The other thing is, again, it's a tricky situation because so many Americans are overweight in terms of health/medical standards.

So I *do* get annoyed when someone who is clearly overweight (beauty standards aside) says "I'm happy with how I look".  That's great, but are you happy with your blood pressure, blood fat levels and risk of diabetes and arthritis (etc.)?

I say this as someone who grew up fat. I eventually lost the fat and got into eating healthy and lifting weights (although I've had my fluctations over time), so I have both great sympathy/empathy and a lack of patience for the "it's ok to be fat" attitude. I should say my sympathy/empathy is regarding how damn hard it is to avoid calorie dense, tasty foods, for so many reasons.


by Tom Hanc on 04/09/2009 10:01:45 PM EST

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Myself being metabolically very old-fashioned and having experienced the range from BMI 19 to BMI 31 have a general idea what you're talking about ;).

Given an adequate Lean/Fat Mass Ratio which often cannot be seen with the naked eye, even if the body is naked, people are generally healthy in that respect. I would not try to predict any biomarkers and risk factors (except joint degradation) for them or denigrate life styles they exhibit.

Of course there are the clinically obese "human food-feces converters" (yeah, I'm a bad guy) where it is physically impossible an adequate amount of lean mass is buried under those flabby expanses... but i digress. And also, that is a pathological condition and I denounce and reject any prior cynical expressions made.

As a sidenote i might add that, if the economic system demands unrestrained growth, who can blame the lower cast people lacking real opportunities to expand the only thing they have the power to do so? But I digress again... ;).

by eborujion on 04/10/2009 11:15:36 AM EST

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