AFG: My apologies, as I should have added a disclaimer about people with genuine health problems. But I still stand by my opinion, that, for the fat people who do not have genuine health problems that have a direct impact on body weight (which is probably over 99%), the reason they’re fat is because they eat too much and/or do not eat the right kinds of food and/or do not exercise enough. It’s very simple.
Uh oh, someone’s going to have to defend poor Crafter_Man, and I’ll volunteer for the job. When it comes right down to it, he’s absolutely, positively correct. Anybody that reason cause and effect can figure out that he’s right. Caloric intake less caloric consumption becomes fat.
If you reduce food consumption, your body wants to slow your metabolism (starvation mode). Exercise will increase your metabolism. Not just burn more calories while you exercise, but increasing your levels of exercise will speed up your metabolism all the time. That’s why “just dieting” is often counterproductive. That’s why “just increasing exercise” can be enough without having to go on a diet. Put the two together, and you’ll lose weight.
Anyone’s particular circumstances will vary in the details, but more exercise and less caloric intake is a guarantee – yes, guarantee! – that you will lose weight. No results? Add more exercise, take in less food, supplement with vitamins if you’re not getting the minimum.
One more – cardiovascular exercise is good – for your cardiovascular system. But remember to focus on the fact that exercise for weight loss has the intent of increasing your metabolism. You shouldn’t think about only the 20 minutes at 100% maximum heart rate as being the goal of an excursive program. Yeah, that’s good for your heart, and you’ll burn a few extra calories, but what are 220 calories when a Coke will wipe that out? With low impact exercise – weights, for example – you’ll still increase your metabolism if you do it regularly. That’s the point of excursive for weightloss.
Or… the opposite could happen.
15 years ago I was fat and out of shape. (5’ 6" and 200 lbs.) And then I started eating less. And started eating better. And started exercising. In 4 years I was down to 170 lbs. But I wanted to lose more weight. So I started eating even less. And started eating even better. And started exercising more. Today I am at 150 lbs.
It’s like a closed loop proportional controller: when I notice my weight going up, I cut back on calories and increase my activity level. The more it goes up, the less I eat and the more I exercise. By doing this, I am able to keep my weight at around 150 lbs. Very simple.
For the umpteenth time, if you want to lose weight, there is a procedure that has a virtual 100% success rate:
Eat less
Eat better
Exercise
I will not defend nor condone Crafterman’s bad attitude, but I have to comment on your statment. I don’t have to know a thing about you to know that if you jump off a cliff you will fall. Not a thing about you. Because I know the laws of physics. Gravity is a fact of life. Calories in vs calories out is a fact of physics. He doesn’t have to know anything about you to make that statment.
Even if you had your Thyroid removed, if you eat 800 calories, and burn 1300, you will lose 1 lb a week. Even if you like music or your favorite color is blue.
Now, there is a thing called water retention, which is another problem with some people, but that is a different problem and has nothing to do with calories in vs calories out. Just don’t confuse the two. 
This is what I have a problem with. You’re obviously not happy with being overweight, right? You wish you were thinner so that you wouldn’t get fat jokes, insults, staring, etc.? And you recognize that lack of exercise is why you’re not thinner? And yet you’re not doing anything about it?
Put me in the category of “fat person who became thin who hates fat people who hate being fat”.
I’m 6’2", and was 250 at my heaviest. I wasn’t happy. I was winded walking up flights of stairs. I had trouble getting in and out of my car sometimes. I took up a lot of room. I made up my mind to stop being fat and dropped almost 70 pounds over the course of a year. It took a lot of discipline. Over the course of the next 2 years, I gained back about 40 of those pounds and now I’ve re-dropped about 20.
It sucks that some people struggle so hard with their weight when others don’t have to. I’m constantly monitoring what I put in my mouth and constantly forcing myself to go jogging when I’d rather watch TV. I’ve got buddies who are thinner than me and don’t do shit about staying that way. Its frustrating, but to me I’d rather avoid the fat jokes, insults, and stares.
I’m not saying all fat people are miserable. I know a couple fat guys who don’t mind being fat one bit. That’s fine. I just hate it when fat people say they wish they were thinner. There’s no magic to losing weight… Crafter_Man explained it pretty well.
