Comments on: Fat Cells: A Links Roundup

By: Michele Coppola

Michele Coppola — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 05:13:52 +0000

Actually, RMS, I agree with you…to a point. The fact is that if you are obese, you are more likely to have health problems as you age, and maybe even earlier than you would have otherwise. And I also agree that most (not all) obese people have food issues.

BUT – and this is as big a BUT as the one I’m sitting on – if you smoke, sleep around, do drugs, bungee-jump,drink, whatever…you’re risking more and earlier health problems as you age. In fact, even if you DON’T do any of those things, you’re going to have more health problems as you age. That’s just LIFE.

What breaks down and how fast is multifactorial in origin and includes genetics and lifestyle and a host of other things we may not know about yet.

My 74-year-old mother-in-law ate well and exercised her whole life, maintaining a very slender, healthy physique. Now in her 70s, she is wheelchair-bound, in constant low-grade joint and muscle pain, and can barely remember the names of her own children. Meanwhile, my obese father of the same age who chain-smoked for most of his life still mows his own lawn and is a card shark.

My point in my first post was that fat people bear a disproportionate share of societal disapproval and intolerance because our particular weakness or genetic bequest or whatever you want to call it is VISIBLE. Your post was simply proof of that assertion.

By: Bretley

Bretley — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 23:04:28 +0000

The “your excess weight is going to kill you” dialogue is just another bullshit excuse for name-calling under the guise of empathy. If a person feels the need to bring up someone else’s weight, but couches their remarks with suggestions of a healthier lifestyle, it’s not any better than sticking with,”Man, you are so fat!”

By: tigi

tigi — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 22:25:56 +0000

TWO WHOLE CAKES update! I’m going to put it here – Storm of “Paul and Storm” is going to eat a whole Fudgie the Whale cake tomorrow. At first he promised to do it if they got 10,000 followers, now he’s doing it to raise money for local foodshelters. Read about it on twitter @paulandstorm. It totally reminded me of two whole cakes.

By: Katie

Katie — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 20:03:37 +0000

I think the fundamental problem with the whole lose weight for your health thing is that there’s not one ideal body size for someone’s health, despite the fact that’s there’s a very narrow range of acceptable body types according to societal norms.

My mom has a super tiny frame and I have a large frame and even though we’re the same height, at any given “healthy” bmi range, she’s going to look heavy (by societal norms, not mine) and I’m going to look skelatal.

By: tigi

tigi — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 16:37:39 +0000

What’s really funny to me about warnings like “IF YOU ARE FAT YOUR BODY WILL BREAK DOWN AND YOU WILL DIIIIIIIIIE” is that the things that have already gone wrong with me have nothing to do with being fat. Unless being fat causes extreme near-sightedness and TMJ. Oh, and nearly pathological clumsiness.

By: Jezebella

Jezebella — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:50:18 +0000

I wish the trolls would learn some new tunes. Their old ones are getting boring.

By: Melanie

Melanie — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:10:38 +0000

Hey y’all, we have ourselves a bona fide troll. Oh happy happy joy joy.

By: RMS

RMS — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 12:29:13 +0000

As they say, de-nile [sic] is not just a river in Egypt….

By: tigi

tigi — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:28:52 +0000

Hi FMS:

I kind of don’t care.

Love,
Tigi.

Ok, there’s more to it than that. I could go into the blah blah blah I’m healthy spiel but I don’t need to justify my healthy habits or no to anyone. I take care of myself as well as I can with the means I have, and sometimes, I fall short. I’m human. I don’t have to justify my presence anymore because I did it for twenty years and it got me nowhere except going up and down the scale.

When I switched my focus from weight to health, all this miraculous stuff started happening. I found I could enjoy food and I could enjoy exercise. My body settled in a weight range that worked and I stopped gaining or losing thirty to fifty pounds every six months. I found energy, I found time, I found that I could just start enjoying life and stop putting things off until I was the right weight.

Right now, I can still run with my dogs and bike for hours. I can still lift my niece and my nephew, chase them and play with them. I can still work on my feet for twelve hours at a stretch. I can still swim in my family’s lake and not care if my thighs look fat. If in twenty more years, my body gives out, I would rather have spent those years LIVING than trying to whip my body into an unachievable shape.

Soooo, I guess what I’m saying, sir or madame, is that this tree, up which you are barking, it be the wrong one.

By: sheenie

sheenie — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:44:17 +0000

RMS – how do you know that the nasty, rude ones don’t have diabetes? or will end up in a wheel chair? or have arthritic knees? Just curious. Because as a health care worker I have seen people of all sizes in wheel chairs, have diabetes and have arthritic knees. And the really shocking news – not all thin people are healthy.