Hey guys!

Yeah there are a lot of minor health problems associated with unhealthiness (because I don't agree with the term "overweight"). When I started getting out of shape I had sleep problems and had a real problem with energy during the day. I was miserable. It's a horrible way to live, and has tertiary effects. Having no energy ledas to stress which leads to other problems, etc etc. A lot of people don't realize just what kinds of problems they're causing through general lack of good health.
 
basilmunroe said:
I found out I was overweight. Instead of getting defensive about it, I changed my lifestyle (not drastically, but enough). Now, I feel pretty good all the time, whereas two weeks ago, I had chronic digestion problems and much less energy.
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I'm not being defensive. It's factual. If you look at a guy like, say, Jerome Bettis, who ways probably 260 pounds (and it definitely isn't all muscle), but he is in prime health, he can probably run 5 miles before breaking a sweat and he could probably shot put using a Honda Civic. Is HE overweight? Yes. Does it matter at all? No.
 
I'm simply talking about excess fat. And just because a man can do feats of strength or endurance doesn't mean anything as far as health is concerned. Many athletes, BECAUSE of their intensive training and "power" diets are at serious risk of heart problems. Just last week there was a 20-something hockey player whose heart stopped spontaneously while he was sitting on the bench after a shift. The guy is a world class athlete - and yet his heart went AWOL.

The human body demands a delicate balance of input and output, excess or deficiency on either end of that delicate fulcrum can be fatal. Everyone could be living to past 100 years, but we sacrifice that for fast food, automobiles, and laziness.
 
There was also that pro football player who died not long ago. I don't think they stated a definitive cause, yet, but there was some speculation that it involved his body type/size.

My dad is a surgeon. The clinic where he works wanted to start doing a beriatric program and they wanted him to be involved. My dad was not overtly excited about the prospect, he has told me enough stories of his regular patients straining the operating tables and such, but he heard them out as it had some advantages over his current situation. I could write a book on his current situation, but that is another time. He told me that for the process to be truly successful, there is an entire regiment of programs that the patient needs to be involved in after the surgery is done. There is all sorts of counseling: mental, exercise, and dietary. While he did not become involved with the program, if it even exists at his clinic today, I was very surprised at the number of professionals that needed to be a part of the process for it to be a success.

There is also a brilliant Chris Rock bit that was a part of Bring the Pain.

"Did you know that America is the only country in the world that makes people feel bad for being fat? People are starving all over the world. You become fat somewhere else, people are like 'Damn, how did you do that? I'm gonna start hanging with you. You think you're all bad with your fatass. I'm gonna put on some weight and we gonna hang."
 
basilmunroe said:
I'm simply talking about excess fat. And just because a man can do feats of strength or endurance doesn't mean anything as far as health is concerned. Many athletes, BECAUSE of their intensive training and "power" diets are at serious risk of heart problems. Just last week there was a 20-something hockey player whose heart stopped spontaneously while he was sitting on the bench after a shift. The guy is a world class athlete - and yet his heart went AWOL.
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He didn't have a heart attack, or anything like that. He has a heart abnormality resulting from the thickness of his heart being too great. It's a birth defect. Not preventable.

And the football player died from a heat stroke on top of a heart defect because he was practicing in a California summer.
 
Dan Savage has a really good part in his book Skipping Towards Gommorah about being fat. he actually wentto a fat person get toegther, where fat people hook up. It's pretty bizarre. But yeah, he talks about how being fat has historically been a positive thing, and it's not actually the fat that we're averse to. It's the subtext.

A few hundred years ago, only weathly people could get fat. So if you saw someone fat, you assumed they had money, and it was a prestige thing. Today, fat means poor, and thw ealthy people are all trying to be thin or in shape. It's a wierd role reversal based on our diet and the availability of food. It's an "i'm better than you are" kind of thing. people who can afford to own exercise equipment and have a gym membership, and who are well enoughg off that they have the free time to work out, have bodies that we find appealing. People who are poor have bodies we don't. It's a really remarkable concept.
 
Well, I'm not discussing an image or class issue here. I never once said anything about fat-loss relating to looking better, or being better fundamentally.

All I'm talking about is minimizing the risk of health problems in the future. A low-sugar, lean, unprocessed diet and a little excercise a couple of times a week will lead to a much longer, healthier life than what the average person has (this is because the average person eats terribly and isn't active at all).

Anyhow, we can get off this topic now, I didn't want to launch a debate, I just wanted to encourage people to think a little more about what they put into their bodies and what it means for their health.
 
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