Posted on 10/24/2010 1:55:30 AM PDT by Cronos
At 285 pounds and 5 feet 7 inches, I may not be the tallest, but I am almost always one of the biggest passengers on a plane. That’s “one of”: as anyone with even the most tangential relationship with news headlines over the last several years knows, Americans are getting fatter and fatter.
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“How many kilos you weigh?” asked a customs officer at Ho Chi Minh Airport when I visited Vietnam a few years ago.
“Is that a question on the form?” I responded, slightly unnerved.
Smiling, she told me no. She was apparently just curious.
After giving me the once-over, she giggled and advised me to avoid riding in the local hand-pulled rickshaws, as my size could force them to tip over.
(Excerpt) Read more at travel.nytimes.com ...
“...cause of one too many pieces of cake,...”
Only in the US - where people have forgotten the importance of cooking a meal - making sure it’s healthy - and not relying on someone to fix it all tasty like in a box - for a microwave...
I’m sorry - but 20 yrs ago - one did not see the amount of over sized people that one sees today - be it lazy - over eating - or just thinking - I’m free and I deserve this and as much as I want mentality - there’s no excuses.
I’ve been to many gyms and met people that were over weight - “were over weight” - but they changed their eating habits and took responsibility for their weight - they made no excuses and dealt with it - what ever the trigger was that put them there in the first place...
I’m concerned - because of the PT standards in the military might be lowered to accommodate the plus size soldiers - that is a NATIONAL SECURITY PROBLEM to me...
Nitehawk, thanks for your service.
Looking at the statistics on corporate promotion. Tall execs out number short execs by about 100 to 1. The bias in society in your favor surely out weighs any minor inconvenience on your part while flying. SHeesh. Tall whiners.....
Chinese women can also be quite free with observations and advice.
There are quite a few Chinese women at the health club I go to. They most swim for exercise.
A friend, admittedly obese, was approached by a couple of them at the club and given advice on losing weight.
She looked at them with a stunned expression and said, “I’m fat?? Who knew?”
They don’t seem to have the boundaries that keep most of us from making personal remarks about another’s appearance.
Tallness is a rough visual marker for brains. Tall people on average have bigger brains and higher IQs.
BMI...here is all anyone needs to know: there is no distinction made between sexes. No adjustment made for different wrist size, for example, to accommodate a different frame. Just height and weight.
If I ever have a doctor mention BMI to me, I will call him an incompetent idiot to his face & walk out. I’m 5’8” and 170 lbs...BMI 25.8, overweight. Which is true, sort of, but if I lost 15 lbs, I’d be ripped.
If I weighed 125 lbs, I’d be “normal” - except I HAVE weighed 125 before, after a long sickness. I looked like a cadaver.
As it is, I run 4 miles/day, 3-4 days/week. I ride horses, haul bales of hay, etc. I don’t want to look like a corpse. I don’t want scrawny arms that can’t lift a hay bale, or walk around with no energy to do anything.
BMI is stupid. My son was adopted from the Philippines. He is 5’2”, and his shoulders are wider than mine. I had a co-worker who was a Filipino. He was 5’10” and his shoulders were about 2/3 the width of mine. Any weight standard that doesn’t attempt to measure the frame is obviously grossly inaccurate...the sort of thing only a government idiot would approve.
On fatness, I have never met a fatty (with or without a doctor's note) who avoided sweets, white carbs, restaurant junk, and processed foods, and who did at least a little exercise a couple times a week.
I have sympathy for those who have injuries that prevent them from walking, because it means they don't enjoy (or need) the pleasure of eating much.
I'm convinced that obesity is 80% diet, 19% exercise, and 1% medical luck.
If anyone wants me to believe that “metabolism” or hormones change the laws of science, explain how humans came to extract all nutrition from their food, while the special cases somehow extract more nutrients than there is in food, so they can store it as fat. The reality is that your ailment makes you choose to overeat and not exercise, but you can still choose (no matter how hard) to take control.
Yes, one still chooses how much one eats and can control that and the exercise (or lack of it)
That is metabolically true. And, effective.
I suppose, that they are exhasted.
For instnae. I have always done physical work, for work. Most of my friends are educated office dwellers. On the week ends, they want to get out and ‘do’ something. Me? I want to sit down and do nothing.
Fatties feel that they are in a work out, all the time. They are, or feel they are, exhausted.
Depending on their cardio vascular system, they may well be exhausted, or maxed out.
Regardless of fat, their body is signaling that they are a heart beat away from stroke ville, and to sit down. So, doing even more, may be, at a deeper level to them, against their body signals.
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