According to the article he had surgery. Probably the newest form of a gastric bypass.
Disclaimer: I have a gastric bypass, performed in 1992. Best thing I ever did.
Weight is a problem as you age, but remember those pounds weren’t put on overnight. Bones, muscles and tissue all compensate for the added pounds but only up to a certain point. Then knees complain, vertebrae start to groan and your breathing at night becomes a problem. The article doesn’t say if he had the surgery during his employment or after.
If he was doing the job, the firing was wrong. Good performance reviews indicate he was, and unless he was complaining to his employer for “reasonable accommodation” it sounds like he wasn’t troubled by it.
They probably fired him because they were worried about having to cover looming health problems. It would be nice, though, if they’d hire him back now that he’s got his weight down to a semi-reasonable level. I mean, since he knows the job and does it well.
Yes you gain weight as you age. I have gained about 15 pounds since I was 18 and now 42. From about 155 to 170. I should get rid of the 15 for sure and actually working on it for the last 10 years.....lol. However, this dude is disgusting. He looks disheveled in his picture with the lawsuit. His best bet would be to wear a suit. If I was on the jury, I would want to know why it took getting fired for him to do something about his weight. Unless there is more to this story that we don’t know, then I hope he does not win the case. We can’t have every fatty start suing or we will go broke. There are people who just won’t get up from the table. I would have loved to observe his lunches at the job. I bet that would have been eye opening.
I’ve wavered greatly from my highest in college at almost 400 lb. down to 235 lb. at one point recently. Since I’ve been dating and engaged to my fiancee for a few years now, I’ve let myself go, but I’ll never let myself get back to where I was in college.
I’m 6’2”, so most people don’t see me as fat, more just BIG. When I was thin though, people really took notice. Our CIO even said something to some of his partners about my weight loss when he was on a tour of our data center. It was a great conversation piece in job interviews. The other side of that coin is true as well.
Fat people are viewed as lazy. I can think of at least 2 very obese women in our office who embody that, but that generality can affect those of us who are legitimately hard workers willing to do anything. Obesity is a big problem, as I see it, and I’m affected by it. No government program is going to make me thinner. I have to want to be thin and to maintain that. It takes a true lifestyle change to make it happen permanently.
Maintaining weight is VERY hard! I have a thyroid disorder that complicates things due to a slow metabolism, but I’ve dropped the weight safely and without surgery or medication. It takes a truly dedicated person to stick with it though.
Our society is bombarded by junk on every corner. Long gone are the days of random, homemade fare at a local diner or farmer’s market. We deal with so much bustle in our everyday lives that pre-made, manufactured foods like McDonalds or even the likes of Marie Callendar in your grocer’s freezer. Those foods are so tempting from a convenience standpoint in a world where we try to cut corners and make the most out of every moment of our days.
We need to slow down, get away from the TVs and computers, and get back to our country’s roots. We were healthy people once.