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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Too fat to work..

234 replies

Huntersmum15 · 18/10/2015 10:56

Slightly controversial for a Sunday morning I know.. But am I the only person who is angered by people who are too fat to work and claiming disability.. Being fat is a choice (I am aware there are many medical conditions that influence a persons weight and obviously this is not a choice) but it angers people that these people are such a drain on the NHS and cost thousands in obesity related illnesses and then claim benefits aswell?

Considering that tax credits are being cut and (according to reports) many children will live in poverty, is it not only just that obesity related disability benefits also be cut too?

AIBU?

OP posts:
WorraLiberty · 18/10/2015 11:16

Oooh benny-fits and fat fuckers in the same opening post.

G'wan, throw in a few smokers and asylum seekers for good measure OP.

VashtaNerada · 18/10/2015 11:19

The best bit about fat-bashing threads are the responses! Cake all round Grin

AnthonyBlanche · 18/10/2015 11:20

Of course being morbidly obese is a choice. At that level of fatness very small changes will result in weight loss. A lack of motivation and will power mean that many obese people struggle to make even small changes, but that doesn't change the fact that it is still their choice, in the same way that smoking is a choice. Just as Anyone who is determined to give up smoking (said to be more addictive than heroin) will do so, so can the obese lose weight.

Fishboneschokus · 18/10/2015 11:20

What expat said. You are ill-informed.

OurBlanche · 18/10/2015 11:21

Ihate, you forgot people with Type 2 diabetes, skin cancer, colon cancer (and a few others), hypertension, high cholesterol, heart disease, copd, cirrhosis, the increasing numbers of kids with rickets and very many more.

We should euthanise absolutely everyone who lives their life without reference to the NHS, WHO and all the other medical, regulatory, scientific and guidance bodies.

So, bearing that in mind, I'm off to find myself a sterile bubble to live in Smile

PingpongDingDong · 18/10/2015 11:22

Are there a great number of people in that situation op? I very much doubt it. I would imagine being that large must be absolutely horrendous. Few people would describe that as a "choice".

Topseyt · 18/10/2015 11:23

OP, you sound so far up your own arse it is impossible to know where to start.

I never chose to spend my entire adult life battling with my weight. I never chose to be overweight. I do have some medical problems which cause it, but those are never mentioned in the media. We are judged because we all simply eat too much and exercise too little, so we are a drain on NHS resources. Apparently it really is that simple. Ha!!!! If only.

Bugger off.

tldr · 18/10/2015 11:23

And then those entitled fatsos park in the parent and child spaces (because they're lazy) and use the disabled loo (because they're lazy).

Biscuit
PingpongDingDong · 18/10/2015 11:24

What OurBlanche said.

Arfarfanarf · 18/10/2015 11:31

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

WorraLiberty · 18/10/2015 11:34

Well I know someone who knows someone else, who heard this from a woman on the bus.

There's a Romanian man in town who's so fat, he got given a free 3 bedroom house because his arse won't fit into the homeless hostel.

Apparently he can be regularly seen whizzing round Waitrose on his souped up mobility scooter, spending all his free food vouchers on donuts and full fat coke.

The council are now renovating a 5 bed house by the sea, so he can house his obese children who are too fat to go to school because they live on McDonalds and have serious vegetable phobias.

FACT.

Topseyt · 18/10/2015 11:34

Oh, and I work. I don't claim benny-fits.

I don't enjoy being the size I am. I walk miles regularly with the dog, I eat healthy food and don't overeat. My autoimmune illness controls my weight, it seems. Nothing I do makes a scrap of difference.

Depressing. Nice to see that we are judged by goady fuckers.

maybebabybee · 18/10/2015 11:34

Threads like this one make me despair for humanity.

Birdsgottafly · 18/10/2015 11:36

Anthonyblanche, what you've stated is the absolute opposite of what the Medical Experts say, what field of Medicine, or Sports Science are you qualified in?

Lurkedforever1 · 18/10/2015 11:40

So op do you have a link to the official stats backing that up? I'd love to see how many people are in reciept of benefits purely because they are fat. So don't include stats about people with other disabilities, mental or physical who are also fat. Just the ones who receive them for eating too much please. And a link to the government pledge this group, unlike any other will have their benefits protected.
Oh yes you won't be doing that because you have absolutely no valid sources to base your opinion on.

tb · 18/10/2015 11:40

Anthony - so being morbidly obese is a choice?

