response 10 of 61:

Sep 6 15:23 UTC 1998

Amen!

Bees, there's no pain in it for me.  I'm 5'3", 200 pounds, and 30 years old.
I'm fat.  I've always been fatter than average and always will be.  When I
was young that was a source of a lot of pain to me, but aftre a point I
realized that in putting so much effort into trying to be something I wasn't
and couldn't be (thin) I was destroying my life and making myself miserable.

I started looking into the research that everyone touted about why being too
fat is supposed to be so bad and what I discovered was that all the research
in the last 30 years or so has been done by the weight loss industry and was
performed using very poor statistical method.  What the research actually
seems to prove is that people with a poor diet and a low or negligible
exercise and gfitness rate are far more prone to ill health and early death
than people who eat well and exercise regularly.  The problem is the
assumption is made that only fat people eat poorly and lead sedentary lives.
When weight *and* lifestyle are taken into account, they findings suggest that
really fir people of all sizes stay healthy and that potato chip and candy
munching couch potatoes are prone to chronic ill health and early death.

Did you know that fat actually protects people from certain diseases?  That's
not a widely diseminated piece of information but it's true.  Among the
protections that fat offers:  fat women are far less likely to develop
osteoporosis.  Fat people who get cancer or tuberculosis are far more likely
to recover and go on to live healthy lives.  There are others, but I'd have
to look them up.

Did you know that the new BMI standards the government just released have had
the result of making m*most* atheletes "too fat"?  Come on!  Atheletes are
among the fittest people in this country!  Since when has the US Government
been in the role of making public pronouncements on fashion??  Geez!

You say you could be "so much better" -- why does taking up less apace in the
world make you better, bees?  Because the women's magazines all say so? 
Because certain patriarchal types will be less threatened by you?  Fie!  I
say!

Obviously you take good care of yourself.  I'm willing to bet that your
ancestors were not small people.  Try to consider your glorious (and tiny by
my standards) figure a gift from your family and find all the reasons it's
lovable.  Beating yourself up over what you can't change won't make a lick
of difference in your genetic heritage but it will waste your youth.

By the way, should anyone think I'm just being defensive because I don't want
to "do the work" necessary to lose weight, fo the record I've gone from 300
pounds and a size 30 to 200 pounds and a size 16/18 in the last 15 months.
I don't consider it a reason for "congratulations".  Excess insulin
circulating in your blood - as happens with an uncontrolled type II diabetic
in the years before the pancreas quites completely tends to pack on the fat,
as does uncontrolled hypothyroid.  When those difficulties were diagnosed and
fixed, the extra weight just sort of melted.  Now I'm probably at the weight
my genetic have determined for me and I'm quite content.  I still think the
weight loss industry is the most dangerous fraud ever perpetuated on this
culture.

Sindi, thanks but no, I don't want a bike.  My drive to work takes 20 minutes
by car and I'm a professional who has to look put together when I arrive at
work.  Biking would make me sweaty and rumpled -- not very professional.
Besides, I *like* to walk,I hate biking.  So I'll stick with my feet or my
car.