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My rant on overweight justification in America

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Orayn

Member
Stet said:
Well, they used to be right. The backlash over people wanting models to be too skinny was justified, but now people confuse "healthy weight" with "overweight."
Individuals can potentially be underweight or have some excess body fat without their health suffering for it. Which looks nicer or should be socially acceptable is a subjective thing that you can argue about on your own time.
 
ToxicAdam said:
America doesn't have an obesity problem, they have a depression and anxiety problem.

In the past, our grandparents would self-medicate with drink, smokes and drugs. Now that we have made all of those things more expensive and scarce we are self-medicating with food. Copious amounts of cheap, sugary, processed food.

Kill Ronald McDonald and bring back the Marlboro Man!
 

Kraftwerk

Member
Not trying to sound like a dick, but being fat is very unhealthy. I know a few girls who posted this on picture facebook and emailed it to other.

xHJS2.jpg


Really? You spend hours putting on make-up and fixing your hair, but obviously you don't care about how you look? Also, it's not as if the Rolling Stones magazine is any different than vogue these days. It's all the same shit.

"I hate exercise"

"My goal in life is to never be skinny"

Please stop spewing crap, making other girl justify being overweight. You don't have to be Nichole Richie skinny. You can be moderate and healthy, and eat nearly anything you want.
It's ironic that she states that she doesn't care about how she looks, but is spending all her energy making sure she never loses weight.

There are ton of other famous people who say such idiotic things.

And before you call me an asshole, I love curvy women myself. But everything has a limit.
 
I'm overweight but I don't make excuses for my size. I eat far more than I should and don't exercise regularly. I don't expect people to avoid saying things about my weight to keep from hurting my feelings. I don't think anyone should be expected to do that. If anything I'd rather people be open with me about their concern in regards to my weight. It would make me feel like my friends and family actually give a shit about my health.

Most Americans are far more concerned about hurting someones feelings than they are about that person eating themselves to an early grave. It's sad really. Americans are incredibly nonchalant about the obesity problem in the country. I'd love to see presidential hopefuls asked about their position and possible action on the obesity problem.

ruxtpin said:
There's a chick at my work who was attempting to gain enough weight to be eligible for gastric bypass surgery.

hmm

.......... wow.
 

andycapps

Member
I don't really have a problem with anything you said in the OP. I was fairly overweight about 6 months to a year ago. When I say overweight I'm talking about being 6'1" and 225.I pretty much made a decision that I was done being that way and looking in the mirror and wishing I was as small as when I was 18 (10 years past that). Wishing that instead of going up a size in jeans several times since then, that I could fit in the same jeans.

So I did P90X and started to eat better. I didn't stick religiously to the diet plan, but did all the workouts and ate much less sugar/carbs and ate more protein. After P90X I wanted to do more cardio to really lose my gut and drop more pants sizes. I've definitely improved a ton in how much cardio I can do and I've lost one pants size, and am close to dropping down one more which will put me at where I was when I was 18.

So losing the weight is 10 times harder than it is when I was eating ice cream almost every night, and eating tons of empty carbs and sugars constantly. Insanity sucks, hard. Running sucks. But I feel a lot better on a daily basis not only about myself but my body feels much better. That and I'm at much lower risk of diabetes and other diseases if I can workout regularly, maintain good shape, and eat well. I'm now at 208. Not a huge change on the scale, but a huge change in the mirror. Lot of that fat has been converted, and is still being converted to muscle. My BMI was in the overweight side before, I should be getting close to being in my normal range now, or in the next 3 months.

gcubed said:
anything that uses BMI is bullshit

Pretty much. However, as far as a standard goes, it's about as good as you're going to get provided that you're using the correct tools to measure it and not just plugging your height and weight into an online calculator. Still, it doesn't take into account your body type or anything.
 

Fritz

Member
It's not only the XXL meals but also the sheer amount of processed food.

The key is fresh ingredients and normal portions and no sodas.
 
spidye said:
bad character? what about people who went through abuse, and therefore fell in obesity. believe me most of them don't have a "bad" character.

Yeah, it's comments like those that raise my eyebrows in threads like these.

Clearly, we as a nation should get our shit together in this regard because, yeah, everyone being unhealthy isn't something we should strive for.

But labeling someone as having bad character is where I draw the line on these kind of things. It's not exactly constructive to immediately judge someone like that.
 

