[Darius]

They call it an epidemic...an EPIDEMIC, like it's POLIO or something. </quote>

5 years ago I was in the same boat, trying to gain weight. Just let age do it's thing. Now that I'm nearing my mid 20's, I'm approaching normal weight for someone my height.

[aldo_14]

Who could have guessed this group was full of skinny guys.

Haha you beat me to it.

It's a bit ironic that a supposed group of "computer nerds" who sit, well, in front of their computers all day are anything but fat.

That's because computer nerds only drink Diet Coke and eat nothing else (unless they have a computer within arms-length of food)

[Scooby_Doo]

Who could have guessed this group was full of skinny guys.

Haha you beat me to it.

It's a bit ironic that a supposed group of "computer nerds" who sit, well, in front of their computers all day are anything but fat.

That's because computer nerds only drink Diet Coke and eat nothing else (unless they have a computer within arms-length of food)

That would be me LOL  or more like food within arms-length of the computer.

[Flipside]

I wish they'd hurry up and invent Energy to Matter conversion, you could download tacos

[Scooby_Doo]

HAHAH and then you'd get the GSA after you (Grocery Stores of America) for downloading free food LOL

[Windrunner]

Who could have guessed this group was full of skinny guys.

Haha you beat me to it.

It's a bit ironic that a supposed group of "computer nerds" who sit, well, in front of their computers all day are anything but fat.

Goes to show about stereotypes!

I even sit infront of a computer all day at work too...its worse on my back, eyes, and wrists than my weight.  Gotta keep active tho...

i agree. i sit in front of the computer all day at my job to. But i use tricks so that i don't get backache. We can lift up our office tables by and automatic lift so that i stand for about an half an hour to one hour in the morning and the afternon. We have a big office so i try to go to someone i have to contact instead of sending an email. But i also work out in a gym so i am no worried about getting fat

[SadisticSid]

The World Health Organisation says more than a billion people -- nearly one in six of the world's population -- are overweight, outnumbering the 800 million who are under-nourished.

Bring the two groups together, give the under-nourished guns, and legalise cannibalism. Problem solved.

[Windrunner]

The World Health Organisation says more than a billion people -- nearly one in six of the world's population -- are overweight, outnumbering the 800 million who are under-nourished.

Bring the two groups together, give the under-nourished guns, and legalise cannibalism. Problem solved.

you are not called "SadisticSid" for nothing

[Scuddie]

I wonder why there are standards that focus to generalize everyone to follow specific categories.  Is it  unhealthy to have excess body fat?  Generally yes.  Always?  Hell ****ing no.  Consider me,  24 years old, weighs 350lbs, measures 6'4, 46" waste, 35% body fat.  The vast majority would consider this disgusting.  However, there is more to it than simple BMI scale, which IMO is total horse****.

I eat 1800-2400 calories per day, and I prefer healthy over greasy.  I can lift 220lbs with my arms or 500lbs with my legs, which is in addition to my own weight, not inclusive.  My active duty blood pressure is 125/90 and resting pressure at 115/75.  I can move large pieces of furniture by myself when a pair of two have trouble.  Walking distance is limited only by my flat feet (ow!).  I can cycle for miles without getting too tired.  I've been solicited more than once by my college's football coach to try for center position.  I'm regularly asked if I'm the bouncer whenever I'm at a bar.  This doesnt fit the 'standard' profile of someone my size, now does it...  So the question is, why do I weigh 350lbs?  Three reasons, all of which are physical.  

First of which is that I'm a survivor of a may-as-well-be near miscarriage, and I had many difficulties in my earlier development.  One such difficulty is overall dyspraxia.  It wouldn't be wrong to say it is similar to a mild form of Cerebral Palsy.  My gross motor development is significantly hindered by this complication, and as a result I am slow and clumbsy, which itself leads to low metabolism.  Thank god my fine motor development was well above average.

Secondly, I have a rare blood hemoglobin type, known as LAC Hemoglobin.  This is due to someodd mutation during fetal growth.  It is similar to Hemo C, but with a few differences I dont know or care about.  But it causes an atypical shortage of blood cells...  In a simple word, anemia...  I also have thallasemic anemia, which further complicates things.  My blood cell count is approx 60% of an average person my size.  This too contributes to a slowed metabolism.

The final reason I am how I am is just because I choose to be built this way.  I was born 2 weeks premature, and I was announced at 11lbs 14 oz.  The doctor said I was gonna be huge.  However, as I was growing up, I was smaller than anyone you'd ever see for my age.  In primary school, I was unable to perform physical activity.  Even the smallest amount of activity would knock the wind out of me.  In 8th grade, an assistant bus driver asked me if I was lost.  I was small, weak, and barely able to hold my own weight...  That is until I finally got my growth spurt and grew both up and out.  In 3 years, I gained about a foot in height, and 200lbs in weight.  After that, I was large, as well as strong.  And it's always been my idea that I'd rather be large and strong than small and weak.