In an ideal world, that is a great answer. However, the majority of EMS systems in our nation are as overworked as the rest of our health care system. Getting more people on the scene can me an issuie. More so, lifting the gurney is not the major concern. At that point we have 4 or 6 people to lift someone, and the patient is in the perfect position to be lifted. The time we are going to be injured is when getting the person onto the bed. Then we have to bend and reach. Also remember, when doing so it takes much less weight to cause back injury.
You mean the guy dared to have body hair?:rolleyes:
Phoukas post was right on target to me. The fat are targeted because people are disgusted by them and view the fatness as a moral failure of the fat person.
The disgust is a strong generator of hate because it’s such a visceral reaction. But that is not enough on it’s own to generate such hate speech. After all, few people criticize a man with a hideous birth defect even if they are disgusted. It’s the moral failing part that causes people to voice such ugly sentiments. The view that the fat person is lazy or otherwise “Bad” seems to make it OK to roundly and soundly criticize their weight. We view it as being “Their fault” so we give them hell.
To me the above is the basic reason for all the hate speech. Anything else is overanalyzing the phenomenon.
Having said all that, I must now state that I have grown to loathe and hate my room mates obesity. He’s a great guy and in many ways an awesome room mate. But living with him taxes me. His obesity is not really the cause of my hate per se. The things that I hate are what are causing his obesity. He truly is the stereotype of “fat” behavior personified. He’s a total glutton, consuming massive quantities of food. And he it crams into his mouth as fast as he can like so many fat stereotypes on TV or movies. Doesn’t even taste it. The only veggies he’ll touch are starchy like potatos or have been fried into oblivion. He get’s up in the middle of the night, EVERY NIGHT, To consume soda and something unhealthy like a Cadbury bar. He’s in massive denial about how much he eats. He’ll say, “Man I’m starving! I haven’t eaten all day!” even though I know for a fact that he wiped out a breakfast buffet and made Arbys stock rise at lunch. He is obsessed with food. When we play a board game, he always talks about the pieces looking like candy. He sees mud and it’s a comment about chocolate or gravy. He likes to make comments about having four stomachs like a cow, “Stomach three is getting low! Better stock up!”
Now couple this with the fact that he is monumentally lazy. I always check the mail because he will get in the car to drive to the mailbox 50 feet away. I know it’s more effort for him to go 50 feet than for me. But still, it’s only 50 feet.
I know that this rant is more about my roomie than about fat people in general. But it’s been building up a long time.
It’s too bad about your roommate, especially because we all know that this kind of a problem – and it’s obviously more than just a physical problem – is likely to shorten his life. Obviously the best thing for him would be to start changing his attitudes towards food and physical activity. What’s the best way to do that? Well, there are a lot of people who think they know.
The only thing that’s clear to me, though, is telling him that he’s lazy and disgusting and that the only thing he needs in order to fix himself is ordinary personal discipline is not likely to produce happy results.
Yeah, blowero, there was a lot of strange stuff in that post:
A sign of what? Being disgusting? Being reckless? Being a jerk? Being fat?
Long toenails – perhaps a sign of deficient hygiene. But yellowed? What is that a sign of? Holding cigarettes between the toes? And quite ugly? I’ve met quite a few fit, thin, yea, beautiful, people who have ugly toenails. Don’t know what the cause of that is.
Quelle horreur! I believe it’s rather common for Americans, regardless of their personal virtues or lack thereof, to wear shorts. The French think we’re gauche, but in this day and age who looks to the French as an example of virtuous living? Anyway, they stay thin by consuming butter, cream, alcohol, and nicotine. It’s quite simple really.
It is well known that laziness and poor personal discipline is the cause of stumpy legs. It’s quite simple, really.
It is quite well known that an abundance of body hair is indicative of a lack of non-mammalian genetic heritage. Ape beings disgust me. Fucking apies, fucking primaties!
Dammit, his clothes were only clean!
Hm. I thought “musty” was an olfactory rather than optical characteristic.
And everyone knows that inept laundering is a characteristic of fat people.
Premise: If …
Conclusion: Then …
Classic Aristotelian paradigm, don’tchya know.
Wow… many well thought out replies on this topic. As a newb here, I gotta say I’m strongly considering membership. No apparent restrictions on cursing, as long as they are simply used as what they are, which is words… and everyone seems very well able to care for themselves… I’ve not yet seen a case of anyone forgetting this is a message board and not the oracle at delphi. And I’ve not yet seen any spelling smack, which is always refreshing.