Orayn

Member
Fritz said:
It's not only the XXL meals but also the sheer amount of processed food.

The key is fresh ingredients and normal portions and no sodas.
I think processed food being unhealthy is a matter of correlation, rather than causation.
 
Chiave said:
You are what you eat. Aesthetics aside, being a fatty means poor health in general. And I'm not going to lie, fat women tend to piss me off.

Really until you become obese being overweight does not affect your health negatively,and really what are the special health benefits of being 150lb instead of 160lb,and will a 160lb person who drops to 150lb get those special benefits?
 

ghst

thanks for the laugh
you only have to sit through one live american tv network stream on justin.tv and suddenly the whole puzzle slides into place.

i don't know of any other country in the world whose tv food advertisements so overtly preach about the fucking size of their food. even in the uk, the wheezing fat kid of europe, the idea of a restaurant charging into battle under the standard of "WE GONNA GIVE YOUR MORE FOOD THAN THE OTHER GUY" is crass to the point of market suicide.

i think there's a general consensus in the majority of other western nations that when you go out to get a meal, it will probably fill you up. like, it's a given. the fringe percentage of lardassses that would be swayed by the promise of an extra three patties on their burger are simply not worth quarrying, yet in america, these folk seem to be the very fulcrum of the demographic.
 

jorma

is now taking requests
Guzim said:
If you were to talk to a lot of GAFers here in the U.S., you would find out that they see models everyday working in the grocery store or McDonald's.

plus-size modeling does not sound financially rewarding if they need a second job at mcd as well.
 

ScOULaris

Member
Kraftwerk said:
Please stop spewing crap, making other girl justify being overweight. You don't have to be Nichole Richie skinny. You can be moderate and healthy, and eat nearly anything you want.
This. People convince themselves that the only way to stay at a healthy weight is to eat raw lettuce and run 10 miles a day. By pretending that the solution is so extreme, it helps them justify not attempting to get in shape. Tons of healthy foods taste great, and you can still eat junk once in a while in moderation if it's that important to you. Fuckin' people, man.

PS - Adele could stand to lose a few pounds. ;)
 

Xena

Member
Chiave said:
You are what you eat. Aesthetics aside, being a fatty means poor health in general. And I'm not going to lie, fat women tend to piss me off.
And fat men don't?
 
Kraftwerk said:
Not trying to sound like a dick, but being fat is very unhealthy. I know a few girls who posted this on picture facebook and emailed it to other.

xHJS2.jpg


Really? You spend hours putting on make-up and fixing your hair, but obviously you don't care about how you look? Also, it's not as if the Rolling Stones magazine is any different than vogue these days. It's all the same shit.

"I hate exercise"

"My goal in life is to never be skinny"

Please stop spewing crap, making other girl justify being overweight. You don't have to be Nichole Richie skinny. You can be moderate and healthy, and eat nearly anything you want.
It's ironic that she states that she doesn't care about how she looks, but is spending all her energy making sure she never loses weight.

There are ton of other famous people who say such idiotic things.

And before you call me an asshole, I love curvy women myself. But everything has a limit.

to be fair most girls who post this picture are a lot fatter than the picture
 

Ellis Kim

Banned
Oh my god, she really let herself go there D: Its kind of hilariously frightening to the point of parody.

As for the OP, I agree, but at the same time, there are a lot of factors to consider, and its not just about "blaming society." Even without touching the biological aspect of things, I like to believe that the cause of at least 20% of obesity in America (and mind you, I'm pulling this percentage out of my ass here) can be correlated to the hollow consumerist culture that we find ourselves in. We are less happy, so we consume more. Its an issue of personal intrinsic satisfaction with life and holistic lifestyles versus a lack of those things. It doesn't help that the socio-economic situation is such that the cheapest food also happens to be the worst food for your body (i.e. fast food, ramen, etc) in urban sprawls. McDonalds holds a monopoly on this for most western countries, and this not counting certain minor outlaying countries where labor and resources are such that to-order burgers and raw ingredients are cheaper than importing the chemical garbage that we'd find stateside, making their McDonalds ironically healthier than not.
 

Orayn

Member
CrazyDogg77 said:
Really until you become obese being overweight does not affect your health negatively,and really what are the special health benefits of being 150lb instead of 160lb,and will a 160lb person who drops to 150lb get those special benefits?
This too. If an individual's weight isn't causing them health problems, you're bitching about aesthetics more than anything.
 