In short, I'm healthier as a big guy than I am as a small guy.  So forgive me if I take the 'if you are this tall, your optimal weight is this' rule as a very generic grain of salt.

[aldo_14]

Well, it is - or should be by now - pretty well known that BMI is only a very rough estimation (for example, a lot of top rugby players would be classified as obese under BMI IIRC, simply due to muscle mass).  But it's only really used (AFAIK - or rather, I'd expect) as a rough, population average indicator anyways; if someones being diagnosed for medical treatment for obesity or malnourishment, I'm pretty sure the doctor uses per-patient methods, not a rough BMI calculation, when giving actual treatment advice.  In any case, i'm reasonably sure if you take a population in the thousands, and use BMI, it gives a relatively accurate method to estimate weight 'levels' across that population when compared to the other options.

(My BMI is approx  22.69; I have no idea if that's an accurate reflection or not of my actual physical condition, but it's more or less dead middle anyways)

I don't think there's any unfairness to say that it's bad to be obese when it's entirely down to your own volition, though.  One of my best friends at uni had medical problems which caused - due to medication - weight gain.  That's fair enough; but when someone does it simply through being sedentary (as I once did) and eating badly, then I don't think they have any excuse or justification for it and deserve criticism.  Especially in the UK, where it costs the average person money (due to the NHS treatment costs incurred due to their unhealthiness).

 In terms of size-weight-etc issues, I think there are general 'guidelines' on preferred fat levels for a very good reason; high fat levels are often indicative of a diet and lifestyle that leads to medical problems. Generally speaking, I think it's a safe statement that people within a recommended weight and fat percentage are more likely to be healthy than those who are either under or overweight.

[Descenterace]

an0n is partly right, though. Clinical depression is a real illness, but there's a lot of people out there who don't have it but use it as an excuse. Medication won't help them, but a swift kick in the nuts might.

[Fineus]

I'm inclined to agree. Depression may have its placed but I'm fairly sure that there aren't that many depressed people out there.

It seems like one of those things you say because you don't have the balls to admit that you just like eating too much. People don't dare argue with something like depression and appear insensitive, which psychologically reenforces the lie to the fat person. They get affection and encouragement to help their "depression" which makes them feel good, and nobody confronts them about their weight and health issues. So they keep eating... keep telling the same old lie and no doubt start crying the minute anyone says "grow some strength of charachter and stop eating too much, you look disgusting".

It's rather like girls who say they've been raped when they simply got drunk and felt like a quickie that they regretted the next day. Society doesn't dare disagree with them and say "don't get drunk and have cheap sex then, you daft tart" because there's a small chance they might just have been raped.

Perhaps it's time society was taught a bit of responsibility... you eat too much and you will get fat, and no you are not beautiful because of it and there is not "more to love". Similarly if you don't want to have nasty drunken sex with a stranger then don't get so drunk and learn a bit of self control. Yes there are exceptions to the rule, but using their valid reasons as your own excuses only makes you a worse person.

[aldo_14]

It's rather like girls who say they've been raped when they simply got drunk and felt like a quickie that they regretted the next day. Society doesn't dare disagree with them and say "don't get drunk and have cheap sex then, you daft tart" because there's a small chance they might just have been raped.

Dunno about that - have you seen how low the conviction rate is?

Give that I had a friend hospitalized for clinical depression, I'm not ever going to underestimate or hedge my bets on the subject.  Whilst someone may eat 'comfort food' to compensate for the stigma of being obese, at the same time there runs a risk that their ongoing lifestyle can drive to real clinical depression; that's not abdicating responsibility for their weight, but recognising that no physical change can be entirely divorced from the persons emotional and mental state.

[Blaise Russel]

I believe that most people don't really have depression and are merely exploiting what's almost a 'fad' in current society. Same thing for most 'rapes' - a lot of the time, she wanted it, but just doesn't want to deal with it.

As an interesting aside, I recently earned a 2:1 in Unsupported Bullsh*t from the Armchair University of No F*cking Clue.

[Kazan]

I'd really like to know what the hell kind of disease does that... and why in all my 22 years I've never heard its name once.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothyroidism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycystic_ovarian_syndrome#Signs_and_symptoms
to name two i know of

[Kazan]

I'm inclined to agree. Depression may have its placed but I'm fairly sure that there aren't that many depressed people out there.

you'd be suprised how many there are - but not all depressed people fixate on food - my fiancee did but now she's over that and I finally got her working out and shows lost every ounce she put on from her bout of eating disorder.  now she's fighting her polycystic ovarian syndrome weight (her PCOS is being treating, but is rather pernicious)

It seems like one of those things you say because you don't have the balls to admit that you just like eating too much. People don't dare argue with something like depression and appear insensitive, which psychologically reenforces the lie to the fat person. They get affection and encouragement to help their "depression" which makes them feel good, and nobody confronts them about their weight and health issues.

wrong - food fixation in a depressed person is an eating disorder and anyone know whos anything about depression confronts them (ok, admittedly that's doctors and a few people outside that)

So they keep eating... keep telling the same old lie and no doubt start crying the minute anyone says "grow some strength of charachter and stop eating too much, you look disgusting".

that much is often true

It's rather like girls who say they've been raped when they simply got drunk and felt like a quickie that they regretted the next day.

those girls should be shot - because they made it harder for actual rape victims to get believed.  ****ing whores.

