I dont understand how people without a medical condition let themselves get so big. With smoking and drinking/driving, you dont see the effects of your action until its too late, unlike over eating. I've gained 10-15lbs on multiple occasions, but have noticed it and taken action to drop my weight back down. I def. dont think ide be able to handle the mental and physical hardships a morbidly obese person goes through. Regardless, the hate in this thread is pretty harsh. You know what they say, fat girls are fun till your friends find out.
My mom's a nurse, too. They see lots of fatties. Back when she worked in the old country, not so much. Lots of fatties in the USA.
This happens ALL the time. Fat patients have been known to break operating room tables. Imagine, you're operating, the patient is intubated, and BAM! the table breaks. Not good. You know what else? It may shock fat people to reallize that with CT scans if you're too fat, the resolution on the scan goes way down, and the radiologist might miss a key finding. But I guess physicists should figure that out rather than fat people losing weight.
The hate? It's the acceptance in our society that has caused this growth in... well, growth. You can't tell me 55% of America has an effin thyroid problem.
Yep, if an operating table is not sturdy enough to support a fat person you need a sturdier operating table. You can talk all day long about how the fat person should just lose weight, and how you would never let yourself get "in that condition" but I am telling you losing significant weight is hard as hell. I do work out, and I do mix in a salad once in a while. I also eat less than my 135 lb brother. I am not asking you to pity me. I could certainly eat so little and work out so hard that I would eventually lose the weight. The personal trainers on here will probably say I am perpetuating a myth, but I have found it almost impossible to lose any weight and keep it off without making it a main focus of my life. I just don't feel like I have enough focus to devote to it and everything else important to me. Acceptance????! I think this thread shows the level of acceptance for fat people there is in this society. What else should we do besides making us shop in separate places for clothing, cramming us into seats made for people 2/3rds our size and allowing people to openly make fun of us when there is no other group on the planet its socially acceptable to make fun of any more. I am curious Yonkers, what other steps do we need to take to show we aren't gonna stand for this kind of obesity. Maybe we could have a mass weigh in and put everyone over 190 in a camp that is kind of a mix of Auschwitz and The Biggest Loser.
I apperciate your posts on this subject, but the above is a little unrealistic. You don't design these kind of things for something wholly outside the mean. It's a commodity based on the expected maximum + some safety factor. If you exceed that safety factor by so much it breaks - you don't need a sturdier table, you need one specifically designed for a different expected work load. Should all cars be designed for Yao Ming's height? Of course not. There are distributions, and 2sigma off that distribution (or whatever they choose) is the appropriate design criteria.
Well perhaps each hospital should have 1 table designed for a heavier patient. They perform weight loss surgeries on 600 and 700 lb folks so presumably such tables exist. I have a couple friends who are close to 400 and both of them have been under the knife for various things, so I know Houston at least can accommodate patients that size. I don't think the world should be rebuilt for the Yao Mings or Sumo Wrestlers of the world. But surely we all deserve medical care.
I understand your reasoning and I don't want to sound mean, but hasn't it occurred to you that if you were to take some time to really devote yourself to getting down to a healthy weight, in the long run this will give you more time to do the things important to you because you will probably live a longer, healthier life. Once the excess weight is gone, it is much easier to keep it off than it was to lose it.
Concur. I don't think the lady in the orginal story was denied medical care though. Having a specialized table is a little different ($$$) than a specialized MRI machine.
::eyeroll:: The ironic thing is this... a lot of the young people in this thread who are dogging people who are largely overweight will probably be the ones who end up the same way. I will tell you this, I personally spent all my time up until the age of 19 playing sports 24/7. I had at least one sport for every season and was on the go from morning until night. Then in college, work and school became everything and I didn't have time to spend 3 hours a day playing sports. I barely had time to fit in 3 hours a week. My problem wasn't that I gained 10-15 pounds all of the sudden, it was a lb here a lb there until eventually my lack of consistent exercise was obviously affecting my weight. There's a world of difference between running up and down a basketball court for three hours a day and spending a few hours at a time in a gym. My eating habits hadn't changed, but the calories I was burning had. When I finally slowed down and realized I had a problem, I found out I had a medical issue as well (PCOS) so it makes it even harder to lose any of that excess weight. I don't expect people to automatically know that my situation is not about being lazy or eating all junk food or not exercising, but like Major said, I still expect respect and medical treatment. This woman's case is extreme, but there are options other than "jokingly" saying that she should check the zoo for an animal MRI. I know here in NKY we have at least two open MRI machines that pretty much anyone regardless of size can use. People "hate" because they don't understand and a lot of people here in this thread are fairly ignorant of exactly what the endless number of possibilities are that cause people to gain weight. Yes probably some of it is laziness, probably some of it is our junk food society, and there are probably still some of it that can be based on medical issues. But by god that doesn't mean they are less human because they can't or don't control their weight. /end rant
Some people have to work harder than others to learn. There are plenty of learning disabilities and perfectly good reasons why someone may not be intelligent. That doesn't mean we need to make endless accommodations for stupid people. I understand the need for EVERYONE to have proper medical treatment but i don't see the argument when it comes to companies like department stores and airlines.