In 1981 I had a cervical spine broken in a car accident. The force of the impact damaged my throid gland permanently, and it stopped fuctioning completely. Unfortunately, unlike in the US, there is no automatic testing of the thyroid function just after the accident to provide a personal profile. Instead you have to rely on the profiles generated from a panel - 25% of whom have an untreated underactive thyroid condition - according to the British Thyroid Association.

Some 12 years later - having gained 10 stone in weight and having become morbidly obese, I obtained a diagnosis of hypothyroidism. No help or advice was ever given about losing weight. Even 2 weeks in an obesity clinic didn't result in any weight loss.

Finally, after 10 years of useless treatment, I looked at my test results, and thought it was worth suggesting to my specialist that I tried just iodothyronine and stopped the thyroxin. My body is completely unable to convert the inactive form T4 into the active form T3.

Since then I've lost 34kg, but still have a bmi of 38.

Choice to be morbidly obese? - bollocks, not a fucking chance.

Birdsgottafly · 18/10/2015 11:42

"Small changes" don't work, I was Obese (but still fitted into a size 16 and was physically active) I lost five stone, it took a complete lifestyle change, luckily I work part time and don't have young children, so I could commit to what I needed to do.

Someone who is MO needs a whole team of people to advise and support them.

Luckily I had a family around me, who spured me on and gave me reasons to keep up my weight loss.

What frightens a lot of MO people is the lose skin that they will then have to live with, after the weight loss.

Oysterbabe · 18/10/2015 11:43

In an ideal world, there would be the same help available as there is for those with other eating disorders. It would be recognised as something that you couldn't just sort out. People can understand that being unable to put food in your mouth to the point of death is not about food, but seem unable to understand that feeling compelled to put food into your mouth until the point of death is also not about food.

This.

AnthonyBlanche · 18/10/2015 11:43

No field of medicine birds however calories in and calories out have to be balanced, which is why people who have gastric bypass etc surgery lose massive amounts of weight. As soon as they can't overeat obese people lose weight. Can you provide any evidence to prove that is not the case? I am not saying it is easy to stop overeating, drinking, smoking etc. but the desire to change has to come from within the individual, it is therefore a matter of personal choice. You do people no favours by suggesting that they have no control over their behaviours.

Sirzy · 18/10/2015 11:44

Op have you ever stopped to think that the medical condition that caused someone to need to claim disability benefits could also be the reason for their weight gain? (Either directly or indirectly)

Contary to popular belief disability benefits aren't just handed out willy nilly, infact people have to really fight to get the support they need.

Iliveinalighthousewiththeghost · 18/10/2015 11:45

Oh dear. We have got out the wrong side of the bed this morning, haven't we.
Leave the poor alone. Being fat is not a choice. Food addiction is the same as alcohol addiction or drug addiction.

Lurkedforever1 · 18/10/2015 11:48

I think there is evidence all around us it isn't just a simple choice. Being morbidly obese doesn't strike me as being a pleasant experience. It can not be enjoyable on any level. Therefore if someone who must be pretty miserable about their weight, and indeed lifestyle, just needed to choose to lose weight, they'd have done so.

Sirzy · 18/10/2015 11:50

Knowing what is needed to lose weight and being in a position to do so are two very different things.

paramedicswift · 18/10/2015 11:50

You are wrong.

bettyberry · 18/10/2015 11:51

Being fat is a choice

No its not and I will happily point you in the direction of many Mental health nurses who specialise in eating disorders who will gladly highlight the very very similar thought patterns between the various eating disorders including over eating and compulsive eating.

Then I will point you in the direction of a very good friend who is obese, who has struggled with compulsive eating, who has been treated poorly for years by people like you with such a myopic view of obesity and this is what she will tell you

edited quote from her blog (with permission, I will not link her blog because it will out me, her etc) - 'I'm fat. I know I'm fat and I can't help it. I run. I work a bloody farm 7 days a week but when I get stressed the only thing I can do is eat. I binge eat. Its not the sugary snacks and chocolate like every one assumes. Its anything. The last time I didn't have any food in the house so I ate mouldy bread. It tasted disgusting and made me feel sick but as soon as I started eating I felt better. '

The only difference between her and a bulimic is she doesn't make herself sick after her binges yet she is seen as greedy and lacking control and the bulimic is seen as the one in need of help.

Now extract your own fecking head from your arse.

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