Stet

Banned
Orayn said:
Individuals can potentially be underweight or have some excess body fat without their health suffering for it. Which looks nicer or should be socially acceptable is a subjective thing that you can argue about on your own time.
As an underweight individual I agree. But looking back at the late '90s, you can't possibly tell me that runway models looked at all healthy. There was a pervasive pressure towards an unhealthy lifestyle that has only recently started to turn around, and that affected society's viewpoints on normalcy. But like I was saying, the awareness campaign worked too well. Instead of normal people being the targets, overweight people adopted it and now "this is what a real woman looks like" is some kind of depraved slogan promoting excess and a lack of self control.
 

daviyoung

Banned
dreamcastmaster said:
I drink because I'm unhappy, I'm unhappy because I drink.

Addiction can be many things.

It would have to be 'I'm drunk' or 'I eat' for that analogy to work.

Anyway, that's not the point. The point is: fat people should be jolly.
 

Marleyman

Banned
ScOULaris said:
This. People convince themselves that the only way to stay at a healthy weight is to eat raw lettuce and run 10 miles a day. By pretending that the solution is so extreme, it helps them justify not attempting to get in shape. Tons of healthy foods taste great, and you can still eat junk once in a while in moderation if it's that important to you. Fuckin' people, man.

PS - Adele could stand to lose a few pounds. ;)

Sorry dude, but some people need to go on diets that are extreme to get their weight down. Each human body is different and some react differently to food intake.
 
spidye said:
bad character? what about people who went through abuse, and therefore fell in obesity. believe me most of them don't have a "bad" character.
What the fuck is this?

Jesus I hope you're not for real.

Marleyman said:
No it isn't.
Again, uneducated or undisciplined. Take your pick.
 

Mael

Member
B_Rik_Schitthaus said:
What? is she hiding behind the hippo wearing a wig?

Well you can put lipstick on pig....

Seriously fat people are not better or worse than other people, they're just fatter.
That sucks that they drive up the health cost but seriously they suffer enough as it is....or well they won't for long as they tend to live shorter lives.
 
I can't tell whether or not people are serious in this topic or not.

I mean let's completely ignore the issue of obesity for a minute. You got poster here judging an entire population based on a TV show that is practically based on what society thinks is "good-looking." You mean to tell me that fat people don't exist in Argentina? I can't tell whether angelcage is trolling, completely thickheaded, or some combination of both.

I mean... god. At least freakin' creepy-gaf admits their own creepiness. I can't believe people can be this stupid.
 
Orayn said:
This too. If an individual's weight isn't causing them health problems, you're bitching about aesthetics more than anything.

Plus when aesthetics come into play that really is a cultural matter as far as what society deems acceptable or desirable which hurts the op's argument that society does not play a role.
 
D

Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
CrazyDogg77 said:
So what you're cramped for 5-6 hours at most usually.
someone never flew to NZ from europe.

I realise that the OP is referring to US, but judgement of fatties isn't unique to US.

Also, it's unhealthy and it's OK to take a dim view of unhealthy shit, smoking, excessive drinking uncontrolled drug use, it's ok to judge people for this stuff, why not excessive eating? Control yourselves for fucks sake, it's disgusting.
 

Marleyman

Banned
Hari Seldon said:
I have a belly entirely because I drink beer and work in a cubicle.

Sitting in a cubicle sucks if you are trying to lose weight. I try to stand as much as possible at work but I still don't do that enough.
 

Akkad

Banned
NotebookJ2 said:
I can't tell whether or not people are serious in this topic or not.

I mean let's completely ignore the issue of obesity for a minute. You got poster here judging an entire population based on a TV show that is practically based on what society thinks is "good-looking." You mean to tell me that fat people don't exist in Argentina? I can't tell whether angelcage is trolling, completely thickheaded, or some combination of both.

I mean... god. At least freakin' creepy-gaf admits their own creepiness. I can't believe people can be this stupid.

This is GAF man, people here really are that stupid and hateful.
 
that aguilera pic is absolutely astonishing. how does an entourage of presumably not inconsiderable size allow that to happen?

i basically agree with the OP, though i probably wouldn't word it that particularly against america. sure, it's nothing like the shock i get upon visiting the US, but living in east asia as i do now, i'm still pretty taken aback in the same way when i go back to the UK. it's just decadent western lifestyles in general rather than a specifically US thing (though it's obviously more prevalent there), and the important point is that there really shouldn't be any apologists for it wherever you are.
 

jmdajr

Member
Orayn said:
This too. If an individual's weight isn't causing them health problems, you're bitching about aesthetics more than anything.

