*fitfatty why do you keep talking about athletes with BMI which might not be correct? 99% of us are NOT professional athletes and hence generally anyone who is 20 stone is not healthy and is morbidly obese.
It people are happy being that weight that is there choice, but please strop trying to say obesity is fine/normal*
BANGS MY FUCKING HEAD AGAINST A WALL
I'm using athletes as an example because they come in a variety of shapes and sizes and their heights/weights are readily available.
HOWEVER if you read the rest of my posts I explain that there are actually quite a few people who would have muscle mass similar to athletes, because muscle isn't what makes an athlete. However, because they aren't on strict diets or cutting fat, they don't really look like athletes.
Studies indicate that their are millions of people being wrongly labelled unhealthy by their BMI's, when it simply isn't the case.
BMI is an average. So yes, ON AVERAGE, a person who is 20 stone is not healthy. HOWEVER, that doesn't mean everyone who is 20 stone is unhealthy. It works like this. Say you have 300 people who weigh 20 stone. According to some studies based on BMI, being 20 stone raises your chance of death from an obesity related disease by 50%. That means 150 of those people will die from an obesity related illness. 150 won't.
Whether they won't because they do get some exercise, or because they don't smoke, or what have you, half of them will still not develop obesity related diseases. That is why, while BMI is great for working out averages and for categorizing people at risk, it is not a diagnostic tool.
If a doctor has a patient who is 20 stone he shouldn't just say "lose weight or you're going to die" without asking about fitness levels, diet, smoking and drinking habits, etc.
The same as a doctor shouldn't assume that just because a person is 9 stone that that person isn't going to die of an obesity related disease. Fitness levels, diet, smoking and drinking habits should still be questioned. Their chances of developing them are lower, but not non-existent.
Thinness doesn't equal healthy. Fat doesn't equal unhealthy.
A 20 stone person who sweats it out in the gym 3 times a week, and walks a lot and generally tries to eat healthy foods (even if too much of them) and doesn't smoke or drink is going to be healthier than a 9 stone person who smokes, drinks too much, doesn't exercise and eats McDonalds everyday (or doesn't eat much at all).
It's a statistics game. Which is why someone shouldn't be automatically disqualified because their BMI is too high. Other factors, including a more thorough doctors assessment, should be considered.
Our levels of obesity are not normal right now and there a lots of studies being done as to why and that's good. Simply passing off obese people and rising obesity as gluttony and laziness is stupid and won't solve the problem. I don't think obesity is normal. I think there is something very wrong with society. BUT I don't think stereotyping people or discriminating against them based on their weight, without taking in other factors is right or helpful, or even accurate.