And I wasn’t trying to shut you down, Beta. I just don’t know that it’s possible to know, without reservation, how people’s bodies achieved the weight they happen to be.

Yep, that’s pretty much what i think. I totally agree. I think you mixed me up with someone else — i was responding to people who came in and said that to me.

Mmmmm… no. I disagree. We could get into the argument forever about this, but there are a lot of factors that you don’t consider — for instance, what kind of food is available to a person in their community, what can they afford — healthy choices all the time, or cheaper, more filling, higher-calorie stuff? Can one afford a gym membership, do they have safe, outdoor places to do exercise? Does the person have a job, or two jobs, that keeps them busy for a huge portion of the day and a home-life that keeps them busy for the rest of the day, meaning they don’t always have time to exercise or eat carefully? Have they dieted a bunch and fucked up their metabolism — something most commenters have mentioned so far, as I re-peruse the thread. Do they have disorderd eating? It is more complicated that “choosing” to eat more than they take in, or “choosing” to eat donuts all day instead of lettuce.

And it’s not even the point! The point is that doctors are focusing on my waistline to make judgments about my health, and that’s totally messed up. Besides that, we’re against the idea that being fat is the *cause*of health problems. A correllation, a symptom, or a plain coincidence, sure. Just not the cause. That’s what most of us are complaining about — that we’re perfectly healthy people who get lectures from doctors about our fat asses that will clearly kill us when, you know, we have other health matters we want to address. Thanks, gynocologist, for telling me I should “think about losing 20lbs,” but I’m really just here for my pap smear. Also, my GP already gave me a clean bill of health, pal, so could you just do your thing so can go look for a new gyno?

There are more horror stories at First, Do No Harm:

http://fathealth.wordpress.com/

I’m just saying, don’t be surprised if people at an FA blog don’t really want to hear that our fatness will kill us… because we hear it every day. Constantly.

… sorry, owners of this blog, I will shut up now. :-)

My guess, while it isn’t scientific, is that you and I have NO IDEA if most fat people got that way by overeating.

For you to assume that we could know that is, well, shitty.

I think most folks who comment here understand that there are health risks associated with obesity. Risk doesn’t guarantee that those conditions will emerge in every obese person.

Our bodies are very complex. To reduce health to BMI or the circumference of your waist is probably too simplistic.

The fact that you are prone to obesity because of genetics does not mean that *most* fat people are fat because of genetics. (I’d be willing to guess that most fat people are fat because they eat more than what their body requires to keep functioning). So for some people, being fat *is* a choice.

Of course, you’re right, fat doesn’t necessarily cause heart disease (for example), because if you got fat from eating lettuce all day long I doubt there would be much cholesterol in your body… But the statistics in that article are very clear: the fatter someone is, the more likely that they have abnormal test results.

Exactly what I thought, too.

What most people don’t know is that even if more “overweight” test subjects got ill, this does NOT automatically increase the individual risk for every single person in that category. It can be hard to wrap your head around the concept at first, but that’s just how it is. No one knows WHY they got ill – was it due to fatness, to increased stress from discrimination, to certain habits, to genetic predisposition? What came first – fatness, illness or an unknown factor which caused both?

I’m a big fan of the “fat as a symptom” series as well.

Oh, no, not this again.

See, I didn’t decide to be fat, but my roommate did decide to take up smoking. There’s a difference.

I’m fat because I come from a long line of thick people – I could show you a picture from a recent family reunion, and you would see that even the slimmest of us tend towards the bulky side (not just fat, but muscle, too). I’m fat. I’m also healthy. It’s part genetics and part pure cussedness — I have incredibly low blood pressure and low cholesterol, my “normal sized” sister-in-law has high blood pressure.

Anecdotes aren’t data, I understand, but please also remember that correllation isn’t causation. Are the statistics showing that obesity causes heart problems, or is it showing that heart problems are caused by a lifestyle that may also cause certain people to gain weight? Also, if thin people are also not exempt from heart problems, should doctors only focus on fat people? And should my doctor’s man concern be “OMG, you’re fat and you might have heart disease?” Given that my family history shows more instances of cancer than heart disease*, I’m inclined to say — no. But many doctors focus on this with me because of my waistline — and the tests prove I’m still heart healthy, they say, “well, you should still consider losing weight, just in case.”

WTF.

Rio did a good series on fat as a symptom that says this sort of stuff better:

http://rioiriri.blogspot.com/2008/06/fat-is-symptom-not-disease-part-five.html

Someone wants to be obese, indeed. What the fuck.

*In fact, the only instance of heart disease is my father, who had a congenital birth defect in his heart that wasn’t caught and fixed when he was born in the 1950s and that became an issue when he hit 45. Even his doctor said it had nothing to do with his weight. This instance is “pure cussedness” coming into play.