Obesity, Anorexia & Co

[kitty]

Mine , yours AND the generation after Eli. The people my age having kids are just as stupid.

What comes to mind by the kids debatte - is a child allowed to sue his parents for making it sick?
Obesity is the second most common cause of preventable death, the first is smoking and they were cases of people sueing their parents for passive-smoking-illnesses.

PS: just for Flix & Co to see what consequences obesity can have on the average person:

Crushed

The part of the article stating:

But the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance has taken on airlines over discrimination against overweight people.

...made me bang my head on the table...

[Flix]

Aug 25, 2009 12:40:00 GMT kitty said:

Personally, I would establish some laws for people that are seriously obese (and not ill). There's a courier service in alabama (i think it was) who started to set a limit for employees who are obese. When someone was weighing seriously than over 100kg, he had to slim down in a year or would lose his job.

100kg? Really? Cause this is me at 110kg:


Obese for my height by all standards, but I never needed any special accomodation and I fit just fine into airplane seats. I would be severely pissed to lose my job for being that weight.

Luckily, this is me more recently at 80 kg - still 'overweight'


There ain't no more fat comin' off me - I'm already starting to look emaciated in that last photo. I miss my hair...

[Elliot Kane]

It must be said, no standard weight works as a definition of grossly overweight (The proper definition of obese) for everyone. It's Body Mass Index (BMI) that matters - and I'm not sure that's always entirely accurate, either. Someone with large bones or a lot of muscle tissue is always going to be heavier than someone with small bones and not a lot of muscle.

[Ubereil]

I'd say the focus on BMI is acually quite unhealthy, especially for women. Not all women are built to be slim, and forcing yourself to be totally anal about how you eat (not tasty food EVER) is also quite unhealthy. Eating yummy food once in a while makes you happy. Especially since you don't have to be thread thin to be healthy.

And I agree with Elliot, they should introduce self esteem training and health/food training (as part of PE, since PE should be about health) in school. In the long run it will work. I acually think Sweden does the self esteem thing, at least on an early level.

Übereil

[kitty]

@ Flix - I missed a word in my senetnce it was meant to be "When someone was weighing seriously more than over 100kg, he had to slim down in a year or would lose his job."

Apart from being fit, it was also they concern that the bikes get used more heavily (no pun intended) and that heavy employees take much more sick days.

Congrats on your weight loss btw If you can't lose more weight - gain muscles! More muscles = more fat burn.

@ Eli - the courier company had good reasons to establish that kind of weight rule (see answer to Flix above) and I do agree with you and Ube that the BMI is only one tool to measure and not always working (for example for asians, the obese level starts much earlier than for caucasians & black people, same goes for athlets etc) but it is still very possible to differ between someone overweight and someone obese.

All my concerns are targeted (mainly) to obese people. Flix pre-now state would for example not be counted into the obese league because he obviously wasn't a hazard to himself and others.

But the link I posted about the lady who was crushed by a severly obese passenger is a whole different story. This woman (the obese one) was not able to fit in the standard seat, she had to put the armrest up what is A) forbidden by take-off and landing and B) she took more than one seat for which she didn't pay and C) she injured another passenger and D) most importantly for me, when there would have been an emergency, this obese passenger would have block the way for others and herself.

This kind of obesity is dangerous for the person and other and can not be tolerated. Imho.

PS: United Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air, JetBlue and Southwest Airlines are charging two seats for obese passengers now.

Under the new policy, obese passengers - defined as unable to lower the arm rest and buckle a seat belt with one extension belt - will still be reaccommodated, at no extra charge, to two empty seats if there is space available.

If, however, the airplane is full, they will be bumped from the flight and may have to purchase a second ticket, at the same price as the original fare, Urbanski said.

If the bumped passenger chooses to cancel the trip, the ticket will be refunded with no additional charge.

(source @ www.money.cnn.com

[Elliot Kane]

As part of PE? I really like that idea, Ube, I have to say! That'd sneak it neatly into the timetables with minimal disruption.

Kit - agreed.

[fughawzi]

BMI is actually b.s., really.

[Flix]

That's what I think, too. That's the main standard I was using.

[Glance A'Lot]

Aug 27, 2009 2:45:45 GMT Flix said:

That's what I think, too. That's the main standard I was using.

You mean b.s. What a standard!!

[Flix]

It's the main standard, doesn't neccessarily mean I believe in it. The point was....look at my two pics...just eyeing them would your common sense say "obese" or "overweight", respectively? There may some other standard that takes into account muscle mass, bone structure, etc. but no one uses it.

[Elliot Kane]

I think the big problem is that our society loves to put people into groups rather than treating them as individuals. So rather than use common sense in deciding whether someone has weight problems, they try to create a formula that's good for everyone. Then wonder why so many people have image problems...

[Glance A'Lot]

Maybe I misunderstand?

When you say BMI is b.s. - you do NOT mean it's steer execration?

[kitty]

But folks, as much as this is right and true - there IS a very very clear difference between someone who has "weight problems" of any kind and someone simply obese.

If someone can't fit in a standard chair, can't walk steps, can't fit in an escalator, can't fit in a planeseat etc etc etc, basically when someone can not function in normal society due to his weight - he is a hazard for himself and others and it stops here, that it is an individual problem or a beauty thing.

I like to compare that with my psychostuff. Everybody is a bit mental at times but when it starts to be something inflicting your life severly enough that you are a hazard to yourself or others, you have to do something.

Same story.

And like you can't care for someones feelings anymore when he becomes psychotic and a risk, you can't care for obese peoples feelings either. This isn't an image thing. This is a risk for society.

[Flix]

Here's what I mean: I took it to be accurate, applied it to myself during my weight loss/weight evaluation period of my life, and found it to be a standard severely lacking in flexibility and accuracy. Thus, in my earlier post w/ pics, I use the terms 'obese' and 'overweight' but with a sarcastic rolling-eyes smiley, indicating the authority that I give to the B.M.I. = not very much at all = the B.M.I. is excrement.

I wouldn't be inclined to dismiss the B.M.I if I hadn't applied or analyzed it, would I?

Geez, Glance.

[Cat]

BMI is crap; everyone knows muscle weighs more than fat, according to BMI, Steven Redgrave, olympic rower, is morbidly obese.
E is right, we need to use common sense (oxymoron there, there's nothing common about common sense).

Also plane seats need expanding, and people need more space. On an average plane, a passenger has less room than that of the slaves on the boat in the middle passage all those years ago. So in many respects, "fat" people are a slap on the face for most companies who've never had any incentive to actually do something about the state of their service/products.