Plot Thickens in Ongoing Debate of 'Healthy Obese'(Weight Loss Not for Everyone, Says Specialist)

Vancouver Sun ^ | Sharon Kirkey

[a fool in paradise]

Wonder if he's classified as obese in both pics.

[Minn]

A two step plan guaranteed to melt off the fat.

1. Get on your bike
2. Ride

[End Times Sentinel]

I’d be comfortable using the phrase benign obesity to describe my own 283 lb. 5’ 3” situation.

[albie]

Glandular? = sorry.
Eat too much? = eat less. exercise. lose weight.

[exist]

Hmmm there are probably people on the margins. Or people that are technically overweight but actually healthy for that individual person. But by and large, most people who are technically obese are fat pigs.

I myself stuff my face while watching TV and that made me gain a ton of weight. So I said screw it and started exercising like crazy. And now I stare at myself naked all the time.

But the bad part is my work has been suffering. Not calling clients back, ignoring emails. Too tired with all the exercising.

[KarlInOhio]

One problem with the BMI is that it is based on the square of the height rather than the third power. Pick the average height for a person and the "proper" weight and say that is some ideal BMI. Someone who is 10% taller than that average height would be 10% wider side to side and 10% thicker front to back to keep the same proportions. He would be 33% bigger overall, thus if his density is the same would be 33% heavier than the ideal average height person. However to keep the same BMI he's only allowed to be 21% heavier. To keep the same BMI, taller people have to start looking like bean poles.

[LS]

These are amazing pics.

That said, there is a huge PC issue here involving nationalized health care, because if/when we get to it, the obese and going to become targets, and there WILL be a "fat police" unless they can come up with some science to show that they really aren't that "unhealthy."

[wbill]

I’d be comfortable using the phrase benign obesity to describe my own 283 lb. 5’ 3” situation.

Well, see, there you go. You're not overweight, you're undertall.

[Varda]

" the healthy obese have less visceral fat "

Role of a critical visceral adipose tissue threshold (CVATT) in metabolic syndrome: implications for controlling dietary carbohydrates: a review

"Exceeding the CVATT may result in a number of metabolic disturbances such as insulin resistance to glucose uptake by cells. Metabolic profiles of patients with visceral obesity may substantially improve after only modest weight loss. This could reflect a significant reduction in the amount of VAT relative to peripheral or subcutaneous fat depots, thereby maintaining VAT below the CVATT. The CVATT may be unique for each individual. This may help explain the phenomena of apparently lean individuals with metabolic syndrome, the so-called metabolically normal weight (MONW), as well as the obese with normal metabolic profiles, i.e., metabolically normal obese (MNO), and those who are "fit and fat."

[a fool in paradise]

They can target the obese as long as they are also willing to single out those who engage in risky anonymous sex in washrooms while using a variety of unknown pills, powders, and intavenous drugs....

[mysterio]

The concept of "benign obesity" has been known for more than 20 years.

I have known a few heavy smokers who have lived past age 80. But they were the exceptions. Most of the time, if you smoke, it's likely going to kill you or seriously contribute to your poor health in old age. Same thing with obesity. And though someone might be "healthy" obese now, the additional weight is at the very least going to mess with their joints, making exercise more difficult in old age; leading to less exercise; leading to poor health.

I am the biggest wimp in the world and I kicked obesity. I wouldn't take a pound of it back.

[wbill]

To keep the same BMI, taller people have to start looking like bean poles

Tell me about it, for my height, I should weigh what I did in Jr. High (before I stopped growing). Granted, I could drop a few pounds, but I ain't getting back to what I weighed at 13 or 14.

Buddy of mine is a cycling fanatic. He rides, literally 100+ miles weekly, and the only fat on him is whatever he ate for lunch.

He's also got a stocky build. At his physical, his doc took one look at his BMI and told him to drop 20 pounds. "From Where?" my friend said.

Then he got a new doctor.

[ShandaLear]

I’ll admit it. I’m considered obese, yet I have no issue with blood pressure, blood sugar or anything else. I have always said I’m the healthiest fat person I know. There are thin people who are way less healthy than I am.

Would I like to lose the weight? You bet I would and I have tried. I will likely keep trying. Maybe one day I’ll succeed.

[R. Scott]

There was a time when “obese” meant “really fat”. No longer. Now it means “not skinny”.

[Twinkie]

I wonder if that picture is a photoshopped one or if he really has lost the bodybuilder’s physique. In a suit, he still looks muscular.

[Red6]

Why they are right IMHO.

Near all these “studies” on health and behavior have a hard time when it comes to causality or correlation. More people who are thin exercises, might eat healthier foods, etc. and weight and a high BMI might simply be a manifestation of unhealthy choices, but not the problem itself. What about someone that's heavier but exercises and eats well?

In the end, your quality and quantity of life will be determined more-so by genetics (excluding acts of God, crime or war) than anything else. You can drink bourbon and smoke cigars and make it to 100 as George Burns; or you can run marathons, not smoke or drink and fall over dead at 52 as Jim Fixx did of a massive heart attack.

What all this nonsense really boils down to is a few basic concepts. (1) We can't accept the idea of some sort of biological determinism. (2) We like to over simplify things and cook them down to some over simplistic idea, focusing on some singular variable. (3)People are lazy, so are many doctors and health care providers. This is the easy answer for everything. (4)We are an EXTREMELY trendy society where butter is healthy one day and vilinized the next. (5)Money talks, even in a socialist society, and those that use tobacco, consume alcohol, or engage in some other behavior or indulgences are seen as a cash cow. Insurance providers love smokers.

When you have a health issue and a doctor states it's because of smoking, being over weight, etc., I would go find another doctor. In most cases I would think it to be the easy answer that requires little thought, money, or any other effort. Real world example. My wife is a bit over weight, but by no means morbidly obese. She had hip problems and for years doctors told her that she needed to loose weight. The simple answer. We eventually found a real doctor who upon further investigation found she had a deformed hip joint, and ended up repairing the problem. Think about this though. Literally three US Army doctors looked at her, some X-rays were taken once (No MRI or CAT scan) and the answer more or less was always “It's your fault, loose some weight.”

These so called “risk factors” are all to often the lazy and simple answer, IMHO.

[calex59]

What you have to realize is that under the communist government Bozo is planning, there will be very little food per person. Can’t stir up dust you know during farming, can’t hurt little insects while farming, can’t plant this or plant that and people can’t grow their own food because of huge taxes on backyard gardening. This is the way it is done in communist countries, kill off the food production and then control what little food there is, a weak, starving people are less likely to revolt plus an undernourished brain cannot think well. We will all be skinny(read that starving)therefore having fat police will not be necessary. I am not joking.

[SunkenCiv]

See, good news *is* news.

[SunkenCiv]