So thats it, I’m joining. But right now I have $-154.34 in my checking account, so it will have to wait a bit.
Anyway, to get back on topic, I must say I also do not understand all the hate towards overweight people.
After all, they are much easier to catch, provide more generous portions, and - if prepared properly (an overnight soak in a salt water solution, followed by a days’ slow roasting) - have a succulent, hearty flavor (a bit of a ‘heavier’ taste than your average catch, this I can’t deny; but very tasty, nonetheless); which will easily satisfy even the most voracious appetite(s).
I reccomend overweight people most highly. 5 Stars.
Have you seen Make your “pay my subscription fee” request here ?
If you plead your case well, you can get your membership sponsered for you. I did.
Are there any cites for this at all?
Certainly obese people experience more health problems than “normal” weight people and I can see how this could impact healthcare costs as some doubtless receive healthcare paid for by taxpayers.
However, a fair analysis would include the whole spectrum of the costs a person imposes on society in their lifetime. While an obese person may have more healthcare costs early on in life they are also less likely to live to a ripe old age and impose healthcare costs at that time from all sorts of issues that afflict the elderly. Add to that not collecting Social Security (or as much as they die earlier on average) and I have to wonder if on balance the effect is close to a wash.
Cool… thanks! But, unless someone wants to know why my checking account is in the negatives (G’head, ask! I love to tell the story… my little middle middle class to lower lower class to upper middle class to middle upper class back to extremely lower lower class back to middle middle class, only this time with a really nice house on a lake, is really a fun read - and if I’m drunk enough, it’s also fun to tell no matter how many times I spew it out) - I can’t ask another to pay my dues. I’d say the folks without a credit/debit card, college kids, or some of the other folks in the thread you pointed me to (TY again, BTW) are more deserving than myself.
Especially since the real reason I’m negative broke (er, positive broke?) isn’t that I don’t make the money - it’s that I continue to spend more than I have. Ah well. I now have mechanisms in place that prevent me from doing too much damage.
But I can do the $5. Just has to wait a week or so.
Balthiser nails it.
Spot on.
So quit your bitching, PC thugs. This name calling is usually about assholes who happen to be fat. Not fat-bashing just for the sake of bashing the obese.
I suspect that you’ve never been fat. Gratuitious name-calling is certainly out there. You just don’t notice it because you are not the object of the abuse.
And if he just happened to be black, then it might have called for justifiable black-bashing?
Just happened to be gay? Justifiable gay bashing?
Just happened to be Jewish? Justifiable Jew bashing?
From now on, whenever some rural, white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant Texan pisses me off, I’m going to start screaming about “fucking obnoxious-braggart racist alcoholic wife-beating traitorous redneck dogs-under-the-porch broken-down-cars-in-the-lawn fuck-Jesus-up-the-ass sister-fuckers.” After all, this name calling is usually about assholes who happen to be rural, white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant Texans not rural, white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant Texan-bashing just for the sake of bashing rural, white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant Texans.
Anyway, everyone knows that people are only rural, white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant Texans by choice and it’s easy enough to stop being one if you aren’t lazy and lacking in personal discipline.
I guess I must be a PC thug (but, ooh, I hate me some rural, white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant Texans. grr).
Aw, crap, I left out “left-handed.” There is no one lazier than someone who simply refuses to stop being left-handed. Burns me the fuck up.
One of my fav. Carlin skits.
Colin Powell is not OPENLY black. Colin Powell is openly white. He Just HAPPENS to be black.
That, and your previous Texas analogy, is a terrible comparison.
It’s true that some people are naturally fatter than others, but for the most part, fat people can stop being fat if they choose to put forth the effort to do so. And in most cases, fat people would be happier and healthier if they did choose to put forth the effort, but they decide they’d rather eat McDonald’s because it tastes better than a salad and would rather watch TV because it’s more entertaining than jogging.
If the Texan had a mullet, you could absolutely and justifiably make fun of him for his haircut. Hell, you probably would even if he didn’t piss you off. Just like 99.9% of fat people, this Texan could fix his hair issues but chooses not to.
Same thing for depressed teens who complain because they get made fun of for dressing “goth”. Well, stop dressing “goth” and I bet people won’t make fun of you for it anymore. Problem solved.