Amen to that! I think it's all a matter of treating people with the respect and dignity they deserve as human beings. When I hear about someone at a restaurant being snidely told, "You going to eat ALL that?" it hurts me deeply. Sure, I had self-image problems throughout my teenage years (like most people) and was judgmental toward obese people (like a lot of people). I feel like at a point you grow out of that and accept people just as they are. A lot of people who are very overweight have conditions or are extremely depressed and the depression hampers their weight loss efforts. Perhaps a better acceptance of people would be better encouragement.
Right, because everyone can EASILY take 4 months out of their lives and go to a camp where their diet is completely controlled and they have 2 Nazi trainers who push them relentlessly to exercise and on top of that be motivated by a 1 in 10 chance at winning $250k.
It's funny how America is full of people with fattening medical conditions. The rest of the world seems to be blissfully unaffected by it. No one is saying to refuse medical services to people. You guys take it to the extreme to show how hateful the world is to you. It just seems that nowadays the pendulum has swung from heroin chic of the 80s to big girls are great of the 2000s. You guys are pushing so that this is okay. Well, you know what? It's not okay. It's not normal.
Wrong...because it shows that people have control over their own weight. (note, this is the only part of my post that is a response to you moes...the rest is "general") If you smoke - you must deal with the consequences. If you drink - you must deal with the consequences. If you get fat - you must deal with the consequences. I can understand feeling hurt because somebody says "you're going to eat all that" or "you need to go to the zoo for an MRI"...because fat people still deserve to be treated with respect, especially at a hospital or restaurant (businesses that obviously benefit by having overweight people around). With that said, I'm tired of the complaints that "I simply can't lose weight"... ...if you have a thyroid problem, take synthroid. ...if you have a low metabolism, eat healthier and exercise more. ...and if you say you only eat healthy food, exercise plenty, and simply can't lose a pound then STOP LYING and actually face your problem. You know the kind of world we live in. I don't think it's "right" for people to poke fun at fat people, but you still had better know that you're making yourself a target if you choose to live this way. If you would prefer to not put in the effort to lose weight, then realize that you are also choosing to be ridiculed at times, choosing to not be able to fit into certain chairs, and choosing to be treated as somebody who is different. It's your choice.
I tend to agree with this, but there are other factors as well. Nutrition and nutritional awareness in the US is abysmal. Here's the pattern: Go out to eat: buy and eat processed crap. Go to the store to shop for food: buy and eat processed crap. For example: I have reactions to MSG. It's not the easiest thing in the world to eat cheaply and healthily and avoid MSG. It's also not the easiest thing in the world to memorize all the various kinds of MSG so that you know what to look out for. Not everyone has nutritional knowledge. Insurance companies don't pay for nutritional consultation. Fortunately for me, I used to work with several registered dietitians so I have more knowledge than most, but it doesn't make it easier when you're in school and on a tight budget. Anyone who knows anything about the subject will tell you it's a combination of exercise and nutrition. There's a bunch of factors involved here is all I'm saying. I'm about 6'0" and 190lbs, for the record.
I agree. My point is... look at the responses in the thread. 'I know I'm overweight, but I don't got time to do anything about it. I got better things to do.' It's basically, 'We're here. It's normal. Deal with it. Everyone else deal with it... but me. You... change the MRI machine. You... make that airplane seat bigger. You... pay for my bariatric surgery. Me? I got no time focus on that crap.'
well wouldn't the world be such a better place if everyone was as motivated and skinny as you. There are some of us have to eat healthy and exercise just to not gain weight, much less lose it. Nothing pisses me off more than skinny people talking about how easy it is to stay skinny. People are different, Not everyone can just fit comfortably into a nice lifestyle making the same sacrificies. People are raised differently than you. Some people have never been taught as a kid what they should and shouldn't eat. Others are just ignorant. Now if you have the facts in front of you, I'm not saying it isn't your fault. Ultimately you are accountable for your own condition assuming you don't have some unfortunate medical problem. You can't say those people on The Biggest Loser who have control over their weight could have done that by themselves. If you do you are a moron. Those people are basically taken out of their lives and brainwashed for 4 months until they don't know how to do anything else. Just like a ****ing boot camp. That is what it takes for most of us who aren't mentally able to commit ourselves every single day. I gained weight as a teen despite playing sports every day. I cut out drinking sodas and lost a great deal of it. My older step brother was 6 foot 1, 160 pounds. He ate the ****tiest food, and drank 4 liters of Mountain Dew (not kidding) every day of his life well into his early 30s and has never gained an ounce. You think I like being overweight? I ****ing hate it. I hate myself. I hate myself every time I look in the ****ing mirror. I think "wow I'm a ****ing ******" Do you know what that is like? **** you and your self-righteous skinny-person bull****.
