Fit and Fat

Sep 4 22:22 UTC 1998

After perusing this conference for a while, I can't help but be astonished
and dismayed at the amount of "diet" and "weight-loss" talk.

I feel the need to point out, current cultural obsessions aside, that it *is*
possible to be fit and healthy and also fat.

As a matter of fact, some research (squelched by the mainstream media and the
medical community to a large extent, but out there if you look) suggests that
the reason that in spite of 15 years and more of a cultural obsession with
diets and working out, the average weight of a citizen in the US is rising
is indde *because* of that obsession.

I won't say that I'm fit right at the moment -- I lost most of my fitness
after my thyroid went on strike in 1991 and am just beginning to get my muscle
tone and stamina back after being on synthroid for 15 months -- but I *have*
been both fit and fat.  I could and did walk 17 miles a day because I didn't
have a drivers license or access to a car.  I never got thin.

I want to get my fitness back -- I loved it!  But I don't particularly care
whether I lose weight or gain it in the process.

Some of my methods?  I walk.  I dance.  I skip and twirl and wriggle just
ebcause it feels good!  I occasionally swim.  It's going to take a while
because I refuse to do anything that's boring.  Life is too short for that
-- so no aerobics classes or weightlifting regimines for me.  

So, what kind of movement do other folks do just because it's fun?

response 2 of 61:

Sep 5 13:20 UTC 1998

We bike as transportation, not as fun, but it is enjoyable.  We bike 3-5 miles
a day normally and longer if visiting or shopping.  Do you have a bike?
We also enjoy gardening and housebuilding, which is exercise, and hanging up
the laundry is good stretching I suppose.

response 4 of 61:

Sep 5 15:56 UTC 1998

Tai Chi is a bit like slow motion karate.  It can be very helpful both as
exercise and relaxation (mind and body).

There was a recent study done of a few thousand people who actually lost
weight (>20lbs I think was the criteria) and kept it off for more than a year.
In some cases, 2-5 years.

The study found that the vast majority of these people did _not_ diet, or make
any real special effort to lose weight.  Instead, they either deliberatly or
otherwise just happened to change their life habits.  some increased
activities, some reduced eating (volume, not fat/calories/etc), and the like.
most found that after some time, they just didn't eat unless they were
actually hungry (get away from the dinner clock), but that they _always_ ate
something when they were hungry.  Result, frequent, small meals instead of
2-3 big ones ("grazing"?).

none cut out the favorites like candy, cakes, cookies, booze, etc.  They just
cut down on the amounts.  That way they never really felt they were depriving
themselves and the weight just fell off.

I had a similar experience ove the last 1.5 years or so.  Without any
conscious effort, I now find I eat a bit less at meals (and I _love_ to eat!)
and I discovered I lost >10lbs.  A few weeks ago I got a bit of gastritis and
didn't want to eat at all for awhile and another 8lbs fell off, 5 of which
I put right back on when I felt better, but I'm trying to avoid letting those
last 3 creep up.  If I can lose 5-10lbs _per year_ for the next couple of
years I'll be more than happy.

response 6 of 61:

Sep 5 22:24 UTC 1998

Jim knows someone who lost a lot of weight by going vegetarian (he says).
Misti, would you like a bike?  If you bike instead of driving you will
automatically get lots of exercise.  Walking is simply not fast enough to
substitute for driving long distances.
        We are still trying to gain weight.  Peanut butter and olive oil are
about the only two high-calorie vegan possibilities (sesame oil is rather
strong tasting but okay on salads).

response 8 of 61:

Sep 6 05:59 UTC 1998

She may have been muscular, like me. I got the quads from hell.

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.

response 12 of 61:

Sep 8 16:53 UTC 1998

(a) What percentage of your current 200 lb. is lean body mass?

I have absolutely no idea -- and no idea about how one finds out.  

(b) Can you cite some sources for the health benefits of fat that
    your referred to?

I don't have the information right at hand, but I can suggest a book 
that summarizes most of it (with references).  

Big Fat Lies : The Truth About Your Weight and Your Health
  by Glenn A. Gaesser 
Paperback - 336 pages (January 1998) 
Ballantine Books (Trd Pap); ISBN: 034540906X 
                      
(c) What is the definition of a "fat person"?

That, my friend, varies from person to person.  

o  Ask any woman of any size and the chances are good she will say she's 
   fat.  
o  Ask a doctor and chances are good he or she will look at your BMI.  

0  Ask a fashion designer and chances are he or she will name a dress 
   size and it will usually be not much larger than a size 10 or 12.  

But you asked me: I think "fat" is mostly a social concept, and I define 
"fat person" as anyone large enough to have been given grief about his 
or her size on a pretty regular basis.  Which is to say, "I don't know, 
really."  

I've been called fat when I weighed 160 pounds and I've been told "Oh, 
you're not *really* fat" when I weighed 300 pounds.  That being the 
case, I've decided that it makes a useful shorthand, but has no real 
concrete meaning.

(Is that a waffly enough answer for you?)  ;)

response 14 of 61:

Sep 8 21:23 UTC 1998

If only people would focus on taking good care of their bodies and ignore what
fashion says is the optimal size and shape we'd all be a lot healthier.  But
that's not easy unless you make the intentional decision to cut yourself off
from the sources of pressure to conform.

Some people might get a little larger, some people might get a little smaller,
but on the whole we'd all just get a lot healthier.

Sindi, the damage to the skeleton and cardio-vascular system comes more from
lack of fitness than from weight per se.  A fine boned person who through
dieting ups his or her appestat and lowers his her or metabolism to the point
of gaining a lot of weight and then has no energy to move around much is
indeed going to do damage to his or her body -- through malnutrition and
through inactivity.  But someone who eats well and stays fit will strengthen
their bones and circulatory system to the extent needed to support them.