculed and sometimes am lauded.
Same here. I guess I take it for granted you are going to same something informed and balanced. But like you said, it goes over people’s heads since obesity is such a moral issue. It is like having an informed discussion about birth control and abstinence with radical fundamentalists in the rural south. You can’t, the moral judgements constantly block it and the conversation devolves into ‘if they weren’t such sluts they wouldn’t need condoms’.
But thanks for posting scientific literature backing up your opinion.
I know supplemental leptin can reverse the brain and thyroid changes seen in people who lose weight and leptin seems to be the master hormone in controlling bodyweight regulation. But even if leptin is a weight maintenance drug which can increase the long term success rates from 5-20% up to maybe 50-70% it isn’t going to be on the market for years.
You keep making this terrible analogy, I wish you would stop. The idea that diet and exercise leads to weight loss is hardly as ineffectual as claiming that abstinence education is the best way to reduce pregnancy.
Abstinence outside of marriage does prevent pregnancy and STDs as long as people do it permanently, and both fail about 90% of the time long term. What is your disagreement with that?
Because the moral judgments around sex aren’t as strong (anymore) as the moral judgments around obesity it provides a different perspective on the issue.
well, I’ll be sure to give you the adulation you think you deserve from now on.
Ok. So how unfit is too unfit? And how do we encourage fitness. Treadmills in the lines to receive Obamacare? 
While I did include your “self-esteem” comment the vast majority of your contribution has been good advice. You have succeeded in developing a healthier lifestyle and have shared what sort of changes you have made to do that, not a diet, not as deprivation, but as new evolving sets of lifestyle choices and habits.
The only complaint there is the fact that the op did bring up a particular topic: what is “too fat” and why? Your advice may be good and your successful personal experience of some usefulness to others, but these threads always do go the same way … those claiming that fatties are just lazy and weight loss is simple, those who witness their success, those who witness their failures, those who try to explain that simple is immaterial because simple is still extremely difficult, and so on, usually talking past each other. Very few here actually addressed the op (other than a few stupid joke attempts). It just immediately went into the usual knee jerk fat reflexes.
BTW, for you possible interest, there is a huge body of research now that shows that it actually is, more than anything else, the brain. Inflammation and dysfunction of brain centers that regulation appetite and metabolism occurs early in life in response to particular aspects of the Standard American Diet, in animal models documented even prenatally, some of which we discussed in this past thread beginning in post #34 and 38. The tendency to for any individual’s brain to respond to these factors with these sorts of dysfunctions seems to be a product of both genetic and epigenetic influences.
Really it is all the detail that comes after what some think is the end of the story that is absolutely fascinating.
jz not to worry, like I said approval from idiots aint worth much.
Half an hour a day of moderately intense exercise is the generally recommended guideline. Some is better than none though and higher fitness yet of course is better.
How do we encourage fitness? We focus on it more than on fatness to start. As parents we model it for our children. We play actively with them. We facilitate casual bike commuting and communities that are walkable. Employee Wellness programs help some. There are lots of ways.
Just so you know, it’s against the rules to modify another person’s quote, Acid Lamp, so refrain from doing this again.
S
Yes and I tire of hearing this phony charge being tossed around; not only by fat people seeking to justify their behavior but by businesses looking to exploit this mentality (PF, I’m looking at you).
Because you don’t need sex to survive, and you do need food to survive. Overindulgence of sex does not cause STDs. Overindulgence of food does result in obesity. It’s a shitty analogy.
+1. Good post.
On review Kaio I did not mean to imply that emotional issues are not also involved. And as an IMHO I think even more for women then men. There is a lot of self image baggage that comes with fat. And the sorts of attitudes that we see often from some in these sorts of threads may contribute too. Interestingly enough teen girls who diet are at much greater risk than similarly BMI matched teen girls who do not diet to have issues both with later obesity and with eating disorders. (I can find the study later if you’d like.)
Perhaps that plays into the perception that some have that they are being ridiculed at the gym. Certainly many who are fat a very self-conscious about it and it is easy to see how certain looks or comments could be interpreted in ways they were not intended by someone who that self-conscious. Sort of like Woody Allen’s “D’Jew like Wagner?” bit. I dunno, just a thought.
And to further the point, if you really must belabor this analogy: everyone in the thread is saying that if you want to prevent STDs and pregnancy you should use a condom every time, and your response is “but abstinence doesn’t WORK!”. I don’t think anyone is arguing that crash diets or diets that are a complete 180 are going to be a comfortable change. You have to have a responsible diet all of the time. Not a crazy crash diet, but a responsible daily diet all of the time for the rest of your life if you want to minimize the negative effects of eating.
Kaio this is not the exact study I was remembering but includes some of the same information.
This is another, looking at overweight, binging and purging as the outcomes:
The point beyond the impact of the emotional factors long term being that perhaps even more in teens than in adults a focus on the weight is not helpful. It is instead counterproductive. The focus must be on establishing basic healthy nutritional and fitness habits with BMI merely as a flag to potentially identify someone at greater risk for needing improvement on those measures.