I think lots of people wished they were JUST 10 pounds overweight
 

Davidion

Member
jon bones said:
fuck it!

and fuck fat people too, cant stand em

Harsh and unfair. Total Wall street guy though, hahaha.

I really wish the conversation on obesity in this country would take on a more realistic turn. Hopefully the exercise kicks that I've seen gaining popularity will proliferate more.
 

jmdajr

Member
Orayn said:
Overweight by what standard, anyway? BMI is almost completely useless.

By the you can't see your dick standard..

Yeah BMI is useless for people that are in great shape. Who is talking about them?
 
Portion control is vital.

I grew up in a family that was like "Buffet! We need to get the most for our money, so eat up!"

Half my family (including me) was still fairly skinny, but still...
 

Spacebar

Member
My biggest problem with some fat people is just the flat out lazy excuses they make. Every year in my office we do a biggest loser contest. I volunteer to join and put my money down despite me being 5'7 and 170lbs. I don't even need to lose any weight, but I try to motivate people in my office by offering to walk around the office park at lunch time with them. Guess who takes up on that offer? No one! Every time I ask a co worker they say..."ohh it's too hot today", or "ohh I didn't bring the right shoes".

The worst part is the girl who runs the biggest loser contest basically just stops eating for a couple months to lose the weight while she knows everyone else will just give up. Then she will start eating again after the competition. I just gave up after the 2nd biggest loser contest.

I also hate when fat people start up a convo on losing weight and don't do shit. They always have some bull shit excuse like..."I have a thyroid problem", or "My metabolism got messed up". What's even more entertaining is when they come up with some shit I've never even heard of, yet they continue to go to McDoanlds every day for lunch.

What is worse is that whenever ANY kind of lifting needs to be done around the office they come directly to me because they all know I work out. This is even to get a little box of paper for a printer. We even have fucking carts to carry the shit on. I mean c'mon son you're telling me you can walk around and shit, but you can't lift a 20lb box? I tried to fight it and say I'm not going to help you, but my boss who also has a big gut yelled at me to help.

Being fat is not a disability and stop making excuses for yourself. If you really want to lose weight and control your health I'm with you. Not all fat people are lazy as shit, but from my experience a lot of them are.
 

ScOULaris

Member
ErnieMcCracken said:
Fat is contagious... Choose your friends wisely.
Great quote from that article:

“You change your idea of what is an acceptable body type by looking at the people around you,” Dr. Christakis said.
That's basically what I am trying to say needs to stop in America. The average American is overweight, but that does not make it NORMAL or ACCEPTABLE.
 

ZAK

Member
ghst said:
you only have to sit through one live american tv network stream on justin.tv and suddenly the whole puzzle slides into place.
I had to read this several times before I realized it said "puzzle" and not "pizza."

I don't even like pizza.
 
Having body fat isn't a huge problem at all at long as healthy diet, exercise not obese etc. Being underweight is more of an issue since it indicates malnourishment.
 

markatisu

Member
I am fat because I eat the wrong things and don't exercise and fuck all you self righteous people who think we need excuses or don't realize what's going on

I know exactly why, I know what I can do to fix it, I just don't and if that makes you unhappy then too damn bad
 
Kraftwerk said:
Not trying to sound like a dick, but being fat is very unhealthy. I know a few girls who posted this on picture facebook and emailed it to other.

http://i.imgur.com/xHJS2.jpg[IMG]

Really? You spend hours putting on make-up and fixing your hair, but obviously you don't care about how you look? Also, it's not as if the Rolling Stones magazine is any different than vogue these days. It's all the same shit.

"I hate exercise"

"My goal in life is to never be skinny"

Please stop spewing crap, making other girl justify being overweight. You don't have to be Nichole Richie skinny. You can be moderate and healthy, and eat nearly anything you want.
It's ironic that she states that she doesn't care about how she looks, but is spending all her energy making sure she never loses weight.

There are ton of other famous people who say such idiotic things.

And before you call me an asshole, I love curvy women myself. But everything has a limit.[/QUOTE]

That Adele meme pic fuckin annoys the hell out of me
 
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