Society doesn't dare disagree with them and say "don't get drunk and have cheap sex then, you daft tart" because there's a small chance they might just have been raped.

hahahahahahahhaahahahahahahahahah that's hilarious - society sure as hell does.  apparently it's either really different across the pond, or you're not paying attention.  women have the hardest time proving that they were raped and often getting men to believe them.

Perhaps it's time society was taught a bit of responsibility... you eat too much and you will get fat, and no you are not beautiful because of it and there is not "more to love".

word

Similarly if you don't want to have nasty drunken sex with a stranger then don't get so drunk and learn a bit of self control.

word 2.0

[Herra Tohtori]

I'm inclined to agree. Depression may have its placed but I'm fairly sure that there aren't that many depressed people out there.

The trouble is just that, how to tell the difference? I wouldn't be too swift in judging between depressed and "depressed" people.

According to stats, clinical depression affects ~16% of population somehow at some point in their lifes. That's pretty much, I dare say. And local differences are big between different areas.

Still regardless, many cases of obesity are probably not causally related to actual health issues (other than being a health issue itself and causing other ones...). Finnish people have high depression rates but obesity is not (yet) as common in here as it is in, say, US of A. So the relation is not always clear. Depression is but one of the psychological conditions that can cause obesity as a symptom. There are other physical reasons, too. And it is true that some haven't got this kind of reason at all.

[perihelion]

Kazan, normally you annoy the hell out of me, but that's some interesting info I did not know about.  I had no idea Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome could cause weight problems.  I guess it makes sense in retrospect.  Anything screwing with the ovaries is going to be messing up all kinds of hormone levels (which in turn messes with metabolism and any number of other things).

Almost all of the women in my wife's family have had chronic problems with ovarian cysts, and 3 out of the 4 women in that family are overweight.  One of those is excused because she's on medication (which she needs, she seriously thought she was hearing voices) (NOT my wife!).  The others have been tested for hypothyroidism and came up negative.  They feel horrible about their weight problems and have been doing everything they can short of signing up with the Marines to get it under control.  Seems like all they are able to do is keep their weight from getting any higher.  The doctors have been singularly unhelpful.  "Eat less and exercise more."  ****!  They don't eat any more or differently than me!  I work a desk job and only occasionally get an evening walk in, so all of them are more physically active than I am.  For all that, I'm still the second skinniest person I know (that isn't a chain smoker) and all three of them are unable lose weight.  Now, there's GOT to be some medical reason for that.  Or is my metabolism just that freakishly fast even at 29 years old?

[Kazan]

PCOS is caused by a chain reaction due to insulin insensativity - the insulin insensativity causes the weight gain and supresses proper folicular release from the ovaries, that in turn increases androgen levels so on and so forth - it's one massive feedback loop

---
oh and since she was put onto PCOS treatment she's lost nearly 70lbs - her PCOS got bad after we started dating and she put on a bunch.(she wasn't a skinny thing to begin with, but her personality "makes up" for that)

later this month she's going in to the gyno and going to try and talk her into giving her a copper IUD (they rarely will give unmarried women IUDs because IUD+more than one partner over time increases the risk of some disease) - but being that she will be married in 2 months and i'm going along..  her birth control is supressing libido and I suspect that is because it's reinforcing the hyperandrogeny

[perihelion]

I have definitely observed some strongly negative effects of birth control pills or injections on some women, particularly my wife.  She's prone to migrains in the first place, and the most common types of birth control pills caused her to have... well, I think maybe two days out of any given week she would NOT have a migrain while she was on those pills (the progestin-estrogen combo).  That problem thankfully went away once she switched over to progestin-only medication.  She tried pills and injections for progestin only.  Unfortunately, there are quite a few side effects there as well.  As you mention, Kazan, significantly reduced libido, a kind of dull listless depression (not the "end it all now!" type but the "what's the point in bothering?" type), and yeah, she gained most of the weight she has now while she was on progestin-only.

I hope she never has to go on birth control again.  She seems much happier and healthier without it, though obviously (cough reduced libido cough) I am biased.  With any luck, it won't be necessary.  We're finally in a place in our lives where we can have kids.

It's strange, though.  I have seen the same type of birth control have no effect (or if anything, the opposite effect) on other women at least as far as depression and/or weight gain go.  (shrug)  Sounds rather uncomfortable, but I think the IUD is probably the way to go since it does not rely on hormone regulation.