To think that being “skinny” doesn’t make you fit

[hannah1992]

So I’ve just read a thread about 2 policeman being “overweight” and chasing a “skinny” guy and it got me thinking.

I’m slim but I’m really unfit. More so than I thought before lockdown.

My friend is overweight by about 2 stone but she’s a lot fitter than me. As in she can go jogging for an hour, I would feel like I’m having a heart attack after 10 mins.

I understand that carrying extra weight can make you get tired quicker but Aibu to think that just because you’re carrying extra weight doesn’t mean you’re unfit? And just because you’re skinny or slim doesn’t mean you’re fit and healthy either.

People’s perceptions of the way people look is mind blowing

@lalalanded I still dont think weight is the measurement that should be used for comparison though. Body fat is a much better indicator of fitness than weight

An old acquaintance of mine was always very skinny even though, by her own admission, she existed on fry-ups and pork scratchings, avoided fruit and vegetables, and never took any exercise. Nothing to do with her choices, presumably just genetics (her family were all extremely thin). However, as she got into her thirties, she stayed thin but started to develop all kinds of other health issues which made her realise that a completely sedentary lifestyle and lack of a balanced diet were having a very negative effect, just not in the way she expected (weight gain). She made some pretty sweeping lifestyle changes and eventually stopped being ill every day. So, yeah, being overweight isn't a good idea but the myth that "naturally skinny" people don't need to exercise or watch what they eat is also a very dodgy one.

*There have also been studies showing that people in the overweight (not obese) category live longer than those in the normal or underweight category.

That'a mainly because there are a lot of people who are only at a normal BMI because they are smokers, and smoking is of course very dangerous.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_paradox*

The obesity paradox findings concerned people who had already been diagnosed with a serious chronic illness.

This

www.sciencealert.com/the-healthiest-weight-could-actually-be-overweight-huge-study-finds

Is a Danish study that took into amount factors such as smoking.

But SerenDippitty, if you look at the larger meta-analyses that exclude chronic diseases (in order to limit reverse causality), they show that a healthy BMI is associated with the lowest all-cause mortality:
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27423262/

I'd take that over the Danish study.

Being significantly overweight is horrible so I do not see how it is ever desirable. If it were a force for good nature would’ve made it a nice state to be in surely? People would be actively trying to be fat and someone would’ve invented a pill dedicated to fattening people up.

If you like being overweight crack on but when ever I have been, I have absolutely hated it. Uncomfortable for a start. Unsightly. Clothes don’t fit properly. Out of breath. Impaired athletic performance. Fat belly. Chub rub on thighs. Grim. It lessens your quality of life.

It doesn’t help if you’re an apple and all excess fat goes straight to the belly. I think I’d carry extra weight if I could look like Kelly Brook.

I'm slim. I'm 64 and made a conscious effort to up my fitness when I hit 60 I certainly don't exist on a diet of nicotine and coke. I gave up the cigs about 8 years ago!

Well I don’t smoke. I barely drink either. I’m not skinny as in stick thin I have some meat on me. I’m 10st6 and I’m 5ft6 so I’m creeping to the top end of healthy weight for me.

I’d like to get fitter but honestly I start then get out of breath so stop. However, I can walk for miles

Agreed, agreed agreed. YANBU.

It really does depend what you mean by 'fit' because there are various measures of that. I've got a very fit cardiovascular system I suppose, but I can't lift weights. I'm a runner and I'm always surprised and impressed by the range of body types I encounter at races (and these tend to be 'club' runs rather than mass participation fundraising events). Lots of people much older and fatter than me are way faster than you would think from looking at them.

However the definition fat' is pretty clear and the fact of the matter is that if you are obese then you far far more likely to be unhealthy than if you are a healthy weight. That's just a fact, no shame in it. But obesity puts you at a greater risk of so many health problems that the single fact of you being obese probably outweighs (sorry for the pun!) the benefit that you gain from doing lots of exercise, for example. So you might be able to run 10k, but you are still at a higher risk of type 2 diabetes than most people of a healthy weight (note the most).

Health and weight are two separate issues...unless we're talking serious morbid obesity.

I'm overweight...I don't smoke, I don't drink alcohol, I don't eat takeaways or fast food, I don't drink fizzy drinks. You can get fat on home cooked meals cooked from scratch...it's just a matter of calories.

My BMI was much lower when I was a slim student...I'd starve myself all day then drink loads on a night out and eat chips. I was thin but it's hardly a healthy way to live.

Not all skinny people are fit thats true. But the problem with being outwardly fat is the visceral fat around the organs. So they can be fit in ability to run or lift etc but they are still in danger from excess fat on their organs. Thats why everyone needs to adopt a healthy lifestyle of healthy eating and reasonable excecise every day. Rather than a point scoring game of "well i weigh this and eat that and do that so im superior to someone who does this instead".

Not all skinny people are fit thats true. But the problem with being outwardly fat is the visceral fat around the organs. So they can be fit in ability to run or lift etc but they are still in danger from excess fat on their organs.

You don’t have to be outwardly fat to have visceral fat. It’s down to your body shape and the way you store fat.

Thats true but being outwardly fat massively increases your risk of this. That and people have lost sight of whats normal. A dr did an experiment on this a few years ago and proved people couldnt tell if someone was overweight unless they were very obese. Dp is the same. We are rewatching supereaters and occassionally dp will say "but hes not even fat hes just normal" and i think are you joking the man is clearly overweight.

Yes, outwardly fat people on the whole have a whole lot more fat in general (including visceral fat) than 'skinny fat' people, that's just obvious. Clearly there will be anomalies to this, but they are not going to be the norm.

The best thing to aim for is obviously a healthy weight, healthy diet and healthy lifestyle. But it is actually quite difficult to get all three of these at once.