Evaluate your own fitness!

[Delano]

My fitness level.





As for me - kinda fat.

This is not a fat-bashing poll. Although I favor "intervention" when obesity is obviously life-threatening. I happen to think Queen Latifah is one of the most gorgeous women around!

I only ask because I've noticed that a lot of folks here like to make fun of freepers for their corpulence, and yet I can't imagine that we DUers are really THAT much thinner than the rest of the country...

[Dogmudgeon]

1. What kind of "intervention" are you talking about?

Nearly everyone who is obese has been lectured about their/our lack of self-discipline and moral turpitude.

Obesity and lack of fitness is related to more factors than just genetics, food, and exercise. We're living high-stress lives and eating food that does not satisfy our appetites, among other things.

--bkl

[Delano]

3. I'm sure that's so.

I personally would never lecture someone about their weight unless they looked to be in danger, then I would REALLY push them to see a doctor about bariatric surgery or something.

I know how it feels to be lectured/ridiculed about one's weight. I would not do that.

Have you ever seen that comedian that goes on tough crowd, who's like 600 lbs, can barely walk, and talks in ebonics even though he's white? If THAT guy was my buddy, I'd DRAG him to the hospital. People like that die VERY young.

[Dogmudgeon]

7. Tough Crowd?

I've seen a few snips of it. It's not very good. The MC -- I think it's Colin Quinn -- looks like he's trying too hard. I hear he's a bright guy, but the show is so "hip" that it sucks.

But why would such a show promote a 600-pound man who speaks Ebonics? It's hip to make fun of fat people, and it makes it easy to mock black people's culture. He is, in fact, the type of a patient who would do very well with bariatric surgery, or a supervised very-low-calorie "medical fast". Still, if you "do an intervention" on the guy, he will have every right to hate your own guts. Besides, at 175 pounds, he won't get on TV even if he learns how to sing like James Brown.

(Incidentally, this isn't a slam at you. It's a rant about obesity and how society deals with it. It's my third tonight.)

We treat obese people like children. We assume it's all self-indulgence and infantile regression. That's incorrect, though many obese people eventually fall into that trap, too.

I'm 100 pounds overweight. I have been obese for about eight years now, and even though my health has improved with the exercise and the low-carb dieting, I'm still too heavy and I can feel every pound of it. I was fat as a kid, too, and no doubt carry all that baggage around with me.

At no time have I been a big junk food eater. Never liked Twinkies, Pop-Tarts, Cheese Puffs, or the other foods I have been accused of "inhaling" while sitting on the couch watching TV (another habit I don't have).

My current "regime" is just a very-low-calorie diet with protein drink supplements. It's working well, but I have no illusion about it being easy to do. And when I tell people about it, I inevitably am told I am doing something wrong or dangerous, whether it's low-carb, low-cal, vedge, liquid or solid.

I exercise, too, but exercise by itself is ineffective for weight loss unless the execise is prolonged to over an hour. Or two. Or three.

I have many ideas about why obesity is so common, but most of them can be grouped under the heading of "stress" -- physical as well as psychological. The food we eat prepares us metabolically for famine, is undernourishing, and keeps us hungry. Some of the additives are pseudohormones. Long periods of enforced physical idleness in office work both slow metabolism and decondition the muscles. It's inescapable unless a person makes a strong effort.

An "intervention" is required, all right -- we need to intervene in a system that has turned people into the biological equivalent of perpetually hibernating bears, just to keep them glued to their desks and TVs. But sluggish people are easier to control, so I give it no chance of working until we've changed our attitudes about what people should be doing with their lives.

--bkl

[SmileyBoy]

2. I'm chubby and overweight, but not obese.

I still need to lose 30-35 pounds. I can walk miles and miles on end without getting tired. It's just that running is more difficult. I can lift weights pretty well, of course my body is pretty much sedentary when I lift, except for the muscles I'm working.

[NJCher]

4. I think the Queen is beautiful, too

But I don't really think she's all that fat. She's just a big girl.

She's attractive physically, what with those beautiful eyes and empathetic face, but it's more her spirit that shines through that makes her such an attractive woman.


Cher

[Delano]

6. Well, she is very well-proportioned...

But I imagine she must be around 160~180 lbs. By no means svelte. I was very happy she got picked to sell Revlon (or was it Maybelline?) I just want to huger her and hiss her and squeeze her and... but that's more than you want to know, right?

[kimchi]

10. More like over 200-she is tall.

I'm 183, and only 5'5. I'd like to lose 50 pounds, but I'd get my waist back if I only lost 20.

I think Queen Latifah is a consumate artist and an excellent role model. I wish she would get bigger parts. (no pun intended)

[Delano]

5. I wonder if health plans cover the bariatric surgery?

They really should. Beyond a certain point, severe obesity is extremely dangerous.

[Dogmudgeon]

9. Bariatric Surgery

Most health plans now cover it. It dramatically reduces morbidity and mortality from obesity-related causes.

The newest innovation in bariatry is the Lap-Band (Laproscopically placed gastric banding). It is reversible and less trauamatic than the Roux-en-Y surgery. In a few years, the first "gastric pacemakers" will be available, which reduce huger by small electric currents.

But, we still need to seriously re-evaluate the way we're all living, fat or skinny.

Yes, Queen Latifah is pretty, but I'd rather have Dawn Owens from the 'hood hanging around into healthy old age. With overweight and obesity, it turns into a crapshoot.

--bkl

[Birthmark]

8. I could probably stand to *gain* a few pounds.

I'm 46, 5'10" and weigh 165. No middle-age spread...yet. :)

[Whitacre D_WI]

11. I am fit as a fiddle.

Okay, a fiddle that's be dropped down a flight of stairs, but a fiddle nonetheless.

I have the body of a Greek god (as portrayed in a 4-year-old's finger painting).

[Nikia]

12. I'm a healthy weight but not that fit

My doctor thinks that I am great weightwise, 130 lbs 5'5'',for my body type. My work is not exactly sedentary as I stand at least 80% of the time, take several walks throughout the plant up and down the stairs, and lift up to 60 pounds if I need to. I also take the dog for walks a few times per day, spontaneously exercise, and walk short distances to nearby stores if I need something.
I wouldn't call that in shape. I was in shape when I was running 60 miles per week, did push ups everyday, and did serious weight training 3 times per week (although strangely I am stronger now only with my sporadic lifting at work).
My weight has flucuated. My most rapid weight gain was when I quit running 60 miles per week due to injury. I couldn't properly adjust my diet, trying to eat much less but feeling tired and sick if I ate too little as I had been probably eating close to 3000 calories per day before. I ate just enough to feel healthy and energetic but still gained 2 pounds per week for 10 weeks straight before leveling off. I also maintained a heavier weight at 150 lb when I had chronic sinus problems and stomach problems. I ate very little and vommitted a few times per week. When I was treated with antibiotics, I felt better and could eat more without vommitting and strangely lost weight. Weight loss and gain can be strange things.

[MissMillie]

13. I'm in shape

Round is a shape.

[Leprechan29]

14. I am

A runner, yet with some muscle that comes from lifting and fencing. But I'm still close to being "skinny as a rail" (okay, not quite, but im not very big either) just because of the genetics I have to deal with. Ss I don't really fit into any of the aforementioned groups.

[Ophelia]

15. None of these fit so much for me as a woman

I'm fairly fit, but I'm more curvy than skinny. I have muscle, but not the same as a man's. I little bit of chubbiness in my own mind, but I'm really in the appropriate weight range for my height.